My Dad can’t stand board games – refuses to play them. He says they’re called bored games for a reason.
“They take too long. It’s just luck of the dice or someone always quits.”
All valid points, Dad.
He just doesn’t get the fulfillment of winning a game of Settlers of Catan with only 6 victory points on the board, but then slapping down your 4th Knight card to steal the Largest Army from your brother, followed by building your 8th road to steal the Longest Road from your other brother. What about the feeling of delight you get when you block your wife’s track on Ticket to Ride in order to sabotage her last destination card?
The only board game I can remember Dad ever playing was NHL Monopoly and he lived by the rule of not buying any property before Free Parking. I don’t remember him ever losing that game but I definitely remember losing a lot by landing on one of his Blue or Green Monopolies. My brother and I would make trades to own the rest of the board and yet we would still lose; those games turned out to be huge for my cognitive development. Funny how it’s usually those little things from an early age that form one’s adult mind. Dad & Monopoly taught me way more about math & money than school ever did. He has always been and still is a big strategy guy. I’d bet he’d be great at most board games if he played but for whatever reason, board games bring him no joy.
Hockey brings me joy.
The sound of ice crackling under your feet or the cold air hitting your lungs. That resounding “ping” you hear from the puck hitting the post or the smell of hockey equipment stinging the nostrils. How about the feeling of elation you get when you tickle the twine? Or the shot of adrenaline when you catch someone with their head down. There’s no other time in life when water tastes as good as it does as when you’re sucking wind after a long shift. Akin to learning math and money, I learned more colourful languages playing hockey than I ever could have during school. Friends come and go during your life, but the players you battle with typically become your longest lasting ones. Hockey… there’s just nothing like it. Those that get it, no explanation necessary; those that don’t, no explanation will suffice.
The game is ever evolving. If you ever look back at old footage —even 20 years ago— the hooking and grabbing were brutal. How did anyone get around on the ice? Throw on one of Grapes’ Rock ‘em Sock ‘em videos and you can count the number of “clean hits” (by today’s standard) on one hand. The skill and speed in today’s game are absolutely remarkable. The game has never been this exciting and coming out of the 4 Nations Faceoff, have there ever been this many non-hockey people talking about the game? In 9 seconds, 3 separate dance partners reminded us that fighting will always have a place in this game, and anyone with a different opinion isn’t a fan of hockey. I’m not sorry.
As a Canadian I am obviously biased but make no mistake, All Ice is Home Ice. There’s just no better flex and nothing more legendary than the best players in the world (at the time) scoring multiple golden goals for Team Canada; Paul Henderson ‘72, Daryl Sittler 76’, Mike Bossy 84’, Mario Lemieux 87’, Sidney Crosby ‘10, Marie Philip-Poulin ‘14 & ‘21, Danielle Serdachny ‘24, and Connor McDavid just 2 months ago. I’m still waiting for the first player to win Gold for Canada and instead of grabbing a brewski and cigar, immediately chug a litre of Maple Syrup. If we’re gunna claim hockey to be our game, let’s go Full Monty and slam our true national drink as well. I believe every Canadian is born with some sort of affinity for the game. It would be like an American not liking football or baseball or a Brazilian not liking soccer. Yet, I have 4 brothers and I was the only one of the 5 to play organized hockey. My love for the game is a choice all my own. Take a look at the Safari app on my phone and you’ll see 28 tabs open, over half of them being hockey websites. I am a hockey crazed man-child.
I guess the most important aspect of hockey is actually playing the game. Nothing brought me more excitement & joy than this game. To this day, I’m still a 31 year-old child as I pull up to the rink. I literally just got off the ice at 8:57am where I skated for 57 minutes by myself. Shooting pucks, skating suicides, “perfecting” my skills. The rink always feels like a second home to me, no matter where it’s located. My Dad was my favorite hockey player as a kid and he was the one who taught me how to think, play and enjoy the game. It’s his family who grew up in old Montreal and where my Habs fandom comes from, but it was my Mom who got me to start working out when I was about 10 years old by getting me to do pushups, sit-ups, squats and lifts in my room before bed every night. The bedtime/goodnight routine was incomplete without my nightly workouts. I grew up on the pond since I could skate. Mom & Dad definitely helped either flood or shovel but I was the one who spent all my free time on it. Whenever the pond wasn’t available, I would regularly bring my rollerblades to my church and play ball hockey in the gymnasium. Every summer I was playing ball hockey on my lawn in the thick mosquitos or blazing sun. I would imagine & re-enact plays and games by pretending I was every player in that specific play, including the goalie. Do you remember that Jose Theodore spinning blocker save in the 2002 playoffs against the Bruins? I remember replaying it on the lawn every day that summer. Instead of playing with my Rescue Hero action figures, I was scoring the game 7 overtime winner in the long grass. When I was away from the field and found some concrete or pavement, you’d find me with my blades on. The beautiful stride and silky smooth hands you see before you today is all thanks to those early years.
