I looked forward to Sunday night hockey all weekend. Right from the point I left the dressing room after Friday afternoon hockey in fact. It is good to have good things to look forward to.

As I hustled through the parking lot into the rink, I had to weave through some kids playing footy in the rec park just outside the rink doors. (skateboard park, splash pool, some hoops for the ballers, etc.). I recalled that over past few times there, the kids have actually been playing footy right inside the lobby of the arena. I tried to remember if that ever happened when I was a kid but seem to recall it was mostly kids playing hockey.

I grew up in a time where hockey was more dominant in communities than it is now, at least if you were from the demographic it was available to (ie. male for one), and I mused that change never ceases, good and bad and all shades in between. It is an expensive sport and with the inequities in our world seemingly getting larger, and with our communities filled with people coming from a ever broader areas of the globe, it struck me that Canada is still a good place, but we need to keep working to make it better.

Pre-game banter was brief as I got there late. The Bills game on SNF kept me home later than normal. Josh Allen was money in the final few minutes I thought, as I drove to the rink, and the other latecomers agreed, getting there late for same reason as I.

One buddy strapping on his gear beside me stated the next hour was about expunging four nights of Octoberfesting in past couple of weeks. More good things we have here in the KDub.

I was on the dark side on this night, (as I am most nights in a shinny setting owing to my preference for my black sweater over my white which I suppose needs its own story, but I digress), and from the get-go, we were in tough. The effort was there, as the losing side often says in self-defence post game, but it was mostly grim.

The high point of my night at an individual level was intercepting a pass from Pete, one of the light side’s puck possession studs, and as I did so, my adrenaline spiked. Good times. Alas, sometimes life’s best moments are brief, something that was reenforced in me quickly, as I mishandled the puck almost immediately after trying to transition the play the other way and gave it right back to Pete. As a team, perhaps we didn’t play with enough “pace” as Darryl Sutter might opine. We chased, we circled, we chipped and chased, we tried to get sticks in lanes, yada yada.

Post game, someone suggested it wasn’t really a contest of light vs dark on this night but of light vs Wiggy (the McDavid of the whites). Most of us lights agreed.

For context, Wiggy is a beautiful hockey player to watch (even when you are playing with him). He has the lowest centre of gravity of anyone I have ever played with or against. It is approximately at the top of his skate cuffs. I have seen young rabbits being chased by my dog in our yard who are slower than Wiggy, and with higher centre’s of gravity.

But we still needed more from him tonite I suggested, perhaps unfairly, but since he was in the other room, no harm, no foul on my part. Someone else suggested our strategy was simply to have all whites but Wiggy skate hard enough to tire out most of the darks enough to give Wiggy some advantage from which to take over the game for the whites. This felt pretty reasonable but in hindsight proved that sometimes battle plans don’t survive well in actual battle.

There was also some discussion about who the new guy was on the light side, who might have tilted things in their favour. Everyone agreed he was solid and an impact player tonite. Another strike against for me as I couldn’t even remember there being a new guy on the opposing squad in hindsight.

We all rolled out into the night and headed for home. As I dragged my gear to the car, a lone skate boarder was still putting in reps on the skate board park outside the arena, the footy playing kids having left. I hope they are all back next week and that they have a good week, at school with their friends, at home with their families at night and that they too have lots of good things to look forward in their lives.