Stand outside and forget about it

I could go on for hours about why I love hockey, and it would probably bore most people to death if they had never experienced the game in some fashion. It’s not the NHL that makes me love this sport, it’s everything but. It’s pond hockey, hot chocolate after a game with your kids, every practice, every youth hockey game, and every snowflake that has ever fallen from October to May in the northeastern US and Canada. It’s watching Hockey Night In Canada with friends and family, and stepping out onto the foggy ice early in the morning at the rink for an early practice. It’s my dad’s car not starting in the hockey rink parking lot after a game and then having the same thing happen to me and my son thirty years later – then laughing about it in the cold. It’s the game that makes every winter that much more special. It’s hockey with all it’s broken sticks, cold locker rooms, and misaligned bench doors everywhere that never seem to open fast enough on a shift change. About the last thing I ever want to do is to turn some kid away from such a great experience. If you want to play – you should have the opportunity. I’ve had other coaches tell me I’m wasting my time with some players, then again they are the same ones who can’t believe they just got scored on by some new kid they forgot was the same one they thought I should have sent home. There’s nothing wrong with trying to make a great team. It’s picking a team and making a team that is different. At the youth level we should focus on developing the players, not accumulating the most plastic trophies for the coach. I’ve already got enough anyways, and they all came from teams made up of players who had to work for it. If you want to play hockey, I want you on my team. I’ll do everything I can to make you a better player, and hopefully somehow along the way you’ll find that greatness that’s in every hockey player. Trust me if you love the game and aren’t afraid to put some effort into practicing and playing you’ll do very well. Hopefully someday you’ll pass what you have learned onto the next generation of young hockey players. If you play this game, play it with heart. I run into hockey players everyday off the ice. They’re not always playing hockey, but they’ll always be a hockey player. If I’ve bored you to death than I suggest you grab a hot cup of chocolate, stand outside and forget about it. Of course, when I do that all I think about is hockey.