I skated today for the first time in 9 weeks on this cold bright January morning. I headed off to Vic park early, knowing the rink would be mostly mine, which is for the best as i know I'm in no shape to actually skate with others around me yet. I took my stick and …
Continue reading A Man and his Son, A Man and his Father, and Me
Well, it's been almost two and half years since I went all Forrest Gump and took my hands off the keyboard and simply stopped writing rinktales. And today...well, it marks the day I am back. Quite sadly for me, it's not the way I had had hoped to return. You see, I never intended to …
Bergeron and Toews - two stars hurt in the same game that threw game 5 momentum in different directions last night. It was killing Toews to have to sit. At one point it appeared he pleaded with the coaching "Gimme one shift" but he didn't play in the third. Watching Bergeron coast around for three …
Excluding any readers who are goalies, did you ever take a puck right in the candies? Umph - pain first, fear second.
After playing hockey all day Saturday, and then having wonderfully lazy Sunday recovering, I woke up this morning unable to move my left arm. Not heart-attach-unable-to-move-my-arm but closer to torn-rotator-cuff sore. I'd prefer to tell people I hurt it playing hockey but alas, I think I hurt it sleeping.
I stood groggily in front of the mirror this morning and for some reason noticed that line that runs perfectly horizontally across my nose about half way up. Imperceptible except up close, it's a memory carved into my beaker with an errant stick back on the driveway on Wolsely Street in Peterborough. I remember getting …
Peterborough's annual Snofest High School Hockey Tournament, which I think lives on, was traditionally held around the first week in January. It was part of a winter-carnaval thing the city did and I remember they also had snowmobile races around the track in the fairgrounds outside the Memorial Centre, the High Cathedral of Hockey in …
I saw an old classmate and teammate from my high school years yesterday - Ross Cowie at Bud McDougall's funeral. A great stay-at-home defenceman, we played on the St. Pete's high school team together many moon ago. Ross took one of the hardest hits I ever saw, during an OFSSA semi-final game in North Bay …
Bobby Clarke was once asked about his slash on Kharlamov during the '72 series. His reply: "If I hadn't learned to lay on a two-hander once in awhile, I'd never have left Flin Flon." If you google maps Flin Flon, you'll notice it's a fair distance from anywhere except what appears to be good fishing. …
Lots in the press lately about concussions and the scourge they are in the game today. I couldn't agree more. Having said that, I doubt there is any way to eliminate them from the game short of removing contact and fighting. Even then there would be the odd accident as there is in my old …
Rink Tales 