I can appreciate all sports but you can only see a slam dunk (by someone 7 feet tall) so many times. If you’ve seen one home run, you’ve seen ‘em all. Even that tight spiral to the end zone gets dull at times. Sure, every hockey game features at least one goal, some hits and maybe even a fight (or three in 9 seconds). I get that some claim hockey features a bit of the same mundane clichés but it’s pretty hard to argue that most goals are the same. Hockey is a unique game above all other major sports and the most fun… and it’s not close. Just ask UFC president Dana White and he will tell you that hockey is the “toughest sport with the most skilled athletes”. Our game doesn’t need washed up, politically charged halftime acts to bring eyes to the sport and it doesn’t need a 7th inning stretch to remind the casual fan that there are still two more innings. The violence and grace are unmatched in all sports.
The name itself has a blurry past. Some say it comes from the French word “Hoquet” that refers to a shepherd’s staff crook. What I like about the name is that there’s no “ball” in it. It could’ve been like all the others and been named “stickpuck” or “skatepuck” or “netpuck” or “icepuck” but no. It gets its own name with no clear origins. Rarely is there a major sport that is split into something other than halves or quarters but hockey fits such a bill. There’s 3 periods in regulation time, no ties (anymore) and in the playoffs, it’s endless sudden death. Nothing like it.
Every single part of the game itself boasts something I enjoy. I remember as a kid, no older than 6, waking up early in the morning to watch the highlights from the night before. Instead of waking up to watch Arthur, The Magic School Bus, or —one of my personal favorites— Art Attack, I was tuning in to Sportscenter. They had these graphics that would show the logo of the home team and then quickly switch to the away team’s logo, with the commentator saying: “Thrashers versus Coyotes”. (Anyone recall those matchups?)
As a somewhat artsy kid, I entered many of my creations into the local fairs and art competitions. I really enjoyed drawing NHL logos by memory. There was a summer I remember making replica NHL awards out of recycling, papier-mâché and paint. All of those McDonalds hockey cards, coins, replica awards and goalie sticks, I still got ’em. Then Tim Horton’s joined the hockey party and I collected all their stuff too, even to this day. My storage bins are full of Bobbleheads, POGs, cards (binders & boxes full), mini sticks, mini Stanley Cups from Beer cases, random aluminum cans, and those mini mugs from those child vending machines, I have the whole set. Every Stanley Cup Champion from 1961-2003.
And the sweaters; mostly Habs’ greats but too many to wear them all this month.
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By listing all the hockey possessions I have sitting in totes, awaiting a Mancave to defile, I was reminded thatyou never see a U-Haul behind a hearse. Hopefully someday all my stuff gets a place to see the light of the day. Perhaps one day when I’m gone, my kids will come to love and appreciate these collections and think of me whenever they look at it. A wise man once said, “show me your treasures and I’ll show you where your heart is.”
It feels a little silly, but I don’t think collections themselves are bad, especially because it was fun obtaining each item all throughout the years. I just can’t take them with me when I’m gone.
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I grew up playing the original Nintendo and we were definitely a Mario Brothers household but on my own time, I was playing Blades of Steel. What a terrible video game but back in the late 90’s early 00’s, that was my game. As we graduated to each PlayStation and Xbox, there were some games I liked to play but the majority of my gaming time was spent playing NHL and more specifically Be A GM. Way too much time was wasted into the early hours of the morning trying to trade my 2029 1st round pick to acquire some random named guy the game provided in the latest entry draft… On June 30, 2016 I remember telling my mom I was going to play NHL on my Xbox because, in that world, PK Subban was still a Hab.
I was a silly boy.
What better reminder that hockey is just a game than in the words of Luke Combs: Hockey breaks my heart all the time. I think that’s why I love it so much. Sports aren’t supposed to be perfect and everything go to plan; that’s why it’s a competition. If a sport never broke you, I don’t think you’d ever play again.
