Alright, so I technically made a post yesterday. But it was in the wee-hours of the night, and was more of an update to the blog site than anything else. So thats 2 days where I've left my blog behind, and I'm not about to make it a 3rd.
However, I've been really hitting a creative block today, and I've been feeling a little nostalgic as of late, so this is going to be slightly more personal than usual, but hopefully still relevant.
I am a hockey fan, and have been one for a long time it seems. There have been some times when I'm not sure why I love hockey so much, but there are moments that I see, hear, or be a part of that make me lose all doubt. Some of these moments are personal, some I've seen on TV, some made me cheer, some made me tear up a bit, some are recent, some are before I was born. But whatever the moment is, these are the moments that, for myself, are why I love the game of hockey.
10. The Birthday Party
The first moment on my list is a personal one, so many readers probably have no idea of what all went down. Basically, at around 10 years old or so, I invited my entire hockey team and other close friends for my birthday party. The plan for the day was a massive road hockey game, cooking hotdogs over the fire outside (in March, in 3 feet of snow), then all going down to watch the local Jr. A team's playoff game, then have a sleepover.
We had 20 kids over, so we filled the block with people playing road hockey. The campfire outside in the snow was a really cool moment, and the sleepover with 20 kids packed in my basement was incredibly fun.
But my favourite part of that was at the Ghostriders game that evening, after it to be exact. We were missing one of the kids, couldn't find him anywhere. We looked around, and he eventually appeared, with a hockey stick in his hand, with a long strand of stick tape on the side of it, with every signature of the team players. I've never used the stick (its a righty), but I kept it around to this very day. That was probably the coolest gift I've ever received.
9. Skate in the Crease
So this was a moment that I watched on TV, and I didn't remember it fondly, but somehow it sparked my interest into hockey and the rules of the game further.
It was 1999, and I was a huge Sabres fan at the time. I loved the look of Buffalo's jersey and logo, loved Dominic Hasek, huge Mike Peca fan, liked Zhitnik, Wooley, Barnes, etc etc. I started hockey liking Vancouver, then later on switched to Calgary, but Buffalo was the first team I really knew all about and became a real fan of.
I spent late nights watching the playoffs, because they were my first real experience with playoff hockey. They beat the Maple Leafs in the East Final (and I still saw them as a godly team, so that meant a lot), so I was excited to see my team win the Stanley Cup. But after 6 games against Dallas, it didn't happen, all because of a goal that really shouldn't have counted. I've seen the replay hundreds of times, but only needed to see it once, as I have the replay planted in my brain. That was my first real attachment to an NHL team, and I felt just as lost as most of the fans were. Its sad, and maybe I was over-reacting, but I felt emotion never drawn by much of anything else up to that point, so it was a powerful moment for me.
8. The '72 Summit Series
Of course, this happened 20 years before I was born, so I never really felt the direct effects of the series on my life. Still, I was completely fascinated by it, and still am today. It loses so much meaning when you look at just the hockey aspect of it, and even then, it was one hell of a series. Hollywood couldn't script a better hockey story than what happened in 1972. But it meant so much more than just hockey. It was the Cold War atmosphere, the Soviets showing the world that Canada isn't the superpower it was thought to be, Canadians giving up on our own players, and those players winning back the crowd the way they did, the brutal conditions in Russia at the time, I could go on and on. This is one moment in hockey history that to this day still gives me a pulse for the game.
7. The Sea of Red
My next brush with playoff hockey didn't come until 2004, then a Flames fan. I happened to be in Calgary during Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals against Tampa Bay. I fondly listened to the car radio with my dad, as they broadcasted the game. All of a sudden, Calgary scores in OT to win the game, and the cars all over McLeod Trail in Calgary starting honking and going bezerk, and we joined in. It was so much fun to be part of that for even just a few seconds.
A week or so later, I remember being at my grandma's house watching Game 7. I'll admit that I ended up in tears watching Calgary lose it's chance at the Stanley Cup, and seeing the look on Iginla's (my hockey idol, then and still) face as he watched Tampa take the Cup. The rash of emotions from being a fan of the team, riding their wins and feeling their loses, was really moving to me.
6. Rocky Mountain Hockey School
This is a little different because it was more than one moment, it was actually a yearly thing. My first hockey camp growing up was in my hometown of Fernie, called Rocky Mountain Hockey School. It was a week-long bootcamp of hockey skills, outdoor training, and quite a bit of fun. I was around 5 when I joined, just learning to skate, and being taught by hometown hero, Jason Krog.
I went there almost every year since, until I was too old to go. I started as a little kid not knowing how to skate, never mind shoot, pass, or anything. My last year I was older than anyone else there, and although I wasn't the best there, I got to act like a mentor to some of the younger players, and that really meant the world to me. I made a ton of friends, played hockey with some of the local hockey stars, and did some really cool things, but being able to go full circle like that was the best part.
5. Anaheim Mighty Ducks 2003 Cup Run
And speaking of Jason Krog, he became more of a hero to me in 2003. He wasn't a full time NHLer until this point, and really wasn't after this year either, but he was a prominent figure in the Mighty Ducks' cup run in 2003. I spent many late nights watching the many OTs during that playoff, including an extremely long 5OT game against Dallas. I became a big fan of Karyia, Giguere, Ruchin, Sykora, and coach Mike Babcock during that run. Although they lost, it was really cool to see Krog and Karyia, 2 of my big hockey heroes that brought me into the game, play together and go as far as they did.
