Lots of Hockey

There has been a lot of hockey going on the last little while.  Of course the Winter Olympics just wrapped up and I watched a lot of games that team Canada played in, both on the men's side and the women's.  Sadly we came up short in both, and came away with silver medals.  On the men's side, our NHL squad was goalie'd by a really hot American goaltender.  Otherwise I thought team Canada dictated the play.  I questioned a couple of the roster choices, but mostly it was a solid squad.  The officials missed a number of penalty calls that mostly would have gone in team Canada's favor, but we came up short when the puck hit the ice.

I play hockey every Tuesday when I am in the city with the Edmonton Vintage League.  This is a group of guys that are all 55 years old and older.  It is a bit refreshing for me as when I play with this group, I am one of the better players.  Sadly I missed the game last week, as I was out in Nordegg, and will miss it again today, as I have to take Margarit to an appointment.  She is getting a follow up checkup for her recent shoulder joint replacement surgery.

Whenever I am out at Nordegg I try to play drop in hockey at the ODR.  The Out Door Rink...!!!  There is nothing like skating outside, under the stars, with the mountains around you.  At those games it is just drop in shinny.  We usually have two goalies and anywhere from 4 to 20 players.  But there is no equipment and the rink is only about 60% of the official size.  Games are played twice a week, and in between I always help out with shovelling and flooding the ice.

For something like 22 years now I have been playing hockey with my team the Renegades.  For the past several years we have been playing in the Alberta Men's League.  The name is old school, but there are a few women that play in the league, including one on our team.  I started the team over twenty years ago and I'm the last holdout from the original roster.  Most of the players in this league are between 20 and 35 years old, so at 62 I have trouble keeping up.  I won't be playing here much longer, hence the transition to the Vintage league.  

This year the Renegades started in Division 8, but got moved down to Division 9 for the last part of the season.  We had two back to back games on the weekend and I played both.  On Saturday evening we defeated the Legacy Heating team by a score of 11-4.  Then on Sunday afternoon we played a rather rough and undisciplined team called the Ticklers, and beat them 10-6.  We will finish the season in 5th place.  There is one regular season game left in early March, and then the playoffs start.

As for Vintage Hockey, it is more of a recreational game, and we don't keep score beyond in the moment, there are not stats, and no standings.  The winter season ends at the beginning of March.  Then starting in April I will play on Thursdays in the summer season that runs until the end of June.  I'm hoping that the Renegades can also ice a team for the summer league.

Below is a snapshot of my #87 Sidney Crosby jersey from the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.  I wore this while I was cheering on team Canada this year...!