Tag Hockey

Hats Off to You!

Michael 2 Comments

Earlier today I was driving to a morning appointment, stopped at a traffic light, looked over to the car next to me, and noticed the driver was wearing a hat. That was not unusual. It was early, the sun was not yet up, and the temperature was well below freezing. Very well below freezing. A hat was a good idea. I had a hat on. Everybody was who was anybody had a hat and was wearing it. Then for some odd reason I flashed back to a time 19 years ago when I was driving my boss to the train station, we were stopped at a traffic light, she looked over to the car next to us, notice the drive was wearing a hat, and commented “I can’t trust someone who wears a hat while driving.” I didn’t understand it but I also didn’t ask for an explanation. I considered it a positive that the station was just a block away and any inquiry might have been misinterpreted as a request for conversation thus delaying the drop off. Not to mention my solitude.

If anything, I think trust should be withheld from someone who doesn’t know enough to keep his or her head covered in 20° weather. That’s in F degrees. In C degrees that would be, umm, let’s see (20-32)*5/9 = -6.6666666666666, that would be like really cold. Why wouldn’t you wear a hat? Generally in those circumstances most of the rest of your body is covered. Shoes, sock, pants, shirt, sweater, jacket, muffler, gloves, ear muffs. Yep. It’s all covered. If you’re still cold you probably aren’t wearing a hat. Put a hat on! They are also practical in cold, wet, windy, hot, sunny, or arid weather (and there aren’t many other weathers).

Hats are also very accurate predictors of intelligence. Take the average no neck who wears his baseball cap backwards in blazing sun while simultaneously frantically shielding his eyes from the sun’s blaze. Not the type you want you want procreating. Baseball hats, like all other articles of clothing known to man, woman, or undecided are intended to be worn “not backwards.” Except for baseball catchers and then only during the defensive half innings of a game.

casablancaI think hats are fine. Yes it could be construed as shallow and unduly concentrating on appearances, but in my opinion there aren’t many people whose looks couldn’t be improved by covering parts of their heads.

There just aren’t many situations when a hat could not be stylish, practical, and appropriate. That’s provided you are outside of course. Hats really don’t belong on heads inside buildings except at hockey games where one always needs a hat at hand in the event of a hat trick and where better to keep a hat on hand than on one’s head. But that’s a special exception. Otherwise, and I’m talking to you men and others identifying as men, please identify with common courtesy and undoff those chapeaux à l’intérieur.

If you are wearing a hat, and you’re not indoors unless it’s a hockey game, you have my vote of confidence and trust. (But I might have to question why you’re reading this post at a hockey game). In a word, hats are cool. So be cool. And stay warm.

 

Learning Life, Again

Michael Leave a comment

It will be hockey nights in just a couple more. NHL hockey returns October 3. In recognition of this momentous occasion I’m repeating one of my favorite posts, “Everything I Know About Being a Gentleman I Learned From Hockey.” Why? Because everything I learned about being a gentleman I learned from hockey, that’s why. If only politicians watched more hockey.

So, from November 2016, I give you…

When I was at the hockey game this weekend I got to thinking how much as a society we can learn from hockey. Yes, the sport that is the butt of the joke “I went to a fight last night and a hockey game broke out,” is the same sport that can be our pattern for good behavior.

Stay with me for a minute or two and think about this. It started at the singing of the national anthem. I’ve been to many hockey, baseball, football, and soccer games. Only at the hockey games have I ever been in an arena filled with people actually singing along. Only at the hockey games are all of the players reverent to the tradition of honoring the country where they just happen to be playing even though they come from around the world – Canada, Russia, Germany, Sweden, Finland, even a few Americans.

