My first ice hockey season in 20 years was fantastic!
In mid-2022, I grabbed my old ice skates that I hadn’t worn in at least a decade and went to an open skate at the local ice rink. The muscle memory came back quickly, and when I returned home, I said to my wife, “I want to play hockey again.”
“You should,” she responded.
In April 2023, I bought new hockey gear (including skates) and suited up for the first time, playing pickup hockey with a bunch of other mid-life dads. And about a year later, I met a guy name Bill who invited me to join his league team. Since I started playing again, I’d always wanted to be on an actual team, so this was a recent dream come true. He introduced me to our team captain, Todd, saying that I was a “strong forward.” Despite having played defense through high school hockey, this was a surprise, but I was willing to go with it, and I committed to playing the season.
As a Certified CliftonStrengths Coach, I usually view life through my natural talents, one of them being Responsibility. In short, when I say I’m going to do something, I will 100% follow through and give it my all while doing it. That’s why I knew I had to skate hard and really do what I could to support the team and its chance to win. I didn’t want to get a reputation of being a lazy player or unhelpful…I wanted to live up to my commitment fully recognizing that everyone would be watching the “new guy” on the team. One of the ways I ensured I was doing that was by tracking my performance in year of my games, and I share the highlights of each game below:
The Season
Game 1: My first real game in a league in almost 20 years…I was quite nervous…and took some time to learn how the game at this level worked. I overskated a lot and missed a lot of passes. Playing left wing was new to me, something I hadn’t done since middle school.
Game 3: I missed the second game due to previously scheduled plans, but came back in a big victory against our opponents while netting my first goal of the season on a shot to the lower right corner of the net. I hadn’t scored a goal, in an actual game, since my junior year of high school…2001.
Game 4: I played center for the first time. And while I won a lot of faceoffs, I also had a breakaway chance during which I ended up overskating and falling before anyone even caught me. To add salt to the embarrassment, my wife was watching me play. Our team lost for the first time.
Game 5: I continued to develop and learn the game, this time playing right wing with two great players. I actually hit the post twice in the game, and their goalie played extremely well. We lost.
Game 6: We were playing a team that no one in the league seemed to like, and there was a lot of animosity between our team and theirs. I played right wing again, and while on a penalty kill, I stripped the puck from a defender and shot it toward their goal, catching the goalie off guard, slipping it past him to the lower left hand corner of the net. My goal ended up causing a lot of frustration with the other team, which led to a total of 26 penalties between our two teams. In the end, we lost, extending our losing streak to three and putting us at 3-3 on the season.
Game 7: I played right wing with two very strong players, and our line scored five goals on our first five shifts of the game, including one from me and two others I assisted on. We won big, breaking our losing streak, and I figured this line would endure going forward because of our performance.
Game 9: The following week, I was on vacation and didn’t make it, and this is the time our captain returned form an extended work trip of his own, so he didn’t see our great game that we had two weeks before, so the line that I thought would continue was broken up. I played right wing again (thinking this would be my settled position), and scored two goals in the third period to extend our lead. The first goal I scored was off of a strong centering pass from my line mate right to the front of the net where I was crashing. The second goal came about 25 seconds later when a shot from one of our defenseman hit the goalie in the shoulder and bounced behind him, which I banged into the goal. Our team won big, making us 6-3 on the season.
Game 10: I played center again, winning most of my faceoffs. In the third period, I had my second breakaway attempt on the season. I’m not a great stickhandler, so I can’t do fancy things while one-on-one with a goalie, so I tried to keep it simple. I faked a shot to the right, brought the puck to the left to draw the goalie, but brought it back to the right and chipped it over his leg pad into the right side of the net for my sixth goal of the season. Our team won easily.
Game 11: I played right wing again and we played against a team that was very tough, so while I had some chances, I was “statless” for the game. Nevertheless, we were victorious.
Game 12: Instead of playing forward, I played defense the whole game, as many of our normal defenders were out on vacation or unavailable for the game. It felt good to play my old position again, and brought back a familiarity that I hadn’t had in some time. I was happy with my defensive performance, including a secondary assist on a goal in the second period, and despite my first penalty of the season for holding. In the third period, our teams were playing four-on-four, and my teammate intercepted a pass in our zone and took it toward the opponents goal. His shot ended up hitting the goalie in the left shoulder and bouncing in the air, which I hit out of midair with the blade of my stick for the goal. My plus/minus rating was 3, meaning I was on the ice for three of our goals while not being on the ice for any opponent goals.
