Hockey – October onwards

Since it’s started to get colder here we’ve been introduced to hockey – ice hockey, that is, for anyone who didn’t grow up in Canada or the US! It’s lots of fun, even when you’re absolutely useless at it like me! Also funny to watch… Hockey is definitely the biggest sport in Canada, in terms of people playing it themselves as well as the biggest league sport – there are lots of leagues too.

Most of the friends play hockey, so there are plenty of games for us to go and watch as well as join in (the less serious ones at least!). There are also professional games to go and watch, ranging from local leagues to youth leagues up to the National Hockey League (picture all the tickets sold out for every game about a month in advance, including all the $200 tickets…Every game.)

With a few of the young friends around Didsbury, we’ve hired out the small ice rink in town a couple of times so far (about a third of the size of the regular full size rink in the same building), and had a good skate around and game of hockey. We’ve also got to join in a couple of games with a few more people, both in Weyburn in Saskatchewan and in Calgary where they play on Saturday mornings. They play some more serious games on Tuesday and Thursday nights, where you’d want to be pretty decent to actually play! Everyone over here seems to have hockey gear, and it’s not really a sport you can join in half heartedly – it’s Ok to play a casual game with just a few people not playing seriously, but for anything more than that you definitely want some padding! So to learn to play you really need to buy a few things… That’s Lawrie’s excuse anyway J - now with knee/shin pads, elbow pads, hockey helmet with a face shield, hockey socks to hold the shin pads in place, and padded pants… Although he held back on the shoulder/chest padding and jersey that everyone else has! It seems you REALLY don’t want to get hit with the puck, someone else’s stick, or the ice!

Brett, Colter, Elton

Lawrie

Sherwin & Patrick (both first time on the ice), Andy, Brett

Nicole, Lawrie, Colter

Robert, Joel, Lawrie

Joel, Robert, Nicole

Sherwin, Patrick (Phillipinos who work for Brett)

David, Brent, Tim, Robert, Joel, Lawrie

Robert, Lawrie, David, Joel, Nicole

It’s really amazing to watch how the good players skate – it’s so much faster than running around, and they can really sprint! But also, they can stop so much faster than when running (full pelt to an immediate stop, by skidding to the side and carving up some ice!), and head back in the other direction straight away, as well as turn around and skate backwards while watching the puck, and stop immediately when going backwards too – it’s all about stopping and changing direction super quickly, which is not so possible for us so far! It’s like some of them were born on skates… So it’s all about the puck and the hockey game for them, without even thinking about the fact that they’re skating instead of running around, whereas the skating is a big part of it for us!

We went to see a WHL (Western Hockey League) game in late October, and saw the home team, the Red Deer Rebels, lose 4-0 to the Edmonton Oil Kings… Amazing to watch though!! Also nice to have front row seats for only about $20, compared to the scary prices for the NHL (National – includes Canada and the US). So we were pretty close to some of the action, when the players were checking each other into the glass right in front of us!

Starting line up for the Red Deeer Rebels

We hope to try and play a lot more hockey while we’re here, and get a bit better, hopefully get the stopping down pat! Lots of chances to try anyway J