A decent dose of nationalism notwithstanding, hockey has much to offer the gentility. Even those fights. Or rather any infraction. If a player breaks the rules he is personally penalized for it. Ground isn’t given or relinquished like on a battlefield, free throws or kicks aren’t awarded to the aggrieved party like victors in a tort battle. Nope, if you do something wrong you pay the consequences and are removed from play for a specified period in segregation from the rest of your teammates. No challenges, no arguments, no time off for good behavior. Do the crime. Pay the time. In the penalty box. Try doing that to a school child who bullies and you’ll have some civil liberty group claiming you’re hurting the bully by singling him out.

Hockey is good at singling out people but in a good way. At last Saturday’s game the opposing team has two members who had previously played for the home team. During a short break in the action a short montage of those two players was shown on the scoreboard screens and they were welcomed back by the PA announcer. And were cheered and applauded by the fans in attendance. There weren’t seen as “the enemy.” Rather they were friends who had moved away to take another job and were greeted as friends back for a day.

While play is going on in a hockey game play goes on in a hockey game. Only if the puck is shot outside the playing ice, at a rules infraction, or after a goal is scored does play stop. Otherwise, the clock keeps moving and play continues. Much like life. If you’re lucky you might get to ask for one time out but mostly you’re at the mercy of the march of time. Play begins. After a while play ends. If you play well between them, you’ll be ok.

The point of hockey is to score goals. Sometimes goals are scored ridiculously easily, sometimes goals seem to be scored only because of divine intervention. Most times, goals are a result of working together, paying attention to details, and wanting to score more than the opposing team wants to stop you from scoring. There is no rule that says after one team scores the other team gets to try. It all goes back to center ice and starts out with a random drop of the puck. If the team that just scored controls the puck and immediately scores again, oh well.

Since we’re talking about scoring, the rules of hockey recognize that it takes more than an individual to score goals. Hockey is the only sport where players are equally recognized not just for scoring goals but for assisting others who score goals. Maybe you should remember that the next time someone at work says you’ve done a good job.

handshakeThe ultimate good job is winning the championship. The NHL hockey championship tournament is a grueling event. After an 82 game regular season, the top 16 teams (8 from each conference) play a four round best of seven elimination tournament. It takes twenty winning games to win the championship. That’s nearly 25% as long as the regular season. It could take as long as 28 games to play to the finish. That’s like playing another third of a season. After each round only one team moves on. And for each round, every year, for as many years as the tournament has ever been played, and for as many years as the tournament will ever be played, when that one team wins that fourth game and is ready to move on, they and the team whose season has ended meet at center ice and every player on each team shakes the hand of his opponent player and coach, wishing them well as they move on and thanking them for a game well played. No gloating. No whining. No whimpering. Only accepting.

So you go to a fight and a hockey game breaks out. It could be a lot worse.

 

 

More Lessons on Ice

Michael 5 Comments

When they were picking teams for dodge ball in the playground behind the school, were you one of the last to go? OK, clearly I’m old. You can tell by the references to dodge ball, playground, and the picking of teams for any activity not associated with trivia night at the bar. Even if you are too young to remember these, or too savvy to acknowledge them, you probably have heard of such things as being “picked last in grade school for..” in many episodes of The Big Bang Theory. And you know it didn’t get them down. They all now make lots of money and are really big stars. I’m sorry, I’m mixing real life with fantasy.

But somewhere being unwanted and reaching a modicum of pinnacle-ness of success is happening right here in North American reality. Those are the NHL Vegas Golden Knights. The first expansion team to reach the Stanley Cup Final and proof once again that all you need to know to survive and succeed you can learn from hockey.

Ok, first things first. I said the first expansion team to the reach the final round and you keep hearing in the sports reports that they are the second. Technically, the St. Louis Blues reached the final in their inaugural year but only because in 1967 the NHL decided to make one conference out of all six expansion teams and the other one out of the existing six teams, thereby guaranteeing an expansion team a spot in the finals. Five of the six “Eastern Division” existing teams finished the season with more points than any of the six expansion “Western Division” teams and the Montreal Canadiens swept the final round in four games.

