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There is something special about hockey. I played full-contact competitive ice hockey and left the ice in my early thirties. I cleaned up my pads and donated them to the league that governed youth hockey. I kept my skates but eventually donated them a few years later. Giving up the skates was a bit difficult. It was, I suppose, the finality of leaving something that I loved.
On the Sunday morning when the US men's team won the Olympic gold medal, there was one player who did not get to play. He was honored in their own on-ice celebration.
The hockey community in the US and Canada, from children to adults, is a family. Parents are driving to the rink for games and matches at any given time, as ice time comes before the sun rises or long after the sun sets. At times adult players will have a match that starts at 9:00 or 10:00 PM. Figure skaters and hockey players can never get enough ice time.
Winning the gold medal was a special moment for the US Men's Team, as it was for the US Women's Team. There was another moment in the men's gold ceremony that was special for Johnny Gaudreau, a player who couldn't make it to Milan, and his family.
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Nice post. Hockey is, and hopefully will remain, the least woke major sport. Those of us who love it and who ever been checked into the boards see that.
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Dusty in here.
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That was a good moment. Very classy. Bringing out the Gaudreau kids shows that the team is really tight. I am happy for them that they have that.
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Where I grew up in 1950s New England, every frozen pond was a hockey arena. My older sister's high school team was so successful that hundreds of kids turned out for hockey while the school struggled to field a basketball team. One of her classmates was invited to the Olympic tryouts but did not make the team.
I played HS goalie (different school). Not the greatest skater, what I loved about goalie were a couple of features: one was the crease was my inviolate sanctuary and woe betide any opposing player whose skate crossed into my territory whereupon I could put a massive whooping (called a "check") on him and there was no foul.
But the biggest rush was the fact that, while all the action might be going on at the other end of the ice so I was not involved, once it came towards me in the form of a three-man front line screaming Canuck French at each other, I was all that stood between our team and a humiliating goal.
"If it's to be, it's up to me" personified. Why I loved playing goalie, and why my hat is off to the Olympic champion goalie, 41 saves against 42 shots. Wowza!!
I read President Trump has said he will bestow the President Medal of Freedom on the winning goalie at the White House.
What a country! Huzzah!
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I am still so disappointed that not one of those players called for action against climate change nor offered support for Hamas' struggle against genocide nor opposition to the fascism of ICE. And is there even one minority transgender player on that team? If I did not have 14 vegan cats to care for, i would be in the streets right now.
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