Game 15: I missed the next two weeks but returned for this game playing right wing. It was an uninspiring performance for me, while the center of our line scored a goal helping us win the game.
Game 16: This was much of the same as the previous week. Our line wasn’t gelling, and we were getting any chances on our own, so after the game I mentioned to our captain that I thought it would help to shake up the lines a little bit. He didn’t seem keen on my suggestion, but I waited to see what would happen.
Game 17: Our captain ended up making some line changes and I shifted to left wing playing with our team’s top goal scorer and assist maker, and therefore points earner. Our line worked really well, and I scored twice, once punching it in off of a pass from our right wing, and the other being a hard shot to the bottom right corner of the net. My best friend Anne came to watch me, as she was in town, and it was really special to score two goals with her watching.
Game 20: I ended up missing games 18 and 19 due to a family vacation and my first-ever bout with COVID-19, but I returned for the last game of the season against the team nobody cared for. While I earned my second penalty of the season for a call I continue to disagree with, it was a tough game and our team came out victorious after winning the shootout.
Playoffs
All eight teams in the league enter the playoffs and are seeded based on the team’s points. Our team finished in second place, which pitted us against the seventh place team for the first round. Considering we played them three times in the season and won all three games, I was confident we would win again.
Round 1: Unfortunately, our team went down 3-0 into the third period. And things were quite grim. Nothing seemed to be working, so our captain changed up the lines to try to generate some more offense, including taking our center and moving him up a line, shifting me to center from left wing and bringing “down” the left wing from the second line. (Typically in hockey your best line is your first line, followed by the second and third lines. I was a consistent third line player for the second half of the season.) The line changes worked and we scored three goals in nine minutes to tie the game and take it to overtime. We stayed in the game despite two concurrent penalties on our team, and my line hit the ice. I stole the puck from a defender inside their zone and my back hand shot went wide of the net, but right where my left wing was positioned. He took the puck around the net to my right, and I placed my stick on the ice getting ready for a pass. As he came around the net he sent it hard to me and I hit it as hard as I could. The puck went up and over the goalie’s right shoulder into the top left corner of the net for the game-winning over time goal. I turned around skated hard toward center ice and skidded on my shin pads to my teammates pouring off the bench. I was the hero of the first round.
Round 2: I played center again, this time with our leading points scorer and another hard-nosed player. I had an assist on our first goal of the game to give us an early lead. When we were winning 3-2, I took a hard shot that hit the opponent’s goalie square in his face mask, deflecting out of play. My teammates said I shook the goalie a little bit… The next shift, my left wing brought the puck in the zone and drew defenders with him, giving me another clean shot. This time, I aimed better and launched one of the hardest, fastest shots I’ve ever had…a beeline to the top left corner of the goal for our team’s fourth goal of the game. It ended up being the “game winning goal,” as our team won 7-3 to move on to the championship game.
Round 3/Championship: Our line from Round 2 was preserved and we had a full bench…putting us in a good position to win. In the first period, I liftchecked an opponent’s stick as he was trying to pass it (a liftcheck is lifting his stick with mine and stealing the puck). I quickly made a backhand pass to my left wing who buried it in the back of the goal for our first goal of the game. Our line (and team, in general) was consistently forechecking and causing turnovers and playing very strong defense. We dominated the other team, winning 5-1, and the first championship for my team since 2021.
Recap
In the end, I scored 11 goals, 5 assists, had a +/- of 14 and 6 penalty minutes on three minor penalties, in 17 games. For someone who hadn’t played forward since middle school, I’m elated to have 16 points in 17 games. Playing hockey again was one of the best decisions I’ve made, and I’m incredibly grateful that I was offered a spot on the team. My teammates and captains lauded my performance on the season, and I can’t wait to play again.
Old School Hockey, Upper C Champions, Medstar Capitals Iceplex Adult Hockey League, August 29, 2024