VGN

Vegas Golden Knights

Enough of history though. Back to the future when the Golden Knights will be the first expansion team to get to the Stanley Cup Final by winning their way there. With a team made up of a bunch of guys nobody wanted. When the expansion draft that stocked the Vegas team with players took place last year, each existing team was allowed to protect 10 or 12 players depending on how many offense versus defense skaters were included on the protected list and that included a goaltender. Each NHL team can dress 24 players (usually 22 skaters and 2 goaltenders) per game. So the existing teams could protect up to half of who they would put on the ice for a typical game. And Vegas could select one of the remaining “bottom half” talent.

And out of this group of players not wanted by anybody else, players who call themselves the “Golden Misfits,” skated a team who finished with the fifth most points, won the fourth most games, and scored the third most goals of any of the 31 teams in the league. And they are about to begin the fourth and final round of the Stanley Cup Tournament which this year will determine if misfits is synonymous with champion.

Moral of the story? Being picked last for dodge ball isn’t the end of the world. Don’t treat it like it is.

 

*Batteries Not Included

Michael Leave a comment

The 2017-18 NHL hockey regular season ended yesterday. The playoffs begin later this week and I have a few days to evaluate my own hockey scorecard. Over a few hundred games I’ve seen just about everything a hockey fan could want to see. I’ve see pre-season games, regular season games, and post-season games. I’ve seen games that clinched playoff spots, I’ve seen playoff series open and I’ve seen playoff series close with wins and with losses. I’ve seen penalty shots, the most exciting play in the fastest sport. I’ve seen games finish in overtime and games finish in shoot outs. I’ve touched the Stanley Cup and been up close to every other trophy awarded by the league. I’ve even seen the NHL draft live and in person. (Oddly, or aptly, I got to see a fight breakout at that draft but it was in the stands between two groups of opposing fans.) I have towels and programs and pucks signed by players who were right in front of me.  But there are three things I’ve not done. I’ve not been to an outdoor game. I’ve not been to a Cup winning game. And I’ve never seen a goalie score a shutout. Well, in point of fact, I have seen a shutout but it comes with an asterisk.

_____________________________________________________________

BroncosI wrote this post while at dialysis Saturday afternoon. I had not seen the news Friday night or Saturday morning and was unaware that on Friday afternoon a bus carrying the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team from Humboldt, Saskatchewan was involved in a deadly traffic accident. The team featured players 16 to 20 years old. Among 15 killed in the accident were 11 players, 2 coaches, a radio announcer, and a statistician. My sympathies go to their families and friends, the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League, and the entire Canadian hockey family. I mean no disrespect to the memories of these young people and their supporters and hope that by my words, I can honor them.

_____________________________________________________________

That little asterisk, the famous * symbol, says so much for being so little. I don’t know the earliest use of the asterisk but I remember the first time I saw it. It was on a box holding a new transistor radio (if you remember what that is) and it preceded the words “batteries not included.” Lots of things back then didn’t include batteries but they were mostly toys, or so it seemed to me, but those boxes didn’t hide the need for batteries behind our little one character attention getter. They put those words big and bold right on the front of the box. BATTERIES NOT INCLUDED. Occasionally you’d see an asterisk in a newspaper ad for a bank’s free checking offer. Today advertisers dispense with cluttering their come-ons with extraneous markings and just fill the bottom third of their spot with print in fonts smaller than what you think is actually possible with the exclusions and modifiers.

In the 1980s, amazing feats of strength and power were witnessed at baseball parks across America. The steroid era had arrived. More accurately, the steroid era had been noticed. Someone figured out that mere mortals just couldn’t do some of the things athletes of the day were doing. Most athletes of the day would have cringed at being called mere mortals. As would quite a few fans. Still, critics prevailed and convinced the powers that be of the day to look closer at those accomplishments. Yes, they determined that mere mortals could only do those things if they got some help. Help in the form of steroids to allow mortals to transcend their mere-ness. Record shattering performances of the time and the times before were scrutinized to investigate the possibility that the performers were performing in other than unadulterated states. If there was a question, the record remained but the suspicion that steroids were used was noted with an asterisk. Nobody wanted an asterisk. The reference mark had become a mark of shame. It persisted and expanded. Even in academia the asterisk was feared. I can recall in graduate school discussing a fellow fellow’s research results and heard someone remark, “oh sure, he can prove the theory but someday somebody is going to put an asterisk after his paper.”