4. NHL 99
The computer game, yes. This was my first real video game I spent lots of time playing, without the aid and influence of my big brother. We didn't get to indulge in too many video games when we were young, but this was one that I got to play many times, and still (try) to boot it up for old-times sake. This was one of the coolest video games I ever played, and helped me further open the door to video games and the world of hockey.
3. The World Juniors
I'll cheat again on this one too, as there are more than one year that really got me excited to be a hockey fan, but I thought I'd throw them together.
2004 was a cool year because hometown goalie, David Leneveu, was on the Canadian roster as a goalie. Unfortunately, he lost most of the spotlight to little-known goalie named Marc-Andre Fleury. Although I understand that he was the better goalie, and the next "big star" in the NHL, I'm still upset how he got dummied against the USA in the gold medal game.
The 2007 Semi-Final against the USA is probably in my top 3 games of all time. The excitement was through the roof, as it hit the shootout, before Toews and Price led the way to Canada's win.
2009, semi-finals, against Russia, when Eberle scored with 5 seconds left to force the OT which Canada ended up winning. If you're a hockey fan, you know exactly what I'm talking about. I still hear Gord Miller's call of the goal in my head to this day, absolutely unbelievable comeback.
And then in 2012, again in the semi-finals, Canada down 6-1 to Russia in the 3rd, climbing all the way back to 6-5, then hitting the post with seconds left, losing the game. That emotional rollercoaster of a game had me from sad, to pissed, to optimistic, to on my feet cheering, to devastated.
This is why I love the winter break so much. Christmas is nice, World Juniors are awesome.
2. Lethbridge Hockey Tournament, 2006
This was around the time I finally started blooming into a better hockey player. I had the legs and power, I was just missing the confidence. I was benched so often prior to that year, I felt bad anytime I touched the ice, as weird as that sounds. 2006 was going to be my final year for hockey, as I was finished with the dilemma of being benched 90% of the time for the better of the team, and lacking the time and means to be "committed" to the team. 2006 "WAS" going to be my final year.
The one weekend in Lethbridge in 2006 changed that. I found my stride, was used very often on the ice, and it turned out to be one hell of a weekend. I scored the first and only goal in our first game, and against scored the game winner in the 2nd game. The parents of the team really rallied behind me, and I quickly became a bit of a mini star. I don't know where it came from, but that made all my years troubling through hockey worth it, and the weekend was only halfway done.
Unfortunately, I fell just as fast as I zoomed up, literally. I was checked from behind in the 3rd game, about to be put on a stretcher when I refused, got back up and tried to play on. It was nobel, if not stupid. I still have back problems from that hit to this day, and I shouldn't have gotten back up, never mind played, but I did. I had something to prove. I was much ineffective for the rest of that game, but we made it to the Finals against a very good team from Brooks. We lost, and I struggled to skate, or stand for that matter. But all in all, when I was on the verge of losing hope for hockey, that weekend got me back on my feet.
1. There could have been lots of other moments to be my favourite. Any of the NHL games I witnessed, meeting Scott and Rob Neidermayer, or Dion Phaneuf, or Wade Redden, or Andy Moog, or all of the different places I've been to for the sake of hockey, or all of the different big moments that happened in my lifetime or beyond. There could have been my first goal, my first 2 goal game, my first game all-together, my first championship, my first time playing goalie, etc etc.
But something else comes to mind, it was my first real memory of hockey.
I used to ski, until I got into hockey and changed that. I always wondered where that interest came from, to take away something I grew up and shared with my dad in skiing. But it was one Sunday when I was very young, I got to watch my first couple of hockey games.
My mother was volunteering at the Midget Provincials held in Fernie, when I was 3 or 4. She was selling the 50/50 for the games, and the one day that my dad worked and couldn't watch me, she brought me along. I got to watch the 11/12th placement game (so basically, last place) against Port Moody and Burnaby. I could have just walked around and followed my mother around, as was the plan. But when I got there, I was mesmerized. I sat on the fairly empty bleachers and watched. I had no clue what was happening, but it looked awesome! A man came up to me, he was a scout for the Port Moody team, or a trainer, or something like that. He talked to my mother and sat by me, asked if I ever watched hockey before. I told him no, and he watched it with me, explaining the rules as the game went on. The score was something nasty, like 14-2 for the other team, but he didn't seem to mind. I loved it, and wanted more.
Well I was in luck, when my dad got home from work, he surprised me by taking me to the Finals, which featured the hometown Elk Valley team vs. Trail. The arena was totally different from before, not a seat was left empty, and it was so loud I could barely hear my dad explain the rules to me (as it took me more than one game to understand). When our home team won in OT, it created a furor in the arena never matched by anything I've ever seen or imagined. My little eyes twinkled with the sight of people in sheer joy. I didn't exactly understand how OT worked, but I could tell it was good. My memory goes blurry after that, but I can safely say that that one particular Sunday, my first instance of hockey, was my favourite moment of all time.
This was quite the read, and I know I went fairly crazy long-winded on this post. It probably isn't interesting to most of you, since many of these are personal memories. But to anyone who does read this, thank you for letting me vent out my nostalgia at you. It really does mean something when someone takes the time to read my stories. If any of you readers have any fond moments or memories you'd like to share, I'd love to hear it, please feel free to post.
Thank you again for reading.
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