A Colourful Collection

The Thrashers 2010 Semi Final Victory

Last night, John and I played shinny with our old team, the ice had been booked by another team and they were gracious (for a price) to share it with us and thus get some good hockey going.  It was great to have a chance to play for fun, get caught up and due to the fast pace, get in a good work out too.  John had a blast, since he played forward instead of his usual defence, I had fun, since I heard that some people were reading my blog!

Near the end of the session, I suddenly became quite winded and tired, so I went and took a rest in the penalty box.  As I watched the play unfold, I was struck by the diversity that I saw on the ice.  Growing up in Toronto in the 60s & 70s, hockey was undeniably a sport for the white male.  Of course Toronto in the 60s & 70s was predominantly Caucasian.

Cassandra Public School 1969 - 1970

My Grade 2 Class - Fairly Good Example of the Ethnic Make Up of the Area

I'm in the Second Row, 3rd from the Left - Back in the Days your Mother Made you Dress Up

for Picture Day

Last night on the ice, there was Frank, Scott, Jay, John, and Mat, but there was also Sundeep (Sunny), Anooj and Gurdeep.  Take a look at our Thrasher team picture at the top, there's quite the variety there too, within our team, we had Indians, Blacks, Asians and Caucasians all focused on a common passion of hockey.  I guess it's reflective of the changing cosmopolitan that we live in.  It's given John and I, clearly the oldest players on the team, a chance to meet a group of people that we'd normally never meet on a day to day basis.

Where else would you have a CBC producer (Frank), playing with a perfume entrepreneur(Anooj)? There's

Jay, who's trying to become a school custodian, playing with an IT Consultant from a major bank (Arek).  An aspiring model/actor (Mat) with a new shiny white helmet, playing alongside a consulting CFO (John).  I don't have a clue what Gurdeep does for a living, but I know he cheers everybody on, no matter what their skill level is.  I sat in the dressing room discussing teaching job options with Sunny, but overall, it didn't matter what everybody did for a living, or what their ethnic origin was; religion was a non issue, fart jokes received more attention.  What mattered was their love of hockey..

We started playing at 10 pm and went hard till 11 pm (and then some of the boys went hard on going out for a few adult beverages, but it was way past my bedtime).  Male or female; brown, white, black or asian; employed or unemployed;  none of that mattered.  What mattered was getting to the puck, setting up a play, blocking a pass, breaking out of your own end - that's what mattered to these people.

I think the world just needs a little more hockey!