Today the asterisk is regaining its popularity. Or maybe it’s losing its ignominy. Whichever, you’re starting to see it again, even in the occasional blog post. It simply means ” Hey, check it out. There’s still some more to the story.” And that’s why I’m not ashamed to include an asterisk with my personal hockey bucket list accomplishments. Yes, I’ve seen a shutout. There’s just more to the story.

I said I have never seen a goalie score a shutout in a game and that is true. But a have seen a shutout and that is also true. It was February 2, 2011. I remember the date because it was Groundhog Day and I was wearing my official Punxsutawney Phil hat rather than a more traditional hockey themed baseball cap. The home team was up 3-0 with 16.5 seconds left. The back-up goaltender was in for the number one net minder after the main guy played to a shootout win the previous night. As the game wound down, the home team was on the offense and a player made a break to the goal. The puck slipped past him and as he skated across the crease the opposing goalie took him down with a forearm. This did not sit well with the home goalie, who dropped his stick and gloves and advanced toward center ice. The visiting goalie also approached and gave the universal “come on” sign. Home goalie crossed the red line and his fate was sealed. He would receive a game misconduct and be ejected with only a few more than a dozen seconds left in the game. The home team inserted number one goalie who completed the shutout but since it was split between two goalies, the starter was credited with the win but neither goalie was awarded a shutout. Thus my asterisk.

But on the bright side, I did get to cross off “see a goalie fight” from my hockey bucket list.

 

 

 

Late for a Very Important Date

Michael 1 Comment

Hey, I’m really late!  Sorry about that.

I (almost) always post on Monday and Thursday and yesterday was Monday and I didn’t. You might have noticed. If you didn’t, I’m crushed. And now I’m quickly running out of Tuesday if I want to be just a day late. I hope nobody has been traumatized by not having my ramblings to read but I have a good excuse.

You see, Sunday and Monday were killer days for me and not because I lost an hour sleep Saturday night. Actually I slept the same number of hours Saturday night as I do on any other Saturday night so what I lost was an hour of awake time on Sunday. But since I was out a couple of hours past my regular Sunday bedtime I got it and more back. That just made me want to sleep late on Monday but I couldn’t because I had a day’s worth of appointments to keep. I guess I finally lost that hour of sleep Sunday night. Maybe three.

So let me just tell you about my last couple days.

Sunday started as a normal day with my normal chores which usually include writing a post for Monday. But since Monday was going to include some time with the tax preparer for this year’s extraction I spent what would have been writing time gathering forms, receipts, and other dreaded paperwork. I would have written Sunday night but I was at a hockey game, hence the late bedtime on Sunday. I would have written before the game but I had Dinner with Daughter instead.

Speaking of the hockey game, two fans sitting to my left intrigued me. I think they were fans. I couldn’t tell because they were conversing in a language I neither understood nor even recognized which covers almost all languages other than English. And a few dialects of that also. But I think they were hockey fans because not only were they there at a hockey game, they were very enthusiastic about it. Cheers break all language barriers.

Also at the game, sitting in front of my daughter was a young fan and I could tell indeed he was a fan because he not only spoke English, he also spoke it in my regional dialect and he spoke it very loud. And from what I heard he’s going to be a really good hockey fan for a lot of years to come. I’d say he was around 9 or 10 years old and he was explaining the game to his (presumably) father. And explaining it correctly! Gotta love the young fans.

