Thanks to my friend Chris Lynch to his set of pointers to info on the U.S. Pond Hockey Championships that was just completed last weekend in Minnesota.
The father of blogger Katie's Beer (who took that fantastic picture below) skated in the tournament at age 67:
The one observation my dad made was that playing on the difficult surface of the lake - choppy, dull and very bumpy - was that it made the ice the great equalizer. Teams of superstars were defeated by just regular guys. The difficult surface of the ice made the game fair for all. His team, champs in their age bracket on indoor ice, fell to other teams of less experienced guys. He didn't mind. In fact, he said that he understood the game - as played on the pond - and had a game plan set for next year's games.
GHOST OF HERB BROOKS: Is this heaven?
ERIC: No, it's Minnesota.
GHOST OF HERB BROOKS: (SMILES) I always knew.
Ok, I think we ought to have a team of hockey bloggers next year. Who's with me! Let's go! Come on!
POSTSCRIPT: Here's another thought that Chris had:
The US Pond Hockey Championships - this is the first I've heard about this event and all I can say is "Why wasn't this broadcast on ESPN2?"
Well, we all know why ESPN won't touch hockey anymore, but you'd think somebody like, I don't know, maybe the Outdoor Life Network should have been televising the festivities? You know, OLN, the official cable television partner of the NHL? Because, last time I looked, pond hockey was played outdoors.
Hey, OLN execs, keep this in mind for next year. And you might want to secure the rights to this too.
BTW: Ted Nugent, who after all is from Detroit and apparently hosts the highest rated show on OLN, must be a Red Wings fan. Figure out a way to use him.
You might be able to get Liz on your blueline…OTOH, she’s with child again, and might be a little rusty next year.
Thanks for the plug. Definitely get a team together. The event was perfect! BTW, my dad was a teammate and friend of Herb. To this day, he is deeply missed by his buddies. I heard a lot of “To Herbie!” this weekend, as glasses of beer were raised.
There are many more aerial shots (taken from a helicopter and NOT me) at the official site. I will announce if/when the documentary airs. I’m assuming my dad will be told when it is ready.
It’s interesting that you bring up how ESPN no longer touches ice hockey with a ten foot pole these days. Sorry to go off-topic concerning the actual entry topic, but me and a friend were talking about that recently, and how ESPN has more or less shut out most coverage concerning hockey when it comes to game recaps, and general talk about the sport.
Now, I understand that they no longer have the NHL on their stations. I also understand that hockey is considered the “4th sport” out of all the sports in the United States, and that the NFL playoffs have been the big thing for weeks. But that didn’t stop them, back when they did have rights to the NHL, from at least tossing up 15 second recaps of each game’s scores during Sportscenter, even without highlights.
Then again, they did outright ignore that 10-1 blowout of the Kings shy of two weeks ago, too, condensing it into a tidy little five second package in their Top Ten plays of the day. Would you say this is more than just catering to the other major sports, and is actually a case of sour apples against the NHL for rejecting their television offer prior to the season start?
I am absolutely, 100% down with a blogger team next year.
We MUST do this. Period. End of story. Let’s round up the troops.
OK, I’m in. My grampy played for the Canucks, so that has to mean we’ll win.
I haven’t skated in about 15 years, so you definitely don’t want me. But I played a lot of pond hockey in New Jersey in the ’70s, before a changing weather cycle meant that the local pond no longer froze reliably each winter, and before adolescence rendered me even more uncoordinated than I was as a boy. So this actually is an event that I would watch, with wistful fondness.