Hockey for Fun?

I know I said hockey season is over, but in reality, hockey is not over. The kids are doing spring hockey, and it's really about having fun, so in some ways it doesn't count. Since spring hockey is so casual, a lot of the kids don't take it too seriously, which is a good thing, but it also means that the kids don't always feel obligated to show up. I understand this, but it complicates matters when we have a game and nobody shows up. This happened last week, and it was a challenge, but not a huge deal. We had 7 kids, which means one goalie, 5 on the ice and 1 substitute. On the bright side, they got lots of ice time, but man were they tired. Pond hockey at its best. In a way it's good for conditioning, but it's also a lot of fun. Nothing is on the line so it's also a good time to take the chances you wouldn't take during a big game and learn a little from the process.

This weekend the team actually showed up, and then some. I called one of the other coaches to see if his daughter wanted to play. I assumed we would be short because N was away at a birthday party, and I knew a few of the other players were playing in tournaments. With this in mind, I didn't want to be so short on the bench. My friend got a little carried away and brought in four players, and several of the team players arrived, so we had a team. It was nice, we had two full offensive lines, and two sets of defense. My friend worked the defensive bench, and I did offense. They had a great game, two of the new kids are ace players and work really hard.

In the end, we clobbered the competition and most importantly, everyone had fun. That's all that matters, right?

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Lee Ekstrom for the pic.