So that wiped out all potential writing time on Sunday. Monday was going to be filled with lots of doctors’ appointments and the tax review. Every 3 or 4 months I make the rounds of most of my doctors. Who I don’t see on one round I get to the following quarter. I like to see them all in one day so I can…well, I’m not sure why but it seems to work. So I thought I’d write a post between appointments. I had a pretty good chunk of time between appointments 2 and 3 and figured I’d sit in somebody’s lobby with my trusty tablet and peck away. Except…

Except I was hungry so I ate instead. I would have included visual evidence here but I didn’t think of it until I left the diner. It was a good diner. Diners are always good and this one even had its 15 minutes of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives fame. If you ever get there be sure to have the Reuben omelet. Yum.

After lunch I had appointments 3 and 4 and then Tax Guy and that got me home just in time to be hungry again, this time for dinner. After dinner I sat down fully expecting to write the long delayed post when I saw that Roman Holiday was on TV. I love you guys (at least I presume I do if I was to ever meet you) but I am fanatically in love with Audrey Hepburn (regardless of the fact that I never met her either). That took me to the point of exhaustion and even though I love you (see above) I needed some sleep.

ImLateAnd then it became Tuesday. Tuesday is a dialysis day so I knew I had a few hours ahead of me with little (like nothing) to do so I thought I’d write this then. Once I got all hooked up and settled in I thought I’d check today’s paper, then the doctor was making her rounds, the social worker hers, then I went back to the paper, then I checked my email, then I remembered “I have to write a post!”

And this is what I came up with. Now go ahead and tell me I don’t love you guys (see above) (again).

Now I just have to go home, eat dinner (yes, again), proof this (absolutely!), and post it (finally.) You’re welcome!

 

Is it just me . . .

Michael 6 Comments

I was going to end the title here with “…or is it chili in here?” in honor of National Chili Day (get it, is it chili in here? I crack myself up), but then I thought better of it and opted not to start a new Internet controversy. There are arguments enough on line that I don’t have to add fuel to the fire and start shouting matches between the bean camp and the no beaners, fights between the beef chunkers versus the ground beef crowd, or debates over whether vegetarian chili is or is not mutually exclusive. No, I’m not going to be the cause of any more strife along the world’s interwebs.

Instead I thought I’d pose a more calm inducing topic to the world today. Does anybody else think that snowboarding should be banned from the Olympics? Like forever. Plus an extra 20 years for good measure!

It has nothing to do with whether snowboarding is a “sport” and are snowboarders “athletes.” That would be no and no. But neither is the biathlon and I have nothing against that being in the Olympics. And before anybody gets too excited, curling is a sport and curlers are athletes and it without a doubt belongs in the Olympics. (Contrary to popular belief curling is not just shuffleboard on ice. If anything it more closely resembles bocce on ice and it is a travesty that lawn bowling is not an Olympic sport in the summer games yet beach volleyball is. But I digress. If you’re interested in finding out why bocce belongs in the Olympics you can read what I said about that here.)

SnowboardingIOC18So what do I have against snowboarding and snowboarders? Nothing personally. It can be entertaining and they are talented but it’s not a sport. It cannot be quantified. There is no time or distance measured to objectively determine the winner. If there was a downhill snowboard race and the winner determined by who gets there first, that would be a sport worthy of inclusion in the winter games.

Ah ha! you say. What then about skating? Sorry, that has to go too. It’s been around since the first winter Olympics but it should have never been allowed and it has to go. If the figure skaters and ice dancers (does anybody really know the difference?) want to compete for a medal on ice, let them try speed skating or hockey. Or curling even. Otherwise I’ll be happy to enjoy their contributions to a genteel society when they show up in town with Disney on Ice. While we’re at it, freestyle skiing is out also as is ski jumping unless they agree to ditch the style points and award medals only for distance. Not giving yourself a concussion on landing would be nice but not essential if the length is there.

The Olympics have hung around almost 2000 years to celebrate the fastest, the strongest, the highest. Not who can spin around in the air with a surfboard strapped to his feet the prettiest.

Thank you for your unwavering support and agreement.

And Happy Chili Day.

