Ice Hockey 2.0

The best question that was asked of me in 2023:
What would it look like if you went skating this weekend?

It would be pure joy.

And it was. I connected with my friend Keith who had been asking me to join his team for the last year, borrowed some equipment, and got out there for game 1 of my 30s. It felt a bit odd at first, but the trust in my edges came back quickly, getting low - winning faceoffs. My legs burned, I was winded, but it was awesome.

What a blast coming back to a game I love, and grew up in.

The feeling of the blades cutting through the ice beneath your feet, the freezing air in the rink passing across your face, effortlessly rushing up to full speed flying faster than anyone on the ice. My childhood was spent in a hockey rink. It’s a game I love and know inside and out.

I didn’t realize how much I missed it.

A few weeks into getting back on the ice a former NHL player from Canada and I were chatting on the bench at pick-up night, and his quote to me:

“It’s cerebral, keep moving and all of it will come back to you.”

It took me a moment sitting at the blue line to realize I wasn’t going to get a pass waiting there.

“MOVE like you’ve played this game before!”, I told myself.

And there the puck came, ready to turn in and create a scoring opportunity.

There was no mistaking the difference in his posture, vision, stickhandling, and the 100 mph pass as I cut across the neutral zone perfectly in stride onto my tape. That’s what I live for.

Last week I collected the puck in the neutral zone, stickhandled through four defenders with little space, cutting towards the net with each move, I looked up, read the goalie, and buried the puck perfectly off the lower post ringing the bell.

I cut around the faceoff circle surprised at what I just did. Both benches were standing in awe.

Holy shit that was fun!

I didn’t score the most goals that night, but I certainly scored the prettiest.