For the first game of the series, I would have had the distinction of knowing
two captains playing against each other, if I were making the trip this year,
and if one of the captains wasn't sitting out a game DQ. Circumstances being
different, I'd be viewing the game with a personal bent, skewed toward
personalities, not school allegiances or even their continued friendship
through association with my own son.
 
I'd be wondering what hockey has given them both that they will bring back
into the community as responsible, ethical rolemodels. Or, if hockey was only
a means to an end that winds up at their local bank. I'd be watching,
wondering, how winning and losing changed them and what price they paid
posturing and improvising their own identities to get where they think they
have to go. Let's hope the privilege of playing a sport doesn't make them act
privileged. And, most of all, I'd be hoping that all who watch remember that
it's only a game, they're only the kids who played on your pond, who will
someday put away their skates and be much more than what you see on the ice
now. They will no longer be accountable to team mates and coach but to
community and their own children. Let's hope hockey taught them that play is
for just that. Lessons are lost on a win or lose basis. That's what I was
taught by someone whose love of the game exceeded winning as the only
priority of playing.
 
So, I'll cheer for the game...
 
 
Vicki
 
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