Hockey's Back

I missed hockey. I missed playing it, I missed watching it. I never considered boycotting it when it came back. I hated the bandwagon that cropped up and said 'hockey sucks' even though most of those people cheered for Gretzky and owned a San Jose Sharks jersey in 1992. Going to see the Rangers play at the Garden was a family tradition. I love the game. And I'm not even Canadian.

The lockout pissed me off from both sides, but that's kind of a moot point now that it's all (reportedly) been settled. And it's about fucking time. (Author's Note: This paragraph may have been a bit premature because of this story, but I'm keeping it here for historical purposes)

The irony is, I was planning on posting about hockey today regardless of the lockout situation, because my own personal hockey season started last night at 9:30PM local time. I'm playing in a summer league where I'll be skating every Sunday and Wednesday through the fall, which is when the winter league starts. So I'm back.

I played through high school and college (club, not varsity-- my school was D-I in hockey), but haven't laced up more than 2 or 3 times since then until last night. In fact, the last time I saw the ice was January of 2004, so I was a little rusty. It took me until the third period to find my legs, and after that I felt great. Just like riding a bike... except colder... and more painful (I took a shot to the inner-thigh, and no, I'm not a goalie).

And if you're wondering how we could possibly play hockey when it's 95 degrees outside, the answer is simple: indoors.

The NHL of course is a different story, and a subject for a completely different post, so I'll save that one for another time. But it's coming. Believe you me.

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