Ground. With beans.

And yes, it is.

 

Getting Your Money’s Worth

Michael 6 Comments

I went to a hockey game yesterday. My daughter is my usual hockey partner for these games. Hockey is a good bonding experience because we get to experience first-hand that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree especially after a particularly well placed goal, hard fought penalty kill, or extraordinary save, not to mention a rousing Dance for a Dilly Bar competition (so I won’t mention it). It’s also a good bonding experience because we get a good hour or so to ourselves with discussion topics that don’t usually come up in general daily conversation while driving to then sitting in our seats waiting for the puck drop.

For example, last night as we were closing in on our parking lot we noticed several cars in front of us slowing down at each parking entrance, perhaps checking out the remaining offerings or the event rates for that lot, then swerve back into traffic. We get to see this traffic ballet at almost every game but don’t think much of it. Yesterday, though, Daughter mentioned that she and Boyfriend were visiting friends between the holidays and they got caught behind a vehicle doing a similar wagon waltz as they proceeded through a neighborhood behind a driver who would slow down at each intersection, turn enough so his or her headlights illuminated the street sign, then veer back in front of them for another block. We dubbed it the “holiday home party shuffle.”

Another thing we both noted while we were coughing and hacking our mutual germs into the car’s enclosed atmosphere is that if you show up anywhere on the 2nd through 5th of January feeling under the weather you are greeted with “still working out New Year’s Eve are you?” Apparently germs take a holiday during the holidays.

Throughout the game you can track the progress of the team’s charitable foundation’s fifty-fifty raffle. Anybody who has been a parent of a high school sports participant, band member, cheerleader, or theater group is familiar with fifty-fifty raffles. For $5 you get three chances (or maybe 20 chances for $20) on half of whatever the erstwhile organization brings in that night. Having a daughter who was band-centric during her middle and high school years I got to sell lots of tickets and count lots of dollar bills. On a good day at an all-day regional band competition we’d bring in close to $400 and the winner walked away with half of that. I noticed last night’s fifty-fifty take on the same 3 for $5 chance was over $38,000 and the winner got to walk through the parking lot after the game with a check for $19,340. I didn’t hit that one either.

But here is perhaps the most blogworthy thing from last night’s hockey game. I have a half-season season ticket package. That gives me a pair of seats to every other home game. That’s about 20 or 21 regular season games per year. Twenty games is a lot of hockey especially for someone who doesn’t move particularly well without a cane and who still insists on leaping up from his seat whenever anything marginally leapworthy happens. So I go to about half of my alloted games doling out the others to Daughter, Hockey Loving Sister, or the resell market. Here’s what was blogworthy about last night’s game. Over 2+ seasons of just regular season games (since I started tracking this) I’ve been to about 26 hockey games. On two occasions did those games end in regulation time. Last night marked the 24th game I’ve seen that went into overtime.

I might not be hitting the fifty-fifty but I am getting my money’s worth!

greatdayforhockey

Lots of Hockey!

Every Day Is a Great Day

Michael 4 Comments
Hockey season started yesterday. I was there for it. In my seat, the one I’ve occupied for the past couple of years. It’s not a bad seat. Over the years I’ve sat in several spots around the arena. Lower bowl, upper bowl, center ice, behind the net, on the dots. In the old arena. In the new arena. None are bad seats. Amidst a handful of people in my little section amidst the 19,000 or so seats all occupied by people in their little sections we sat in not bad seats there just to see a hockey game. No other agenda, hidden, assumed, obvious, or imagined. Just hockey.
But before the game we stopped to pay respects to those who lost lives and loved ones in Las Vegas and all 19,000 were silent. Every one. Silent. Then we paid respects to the flag and all 19,000 sang. Every one. Singing. And I thought how once again all I know about being a gentleman I learned from hockey and how I was once so moved by that realization that I posted my thoughts on it right here. And I thought, just as “Badger” Bob Johnson knew every day is a great day for hockey, that every day is a great day to learn from hockey.
So I’m doing today something I’ve never done before. I’m reprinting “Everything I Know About Being a Gentleman I Learned From Hockey.”

