Ice and rain in the analog world.

Back at the rink as a cold rainy night temperature slowly drops. There could be snow or there could be ice by the time the next game is over and we have to head home. The Leafs just beat the Caps on their home ice on my TV. I chose to wear my red cap to the local rink tonight to watch my youngest son play a game. It might have seemed like a bad choice, but I like the hat, and it's raining. I've enjoyed watching more Toronto games then I normally would in a season. Growing up in the North you saw a lot of them on Hockey Night in Canada whether you wanted to or not. I must be getting too nostalgic because I miss the old format over the air on my old 13 inch black and white tv my parents bought me for Christmas one year. It made one appreciate color tv long before digital or HD changed everything. No matter how good the technology gets its hard to beat sitting in the stands at your lical rink watching a local team play. It's not the Leafs or Caps on the ice here in this old rink, but it's kind of nice.

Weather, what weather?

Some people just don't know when to come in out of the snow, and then there's hockey players who can't wait for snow and freezing temperatures to either build a rink or find a frozen pond to drop a puck and start bouncing pucks off trees. Having cold temperatures and hard packed snow is the norm in much of the north. Lately the winter temperatures haven't been cooperating as well as one might have expected. If you don't plan on using your skates you don't really need any ice, but the cooler temperatures are appreciated. Why sit inside and play video games when you can get some fresh air, practice your stick work and dial in your wrist shot knocking a few soda cans off a tree stump. Having a game cancled by the weather isn't unheard of if traveling to a rink is necessary, but sometimes all you need is a backyard or driveway right outside your door. Too many outdoor rinks have vanished over the years due to concerns over liabilities and simply lack of interest. what used to seem like a right of passage is or has become a faded memory to many. So if you have ever or still do get the time and oppurtunity for some authentic outdoor hockey then I'm sure you will benefit from it in some form at some point in your life. Maybe you'll remember that the cold isn't so bad while your sitting in your truck having a cup of coffee on a cold wintery night. You used to love the cold, the snow, and the ice.......and you always will.

Where there’s hockey - there’s life

the local rinks are still cold late into the night, and teams are still playing on the ice. What kind of nonsense is this? Well, none actually - this is hockey, and wherever there's ice, someone will figure out how to get a game going. Hockey isnt just for the pros or the coporate teams, hockey is for anybody and everybody who loves the game. You dont notice the cold when youre on the ice playing or in the stands watching and supporting your local teams. Young or old, rich or poor, "lets go lets go." as Grapes would say.

Hockey Fade

No NHL season. No one wants to officially state that, but delaying the season month after month sure sounds like a canceled season. Even if the season kicked off in 2013, what kind of excitement would we have?  Would there be a Cup? who knows, many die-hard sports fans have lost interest and have rediscovered college football and the NFL. Yes there's other hockey to see, but the damage is done - maybe not for everyone, but for many, including sponsors - it's not too good. This shouldn't be a shock, we've all seen it coming. It's not the same game I grew up with. It's great to see teams like Winnipeg return to Canada, but expanding the league and abandoning Canada may have made the league more cash, but it changed the feel of the game. Longer season's and more games only seem to water-down the excitement of a game. Changing the rules over and over again hasn't been much help either. The NHL may survive this, but hockey overall has taken a hit. At the youth level it's become a closed sport - extremely expensive and time consuming. Traveling hours to match one "select" team against another. House leagues are disappearing, pond hockey mostly just a faded memory of out door rink's past. It always comes down to the money. Money has slowly filtered out the blue collar kids, and turned our beloved sport into big business. You want to save hockey? Bring back the outdoor rinks and get more kids skating. Put the heart back into hockey, and maybe that will filter up to the big leagues someday. Until then....There's always lacrosse....Thank God for that!

Hockey data here and there

From the cold of Ladakh in northern India, to a supersize rink in Mexico City, up to the deep freeze of Slave Lake Alberta, and back down to the lake effect rinks of New York, hockey fans all know that hometown hockey is something special in many home towns around the world. A hockey player is a hockey player, and a hockey fan is a hockey fan no matter where you are from or where you are playing. I try to keep up on lots of different teams, leagues, and players.  Every day I learn a little more about this great game, and a lot comes from watching and listening. The minute you stop learning and think you’ve figured it all out is the day you probably don’t care anymore. I see the same thing in Lacrosse, maybe even more so in some areas. You can learn a lot about your own game by watching other teams and players approach to the sport.  How do they play against other teams, and how do they play against you. Hockey and Lacrosse are thinking games as much as they are physical. Thinking requires processing, and processing requires data.  Our brains process data from what we learn. We learn by doing, but we also learn by watching, listening – paying attention and even asking questions.  “ Why did my shot not go in the net, how did that goalie stop that shot, was that what my coach was talking about when he said I leaned forward too much on my shot?”  Feed your brain. Take in as much good data as you can. See what other teams, players, and coaches are doing – not just in your home town, but in other home towns…wherever they may be.

Unorganized Sports

Have we lost the ability to allow our kids the  opportunity for unorganized play? Have we lost the mindset that allows us to feel confident that unorganized sports is even viable, safe, politically correct?

Do we even remember what it was like to play sandlot baseball, pond hockey, pickup basketball, or many of other supervision free games activities where the kids made the rules and picked the teams? In a time where kids wanted to play a game because it was fun, no thoughts about what the parents wanted, as long as we didn't stay out too late, break a bone, or lose anymore teeth. Somehow we survived being a kid at the local outdoor rink with only an old jersey, knit hat, mittens, a pair of old skates, stick, and puck. Where have those days gone? No inviting college scouts to a game, no scoreboard,  parents yelling, no tournament travel out of town or association fees.

One of the reasons my teams did well was because many of the players not only played multiple sports, but they also played unorganized pickup games. We push a lot of small game ideas on players these days, but some of the pickup games tend to go rather long without too many complaints. There's something to be said for endurance when kids play pickup games. It's too bad there aren't more open rinks, and sandlot ball fields for kids to be kids, not regimented prospects waiting for superstardom or parent's egos to muddy the waters of playing for love of the game.