Theft at the Arena and GG to the Rescue

I don’t know what I’d do without GG, the guy saves me on a regular basis. I dropped A off at practice the other day and had to pick up N, so I left my skates and stick at the arena. When I returned, my stick was gone. I left it clearly by my bag, so there little chance that someone thought it belonged to them. I was a bit incensed, but realized that sometimes people don’t have a stick and just grab an extra off the lost and found rack, though for the record, my stick was not in the rack.

I figured by the end of A’s practice the stick would be returned, no harm, no foul, but that was not the case. Whoever “borrowed” it took it home, and I was left without a stick. I sent out an email to the entire association indicating what had happened and figured it would be returned. Anyone who knows me will vouch for the fact that I’m not one to buy the best equipment, so my stick was not an expensive or fancy thing. It didn’t make sense to steal it.

Either way, I had an old stick that I could have used, but enter GG. He said I could borrow his son’s stick and brought it to me. Now GG is a real hockey player, and his son’s are all good players, and he doesn’t mess around with equipment. They get the good stuff, so while I lost a budget stick, GG replaced it with a quality one. Since his son wasn’t really playing hockey anymore, he said no hurry in getting it back. Wow, did I luck out, or what?

I’m not a believer in the notion that expensive equipment makes a player better, but I scored two goals at my next game. I was feeling pretty good about myself, and then guess what happened? My stick showed up at the arena. Whoever took it must have realized their mistake and brought it back. I was happy to get it back, but it also meant giving up the pro-quality stick, which I knew had to happen at some point.

So with tears in my eyes, I returned GG’s stick and thanked him profusely. What a great guy. Now I have my old stick back, and it just feels more “right.” I won’t have a game until the new year, so we’ll see if I can retain that magic touch. This should be interesting.

Until then, thanks for reading, and thanks to Mykl Roventine for the pic.