“Just play. Have fun. Enjoy the game” – Michael Jordan
We lace up literal blades to our feet, holding a brittle sword while trying to shoot a small piece of vulcanized rubber into a net guarded by a guy wearing a bunch of hard leather pillows. You’re signing up to go to war on ice! Those blades on your feet? Ask Clint Malarchuk, Richard Zednik and Erik Karlsson how sharp they are. My ankles have worn 2 pairs of Kevlar socks every game since Karlsson’s Achilles got severed. And it’s terribly sad to even think about the tragedy that occurred in Britain on October 28, 2023 – lest we ever forget about Adam Johnson who lost his life thanks to a rogue skate blade. This game isn’t supposed to be a death wish. Adam was playing the game he loved to make a living. Instead of slugging asphalt, meeting deadlines or kissing butts, he got to play hockey. I’m still gutted for Adam, his family and hockey in general. You should only ever see hockey on the regular news channels for the highlights, not for murder, sexual assault, harassment and hazing. What a terrible era it’s been for “hockey” stories hitting the mainstream media over the past few years… it’s getting harder and harder to say that there’s only one bad apple ruining the bunch. The bigger they are, the harder they fall I guess. Why do kids have to go through this stuff too? They’re just kids, let them have fun playing a game. Just ridiculous, BE BETTER! Just so he knows, screw the haters; Tavin Rollins, I stand with you.
Hockey is supposed to be fun. One of my first coaches in tyke (that’s U6-7 for you gen z folks) was Terry. This guy made such a great impression on me. I don’t know if he knows but I believe he impacted so many other kids in a great way. Maybe not, might’ve been just me, I hope more. He was my coach for about 5 or 6 years and before every single game, as the ref dropped the puck, he’d let out this Ric Flair type “WOOOOO” as loud as possible. Those vocal cords would wobble and fill the rink, without fail; sick or not, he’d let it out with pride. He might’ve had more fun than us kids did. I also can’t remember him every yelling at us, which I would bet is still pretty rare. Now, his son was on the team and so he sort of had to be there but Terry was there every Saturday morning & Friday night to show us that hockey was fun. Win or lose, he had fun. That’s what I took from him anyways.
I’m sick of playing with and against people that don’t find this game fun. Too many guys show up to the rink and say they should’ve stayed home or they mail it in if their buddy isn’t there or that 1 guy is reffing, or don’t show up at all because they found something better to do instead. Conditions have to be just perfect for them to have any fun, as if the game of hockey isn’t already good enough. You know the person I’m describing. The stars and planets need to align for them to play and/or play their best. Some people just show up for the beers and the hangouts. I understand that camaraderie is important for anyone to have fun but how many are just showing up to play the game because they love it? Maybe this isn’t just a hockey problem per se but if the game of hockey isn’t fun for you, don’t play. You ruin it for the rest of us. Complainers gotta complain I guess.
Jaromir Jagr just turned 53 years old and is still playing in the Czech top league. 38-year old Sidney Crosby is still a point per game player. 39-year old Alex Ovechkin just broke Wayne Gretzky’s impossible all-time goals record. Marc-Andre Fleury just won his final game and is retiring with 575 career wins. Gabriel Landeskog just played his first professional game in almost 3 years after injuring his leg and being told he would never play again. Those guys LOVE this game. They refuse to let injuries and age get in the way of their love for the game.
I played against a 54-year old goalie named Paul who pitched a shutout against my team this past November. Now his style might not be guiding the next generation but he stops pucks. What a great guy, still for the boys, and competing in Senior Hockey. Hats off to you, Paul. You’ve got a fan in me. I can only hope I am still able to play competitive Senior Hockey into my 50s.
I know young kids love hockey too, and no slight to them but this next generation is growing up to love a totally different game. A game that in a lot of ways is unrecognizable. Changing tides are inevitable but it begs the question: do you have fun playing hockey the way those legends do? Because that’s the standard; anything less, you’re doing it wrong. It’s a game and games are supposed to be fun regardless of who wins. Either enjoy all of it or get off the ice.
Too many people play hockey to have fun instead of have fun playing hockey.
Evgeni Malkin had this to say on Ovechkin scoring goal 895: “He’s not a typical hockey player. He doesn’t work out every day, he doesn’t eat healthy. He just loves hockey.” (Quote via Josh Yohe of The Athletic)
One must appreciate the hyperbole here and discount the fact that Ovechkin is obviously a phenomenal talent that is in a class all his own. He definitely does enjoy Cheetos and yes he does drink Coca-Cola on the bench (via Pat McAfee show) but to say he doesn’t work out or practice his shot or that he eats Big Macs & Baconators daily would be a lie. To summit the mountains that Alex has in his career takes a lot more than just talent and a whole lot more than just hard work; it takes loving the game and loving to tie up your skates every single damn time.
HARD WORK BEATS TALENT WHEN TALENT DOESN’T WORK HARD.
