Hockey Related? You be the judge!!

Well, I hope that if you are following my blog that you all enjoyed last week’s posting. As I discussed last week I stressed the fact that hockey is just a GAME and that at the end of the day if the boys, girls, juniors and seniors have fun and provide a few hours of entertainment then the day was a success. I also talked about when the FUN leaves the game and the desire to go on usually leaves with it as well.

I was the type of player who enjoyed every minute of my career both professionally and at the amateur level when I returned home after living away for so many years. When I first returned home it was mainly because I had lost my desire and drive to compete at a high level and the game just wasn’t fun for me anymore. I decided to return home and begin finishing something that I started several years before as I pursued my professional career, that was my education and to one day earn a degree and graduate from University as this was a promise I made to my mother when I left home to play in the QMJHL back in 1986.

If anyone has ever watched me play or know me at all, you will soon find out that I loved the game more than anything and had such fun and enjoyment every day I went to the rink. I would always be the first at the rink for practices and the last to leave, and when it was game day I could often be seen arriving at the game 4-5 hours before opening faceoff, I loved the game that much. My point behind all of this is that when I returned home I had no desire to play hockey competitively any longer. My home town of Corner Brook had a senior hockey team up and running again and the Royals was a team that I watched and cheered for many days back home. The organization was after me to return and play with them and I said NO on many occasions, however after a few games into their season I decided to give it a go and see if I could rekindle that desire that I once had.  I made the trip out to the west coast and suited up for my first game at the friendly Hodder Memorial Stadium. Well let me tell you that after that first period the desire and fun had suddenly come back and I was very happy with my decision to return to the game.

That first year we went on to knock off the heavily favoured Red Wings from Deer Lake as they had won I believe 3 titles in a row. We then went on to face Flatrock  in the Herder finals and won in a series that was very exciting and came down to the final face-off in the final game. The stadium was packed and our fans were unbelievable, I had never experienced anything like that before in my life. We went on to 3 more Herders but weren’t successful in winning another title. I went on to play several more seasons until the fun was gone again.

If you followed senior hockey, you knew I had fun and made sure it was entertaining to the fans that paid good money to watch us play. I could handle anything the fans threw at me verbally as I knew it was all in good fun and that was why I was there in the first place. I took a lot believe me, sometimes there were things you would never expect to hear and never ever repeat to your children that’s for sure. I think I stayed in the game as long as I could because almost 4 years my daughter was born and I wanted to experience what it was like to have your child watch you and cheer you on. Well let me tell you one thing, that experience was very shortly lived.  After only 1 game in my final season of playing my wife informed me that Hannah wouldn’t be coming to anymore games because her mom was afraid that she might understand some of the things they were yelling and saying about me and was going to subject her to that kind of language at such a young age. It was also around the same time that a new hockey site was gaining momentum here in the province and that was NLHOCKEYTALK . I will be the first to admit that I was a huge fan of the site early on and followed all the comments and opinions about senior hockey here in the province. I was like everyone else in NL, I lived for the game. However, that year things on the site began to become a little should we say nasty towards myself in a few blog postings, so much so that it was upsetting my family and myself. I wrote the owners and mods of the site and asked them to please delete some of the material that was being posted about me. I realize it was just someone’s opinion and should be taken with a grain of salt as this happened at the rinks all the time. However, when it begins to touch and affect your family then it needs to be put to a halt and other things besides increased members and site hits need to be taken into account. I was told that no posts would be deleted and that members have a right to their opinions, well this is definitely true and I can’t argue that fact but other things have to be taken into consideration as well. As you can imagine, the fun was once again leaving the game for me and after that season I decided to walk away from the game again and this time for good.

My point behind all of this is that I just recently started this blog and twittering to provide young players and parents with an insight and perspective to the game that they may probably never realize or grasp until their own child goes through the system. I thought that my past experiences would be invaluable to many players that were trying to reach the same goal as I did and even though I never made it to my ultimate goal of playing in the NHL that maybe I could help them and make a difference in their development and how the game needs to be viewed.  However, not all people think the same as I do. Just a few days ago I posted a link to my Twitter account in hopes that I would get some followers so that my experiences could be passed on to them. I had no intentions of using this for any other purpose than helping someone else out. There were no hidden agendas or desires to attract people away from NL Hockey Talk or make any money from this blog. I just thought that the owners and MODS would appreciate something like this seeing it was something that may just educate some of the and also give them a different perspective to the game as well. Once again though I was wrong! I checked today to see if my post had attracted any attention and if I should be getting prepared to write another insightful blog for my site, but to my surprise my post was deleted, WOW was what I was thinking. I then posted another topic asking why my post was deleted and I was told by a site member and I quote “Sorry you feel that way... I guess someone else here saw it as I did... promoting a media type data page on the forum... It didn't exactly have anything to do with this blog and related hockey discussion... i.e. it's like saying check out my Facebook page or NF Sportsnews, etc... hope u understand that..”

Now, if you follow their site and read some of the topics posted I would say that this is way more hockey related than some of the things I have read on their site. But it is what it is as they say and there is nothing that can be done about it now. I wasn’t even able to go and reply to the last post about the question I asked because they then decided to go ahead and lock the post from any further comments. Well, to the members of that site I thank you for reconfirming my personal opinions, I wish you all the best with your site and hope you can keep the site away from personal attacks and opinions. I for one will not be returning and following your site any longer. I wish you the best of luck and HOPE THAT YOU CONTINUE FINDING GREAT HOCKEY RELATED TOPICS.

TCG