Good old hockey game

We’d cheer with the other fans, walk the loop of the concourse, eat cotton candy until we were sick, sit in other people’s seats until we were kicked out, do the wave, bang on the glass, holler at the other team and desperately try to make eye contact with our favourite player (or was that last part just me?)

We’d celebrate or commiserate at the end of the game, relive the fights, bash the refs (cuz they were ALWAYS bad!) and crawl into bed way past our bedtimes.

But my favourite part was listening to whoever was on the microphone during the game.

I sang along with the anthem singer at the top of my lungs and waited with anticipation after a goal for the announcer to say, “Darrrrrrrrcyyyyyyy TUCKER!!!!!” and I’d yell it with him before screaming like a wildcat unleashed from its circus cage.

Despite the fact that I was a small, elementary school-aged girl, people who know me will not be surprised to hear that more than once my uncle had to tell me to “keep it down”, but for the most part we could be as loud, loyal and enthusiastic as our hearts desired while cheering for the home team.

Going to hockey games was not only a staple of my childhood, but also one of my favourite parts of growing up in Canada. Admittedly, I’m not much for stats and I can’t rattle off every team’s roster. I only really know the game schedules once playoffs approach (unless it’s the Olympics, then I’m all over every team and game), I can’t tell you the name of every coach/manager/owner and I never know the draft picks unless my husband points them out.

But I I love everything about the game.

I remember telling my mom that I wanted to sing the anthem at a Blazers game when I grew up, although sadly it never occurred to me that a girl could call the play by play or I would have wanted to do that even more.

A few years ago my nearly-forgotten childhood dream came to fruition when I started singing the anthem at the Blazers games, and a few years after that I was able to In Game Host for the Blazers and then just last week for the World Junior Showcase with Hockey Canada as well.

I love summer and beaches, days by the pool and camping in the woods, but when it really comes down to it, a perfect day in July for me looked like this:

When it was almost 40 degrees outside in Kamloops BC, I was in my home arena, wearing my Team Canada jersey. I could smell popcorn and was about to step onto the rock-solid ice. I could hear sticks cracking on the frozen ground and pucks hitting the boards and bouncing off the glass. With a microphone in hand, ready to talk after the next whistle sounded, I found myself thinking, “Well, ain’t it grand to be a Canadian girl at the good old hockey game.”

by Refraction

Good old hockey game

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