IMG955568

EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT BEING A GENTLEMAN I LEARNED FROM HOCKEY

Originally posted November 26, 2016

When I was at the hockey game this weekend I got to thinking how much as a society we can learn from hockey. Yes, the sport that is the butt of the joke “I went to a fight last night and a hockey game broke out,” is the same sport that can be our pattern for good behavior.

Stay with me for a minute or two and think about this. It started at the singing of the national anthem. I’ve been to many hockey, baseball, football, and soccer games. Only at the hockey games have I ever been in an arena filled with people actually singing along. Only at the hockey games are all of the players reverent to the tradition of honoring the country where they just happen to be playing even though they come from around the world – Canada, Russia, Germany, Sweden, Finland, even a few Americans.

A decent dose of nationalism notwithstanding, hockey has much to offer the gentility. Even those fights. Or rather any infraction. If a player breaks the rules he is personally penalized for it. Ground isn’t given or relinquished like on a battlefield, free throws or kicks aren’t awarded to the aggrieved party like victors in a tort battle. Nope, if you do something wrong you pay the consequences and are removed from play for a specified period in segregation from the rest of your teammates. No challenges, no arguments, no time off for good behavior. Do the crime. Pay the time. In the penalty box. Try doing that to a school child who bullies and you’ll have some civil liberty group claiming you’re hurting the bully by singling him out.

Hockey is good at singling out people but in a good way. At last Saturday’s game the opposing team has two members who had previously played for the home team. During a short break in the action a short montage of those two players was shown on the scoreboard screens and they were welcomed back by the PA announcer. And were cheered and applauded by the fans in attendance. There weren’t seen as “the enemy.” Rather they were friends who had moved away to take another job and were greeted as friends back for a day.

While play is going on in a hockey game play goes on in a hockey game. Only if the puck is shot outside the playing ice, at a rules infraction, or after a goal is scored does play stop. Otherwise, the clock keeps moving and play continues. Much like life. If you’re lucky you might get to ask for one time out but mostly you’re at the mercy of the march of time. Play begins. After a while play ends. If you play well between them, you’ll be ok.

The point of hockey is to score goals. Sometimes goals are scored ridiculously easily, sometimes goals seem to be scored only because of divine intervention. Most times, goals are a result of working together, paying attention to details, and wanting to score more than the opposing team wants to stop you from scoring. There is no rule that says after one team scores the other team gets to try. It all goes back to center ice and starts out with a new drop of the puck. If the team that just scored controls the puck and immediately scores again, oh well.

Since we’re talking about scoring, the rules of hockey recognize that it takes more than an individual to score goals. Hockey is the only sport where players are equally recognized not just for scoring goals but for assisting others who score goals. Maybe you should remember that the next time someone at work says you’ve done a good job.

handshakeThe ultimate good job is winning the championship. The NHL hockey championship tournament is a grueling event. After an 82 game regular season, the top 16 teams (8 from each conference) play a four round best of seven elimination tournament. It takes twenty winning games to win the championship. That’s nearly 25% as long as the regular season. It could take as long as 28 games to play to the finish. That’s like playing another third of a season. After each round only one team moves on. And for each round, every year, for as many years as the tournament has ever been played, and for as many years as the tournament will ever be played, when that one team wins that fourth game and is ready to move on, they and the team whose season has ended meet at center ice and every player on each team shakes the hand of his opponent player and coach, wishing them well as they move on and thanking them for a game well played. No gloating. No whining. No whimpering. Only accepting.

So you go to a fight and a hockey game breaks out. It could be a lot worse.

—–

So there you go. Everything you need to know about being a gentleman, or a lady. Courtesy of the folks who brought you hockey. They’re not bad lessons if I say so myself. And I think even Badger Bob would agree.

 

Whatball?