One of life’s biggest questions is: “what is the meaning of life?” I don’t want to preach at you but I’ll just offer this observation. I have found that the most joyful people I have ever met in my life are usually ones that have found purpose and meaning in what they do. That doesn’t mean they have it all together; a lot of times, on the contrary. They don’t always have the house, the car, the kids, the spouse, the cottage, the trips, etc.
It means they’re always thankful for what they have. They always have a smile on their face and are the first ones to say hello and offer their help. They “whistle while they work” whether figuratively or literally.
Think of some of those aforementioned legends and tell me you don’t know their patented smiles. Every interview they have lately is one where they are thanking their teammates first before talking about their own accomplishments. My favourite player is definitely not Alex Ovechkin but just with all the coverage he’s been getting lately, I’ve come to appreciate him as a person and player even more than before. The joy he plays with is his best quality and I believe is the biggest reason he has so many fans. It’s bewildering how many people hated his “hot stick” celebration back in 2009; looking back, he was misunderstood. He might love the game more now than he did back then, 16 years ago. He dove on his belly for goal 895. The guy isn’t going quietly into the night and limping to the finish line. He might be playing his best hockey in over 5 years. And his personality oozes with joy. We all wish we could shoot like him, but we should all wish to have his joy.
Russian machine don’t break.
Listen, I’ve got many flaws and plenty of things I need to improve on (especially in the area of hockey both on and off the ice). But, I think God gave me this passion to bless other people somehow. Surely I just made some of you scoff but —in some weird way— hockey is the vehicle I have that gives me meaning. The line between addiction and passion can be a very blurry one —and I often cross it— but it’s a wild ride and wouldn’t change it. I believe God gave everyone a gift and a passion. It’s pretty rare that God calls anyone away from their gifts and passions. Like “hey, Ovechkin, my calling for you is actually to play basketball.” – God. Some people have so much fun making their homemade soaps, wheat bags and gardens. Others are totally skilled carpenters, electricians and labourers. Some can sell cookies to Girl Scouts or make millions selling lemonade.
“Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life” – Mark Twain.
This isn’t a job at all. I’m not making money here but I genuinely love playing, watching and being involved in hockey. The people I get to meet and rub shoulders with as well as the players I get to play with and against fill a hole in my heart that makes me who I am. As I said, my flaws are many but hockey is an itch that I need to scratch; not because it’s itchy but because It fills me with joy that I believe is God-ordained. When I’m filled with joy, I am a better husband, father, brother, son, worker and teammate than if my “joy tank” is empty. You might not get it, and that’s okay.
I think where I want to land the plane here is hockey is fun and fills me with joy. Full stop. This past year, the team I own (the Frontenac Phantoms) lost a lot of games by a lot of goals. I am responsible for the end result. Sure, hockey is a team sport, and this isn’t beer league but when the results are that poor, typically the guy at the top is the problem (unless your name is Justin from the red team). It was a really tough season but there are 2 games in particular though that stand out; those scores read 20-2 and 18-1, disrespectfully; both at the hands of the same team. We were heavily outmatched, outskilled and outplayed. It was NOT fun… but I enjoyed playing in each of those games. I enjoyed it not because I played well; I didn’t. I didn’t enjoy it because the vibes were good; they weren’t. My enjoyment was not because I made money; we lost money. I had fun because I laced up my skates, skated around, handled a puck, hit someone and competed alongside some really great humans. I played the game.
“I’m just here to play hockey” – Adam Banks, Mighty Ducks.
At the end of a hockey game, 1 team loses and 1 team wins. Without an opposing team, there can be no game and therefore no hockey. I am definitely sick of losing but not to the point of “I’d fight my Mom to get to a Stanley Cup”, as Brad May would. However, I’d rather lose a good game than win a bad one. But, beggars can’t be choosers and so I really shouldn’t care how a win comes about.
Here’s one of those Would You Rather questions: Would you rather lose every single hockey game you play for the rest of your life 4-3, or win only 1 single hockey game ever but lose all the rest by 18 goals? It’s a no brainer to me. Call me whatever you like. I just want to play a competitive game and let the chips fall where they may. I am game to play the game.
My wife’s cousin got married a couple years ago. I asked how things were going between them during an Easter dinner, just to stir the pot and see what happens. She said, “Good but he never sleeps in the bed with me.” I said, “That’s weird, why is that?” She said, “He’s smoking meat. We own a food truck and so he’s always prepping for the next day.” (Their food is awesome, I can attest to that) So I replied, “You know, he could be smoking worse things.”
And I could be addicted to worse things than hockey. Thankfully, this is my vice.
Cheers,
Colton