Hockey Withdrawal

I understand why people can get into more than one sport. There is sport withdrawal! I for one am having a major withdrawal when it comes to hockey. After my beloved Caps lost in the Stanley Cup playoffs from those nasty wuss Penguins, I even (gulp) watched them in the last Stanley Cup series win against Detroit (I was rooting for Detroit).

Hockey is a sport I have loved since I was a child. My Mom will always tell the story of my first hockey game when I was three years old. My Mom had sprained her wrist the day before and my parents decided to take my sister and I to a minor league game (Winston-Salem Thunderbirds), because it was easy to get to and quite affordable. My Dad had told me about the game and the basics of it, but wasn't sure if I quite got it or not because I was so young. I was all in wonder observing the men skate around on the ice as if they were flying and watching the puck bounce back and forth around the rink. Then the Thunderbirds scored a goal and I raised my arms up and slammed them down on the arms of my seat yelling "YES". Unfortunately my Moms sprained wrist was on one of those chairs and that gave her a bit of a hurtful shock needless to say. My parents knew I had got the gist of the game. We continued watching the game and of course there would be those occasional fights or penalties (I loved that), which I learned that the penalty box was "the bad boy box". Easy concept for a kid to get. If they are bad and do something wrong then they need a time out.

In 05-06, I finally went to my first NHL hockey game, which I believe we played against the Flyers (I got beer spilled on me that night by one of their drunken fans). It was Ovechkin's rookie year and although was a promising player was not hyped like he is now. It was also the season guys like Mike Green, Sydney Crosby, Henrik Lundqvist all played their first NHL games. It was also the season where Mario Lemieux, Brian Leetch, and Brett Hull played their last game. I found watching an NHL game is so much more different then watching a regular minor league game. There are tons more people and less fighting as I once watched a minor league game that was so bad that EVERYONE on both teams were fighting including all the guys from off the ice came on the ice and the lights had to be eventually shut off to stop the fight. It was AWESOME (especially to a eight year old). However, I never stopped loving watching the game of hockey rather it be an NHL game or a minor league game. I started a new love for the Caps that year.

Thankfully with that new love came the NHLs mandatory 82 games that my team played in the regular season unlike the NFL that players 16 games and the NBA that has up to 36 games depending on what team/conference they are on. I came to love the Caps, their players, etc., How I love my Brashear! I started highly disliking our rival teams like the Penguins, but had a little soft spot for the Flyers because of their goalie Biron. That is one nice looking man...damn. My team finally started doing well in the past two seasons, which was so exciting. When Fedorov joined the Caps, my husband was ecstatic as it was his favorite player when he was growing up. To have him on OUR team was amazing. We were a hockey family. My son's four word was "goal" and he said that before he said, "Mama".

When you love a team, you care. You know everything there is to know about them like the Don Cherry incident, Leonsis Bucket List, Mike Green scoring a record year and wondering why the hell Easton won't remake the famous blue and black Easton Stealth stick. Then when its all over you feel a void. A void that really sucks and nothing can replace it. I can not wait until the new season begins again. Where there is a promising hope for a Stanley Cup win. When you can see your players back on the ice and talking the same smack as they did last year (Avery/Crosby). I just miss it. I truly miss it. I am having some major hockey withdrawal.