Michael 3 Comments

Only 40 more days until hockey season. Forty days. If Noah could make it, I can. The problem I have that our intrepid Biblical sailor never had to overcome is that football is in its preseason and will start some 30 days before hockey. Around here (here seemingly being anywhere bordered by the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and Mexico and Canada) football dominates.

As soon as the NFL entered their preseason activities sometime back at the beginning of summer with “OTAs” whatever they are, football highlighted the sports pages. When the colleges and high schools entered their “preseasons,” it took over. Baseball, golf, tennis, auto racing, horse racing, and any other summer sport went on the inside pages. Yesterday’s email of “headline stories!” from the local paper mentioned 9 can’t miss articles to read, 7 of them football related.

Football has a place. For the young kid crowd, the peewee set, it’s a terrific outlet. It doesn’t require much skill, no physical agility, and little intelligence, while still offering the immature male an opportunity to run amok, yell and scream, and hit each other with abandoned. But by the time they reach 16 you’d think they would be out of that stage preparing to terrorize everybody else when they are awarded drivers licenses.

FootBallI don’t even understand how the sport got its name. Baseball employs bases. Basketballs are aimed at baskets. Ice hockey is played on ice. Soccer players sock each other. A football is a …. What? A local sports writer who is a voter in the football hall of fame selection process has often said that he would never vote for a kicker to be enshrined in that hall. Yet the football kicker is the only football player on the football team who actually uses his foot in the play of the game.

Just forty more days. Forty days. Time to gather two centers, two left wings, two right wings, two left defense, two right defense, two goalies, two coaches, two pucks, two Zambonis, two….

 

But it’s not supposed to happen to me!

Michael 1 Comment

Well, it happens to the best of us. So they say. Who are these they? Are they the best of us so they would know? Or are they like me? Those who this always happens to. I don’t know what I want to write about. No, not I don’t know. More like I can’t remember. Like, since about 10 hours ago.

I should have sat down and wrote it then. It was really a great topic. And I had just the right approach for it. It was something that happens to all of us (what they say notwithstanding) and something that I know everybody out there in Blogworld wouldn’t be able to wait to read. But just what it is (was?) I can’t remember. Sigh.

I did what I always do when I can’t remember something. Retrace my mental steps of the Questionday. Most of the time it will jog the brain cells sufficient to loosen the elusive thoughts but not today. What did I do today anyway?

I think I first came up with the “Now that’s blogworthy!” moment sometime around breakfast time. Could it have been something to do with breakfast. Not likely. All I had was some breakfast sausage and scrambled eggs with an English muffin, buttered and jellied. Nothing terribly blogworthy at that meal although I did manage to turn scrambled eggs into a decent sounding post once. (While we’re in the kitchen, do they call English muffins just muffins in England? And if so, what do you call just a muffin there?) (Inquiring minds and all that.)

After breakfast I read the paper, answered some e-mails, watered the herb pots, and did a crossword puzzle. Actually, I did four crossword puzzles. Other than those, my morning probably wasn’t much different from anybody’s. And I know whatever “it” was, “it” wasn’t crosswords. Although blogworthy, those too have already been a subject of the RRSB. So, not there.

Moving on I paid a few bills, put a birthday card in the mail (real card, real mail), took a walk, watched a hockey game. Hockey’s a big thing for me. Autographed pictures, pucks, programs, banners, and towels all have found a home somewhere on my walls and shelves. License plates and bumper magnets grace my car and a season ticket pass keeps my driver’s license company in my wallet. I like hockey. I’ve even said that everything I know about being a gentleman I learned from hockey. But it wasn’t that either.

So, I don’t know what I’m going to write abou…….wait! Now I remember. I think I’m going to save that idea for Thursday and just call today a miss. Sorry, but I don’t want to go through this twice in one week. So, I’ll just jot that down on a little post-it that I can stick to the monitor right there. And, there. Thursday is all taken care of. Whew.

So. Now. For today. Well….Have a nice day?