Canada's gift to the world has become my obsession

For those of you who don't already know, my most recent sports obsession is Canada's gift to the world. About (or Aboot) three years ago I finally gave in to my friend Sean's badgering and started to play hockey. He can't help it , he's Canadian. I quickly fell in love with this new sport. It is all quite ironic, as I attended Clarkson University near the Canadian border, which has a very good D1 hockey team. However, I never payed much attention to the hockey team, other than to avoid angering the players that lived in my freshmen dorm when they decided to play pick-up in the hall at strange hours.

After playing for three years, I am convinced it is one of the most skill intensive and strenuous sports out there. Skating, stick handling, avoiding getting clobbered, all while trying to handle a tiny black biscuit (puck for those non-hockey people) while my heart rate races along at 170 bpm. Yes, a new challenge. I was looking for something like this. It also was a good way to procrastinate writing my doctoral thesis.

I spent many a mornings at public skate trying to teach myself to skate and more importantly, stop. I have since learned that not all recreational players invest much time in the art of stopping. Some have decided that this is what the boards are for. Anyways, it was always quite a scene at early morning public skate. Just me and the "Ice Princesses", which was my nickname for all the figure skaters who would almost give me a toe pick to the head while they were practicing their leg lifts and triple lutzes. This group consisted mainly 0f very intense women that I am sure did not appreciate me stumbling through their ice with my big blue hockey pants and elbow pads. By the way, no offense to figure skaters as this sport also takes a lot of skill.

I would stake off a little ice to the side and practice my skating skills. I picked up skating quite quickly, as it has many similarities to skiing, another long time favorite sport of mine. In fact I was getting so good that one of the Ice Princesses approached me one day. Being that this was Utah, I was not sure if she was going to try and convert me to mormonism or figure skating. I guess she had noticed my rapid progress and decided to come over to extol the virtues of figure skating and explain how they needed more guys for pairs skating. I quickly put the kaibosh on the figure skating thing, explaining that I was simply there to learn to skate so I could play hockey. Then I spat on the ice just to confirm her misgiving that I was headed for the dark side. Ok, I am embellishing with the spitting, but it would have been a nice touch.

My other reason for learning to play hockey is that my wife and I were leaving Utah and headed for post doctoral positions in central Mass., which is quite a hockey hub. This coupled to the fact that all my standard sports (skiing, mountain biking, rock climbing) were going to be knocked down a few notches due to geography, made it seem like it was the perfect time to start playing. I am now on the ice as much as four times a week. Additionally, I have spent quite a bit of time creating a little rink in my back yard where we have a pond.

So far this winter, the rink has been a dud, as there was not enough water in the pond when the cold weather hit. This followed by snow and not enough time to clean the rink, left it un-skatable. Then , this past week the New England weather pulled one of its favorite tricks, 8 inches of snow followed by ice rain and then just plain rain. My hopes for any skiing were dashed against the rocks, however I had not thought about the rink. A few days after the storm I walked out to let the dogs out and decided to go look at the rink surface, it was magnificent. I ran back in to tell my wife, who tolerates my hockey mania fairly well, "Tomorrow the dog and I can play hockey!" This brings me to the story where my wife had to explain to the neighborhood kid who came by looking for donations for the school, that she did not have any kids. I guess he had seen the hockey net in the driveway, and decided that we must have kids. She had to explain to the confused youth that the big red hockey net with the shooter tooter (Goalie Guy) was her husband's.

Anyways, play hockey is exactly what my faithful dog Stella and I did. Stella's breed (Labrador Retriever) is from Newfoundland, therefore hockey is in her blood. Enjoy the video of our Saturday on the ice, some filmed via my helmet cam rig.

Seano