That was the time staring back at me from the scoreboard clock at the end of the rink. 7:28 AM. It was this past Thursday and I was on the bench, well past warmed up in my 7:00-8:00 AM shinny, between shifts, and I remember thinking very clearly about whether I had had too much …
Category: shinny
Friday, I’m In Love
Old goal scorers never die, their shot just weakens 'til they don't score any more, and their bodies age into the older demographic of those present in any given game of shinny. I have played Friday afternoons for many years, as a spare at first, for years, maybe a decade or more, and then as …
End of the Weekend
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 …
Peanut Butter Cups
The older I get, the nuttier (no pun intended) the world gets. I'd like to think I am open-minded and believe there are few absolutes in this thing called life. (Perhaps it was my upbringing - ie. one of my father's sage chestnuts was that when it came to pie, there was no such thing …
A Man and his Son, A Man and his Father, and Me
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
Outside Inside Goal
It's just shinny but as one gets older, and is able to pull off a move one-on-one and then score, even if the defender is older than one's self, and even if the tender isn't half the goalie Tukka Rask's mother-in-law is, it still feels good. I had one like that last night. There were …
As Good As It Gets
Our last night of spring hockey in Cambridge last night was a thing of beauty for me. The trifecta for someone my age - I cut my stick off (again - another inch and a half) and voila, magic, my legs felt good and the heat and humidity slowed the ice to a slushy crawl …
Heavy Legs
5 hours + of commuting time today really didn't help me feel energized for tonite's weekly scrimmage. It was grim. Felt tired on the first shift and it got worse from there. What a difference from last week where I had good jump. The great equalizer of course is the cold beer afterwards whilst watching …
Kids in the Hall
As I strolled out the dressing room around 5:00 PM yesterday, after a fine late afternoon game of shinny at the recplex, there was a wee lad in the hallway with a stick and an orange ball. He looked like a little brother of one of the slightly older kids who had followed our time …
What Price Hockey?
I don't recall how old I was but it was sometime during my elementary school days at St. Anne's in Peterborough. The parish church was right across the parking lot out front of the school so we were pretty closely aligned with the parish recruitment activities. There were no altar girls back in those …
Rink Tales 