Category Archives: hockey

First playoff game, overtime and loss

First picture with our ticket and stuffy!

Here we are in the Shark’s mouth:

We used to do a picture of the two of us in the Zamboni, no Zamboni, no win but the two of us:

Here Nick’s taking a shot. He scored more often than the Sharks did who lost 2-1 in overtime on a broken play:

Our wonderful friend Robin brought cookies as a good luck charm. Robin keep bringing the cookies. Because we loved them…

Here’s the pair of us in the tank before the game:

And here’s the pair of us into overtime. I am looking like shit – and nicholas is looking happy and refreshed. Getting old, old man.

Memories and Children

When I was a child I used to go running here. It’s really awesome actually …

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And cross country skiing here at beaver lake

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And although Nicholas was bored and cold, I was really happy to share this place with him.

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My wife saw the picture in sunny California and rightfully accused me of freezing the poor child … And I felt sorry for him, except when we came back to my best man’s house I caught him doing this:

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Cold my left foot! He was bored! And playing hockey is way more fun than seeing boring old memories of Dad!

Why I am in Montreal

The most important is this

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Nicholas said after the game that the best place to watch hockey is Montreal!

The other is:

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Heck even the pizza is better:

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Although sharkie is cooler than Youppi!

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Look the Shark Tank is awesome but the bell center is to the shark tank as vail is to Tahoe …

Watching hockey in that stadium the frustration of knowing that this Habs team isn’t good enough to win is irritating in a way it is not in San Jose.

Lessons in parenting in hockey

My son and I have been going to hockey games for three years. He’s four!

Last year we had the moment of insight that the kid couldn’t actually see the game because he was too small. He never thought to say anything, and I never thought to ask. The poor kid went to something like 20+ games before we realized he wasn’t actually watching the game. No wonder he was bored!

One thing that always surprised me was why when the Sharks scored did he look terrified?

Last night I figured it out. A goal in a hockey game is like a random loud event to Nicholas. He has no idea why or how the goal got scored. The whole sequence appears random.

How did the least observant parent of the year figure this one out? Because Marleau scored on a break-a-way and Nicholas was standing and cheering. More importantly he was proud of the fact that he had raised his hands like everybody else at the same time! He was going: I raised my hands like everyone else…

The poor kid had been trying to figure out why all of these adults simultaneously stood up and cheered! And the reason he was freaked out was because it was like this room full that suddenly erupts – for no apparent reason – in a loud shout… I would be freaked out as well… And he was frustrated, I think, that he didn’t understand.

This is why baseball and soccer have such a broader following. A baseball game event is obvious. The ball is hit, the player runs. In soccer the pace is sufficiently slower that a neophyte fan can follow what happens. A hockey game, on the other hand, is a sequence of bounces, abrupt changes in motion followed by a goal and appears to inscrutable.

I think, maybe, now my kid is going to start enjoying the game.

 

 

the king was dunked

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We went to the rally before game 1 of the Sharks – King series.

At the rally Nicholas saw this guy who was wearing a Kings jersey that was being dunked into a pool of water. He was super excited and wanted to try. So they let him throw the ball at the guy. The guy was super cool and fell in when the ball kinda sorta landed near the target.

He was sooooo happy bouncing around screaming: I did it! I did it!