The power of hockey is about the years it gives a parent and child when everything else feels so foreign
By Allyson Tufts
How do you possibly describe the power of hockey?
Is it the moments as a hockey mom when you see your son score his first goal, knowing he has been shooting pucks at your garage door for hours on end? The look on his face when the team surrounds him to celebrate and you realize he’s created a bond to last a lifetime?
You smile to yourself, knowing that all the moments you let him stay outside for that extra hour, under the floodlight, has finally paid off. A moment that only you and your young hockey player fully understand. As he cheers and smiles the purest of smiles, because he’s accomplished something with the help of his teammates that nobody can ever take away. The moment you realize that letting him stay up a little later, in the dark, gave him so much more than the extra hour of sleep ever could.
Is it the moments when Dad gets up extra early to take his teenage daughter to practice? This young lady who is now unrecognizable to him when she’s anywhere but on the ice. The moments in the car when she’s all yours, no other chatter from her friends, no boyfriend on her phone, just you and her; just you and her talking about the one love that puberty, boyfriends, or years can never take away.
It’s the simple experience, the simple love of the sport that you have in common, no matter how much she’s growing up. Even though she no longer looks to you for advice, or no longer needs you to tuck her in at night. You drive her, safe in the knowledge that yours will be the face she looks to when she scores that goal; yours will be the eyes she needs to see when she coughs up the puck; and you will be the one she hugs when her team makes it to the playoffs.
Yes, the power of hockey. The years it gives a father and daughter when everything else about their relationship feels foreign… If that’s not power, I don’t know what is.
All About the Escape
Perhaps it’s the spectators who come to the games faithfully each week, horn in one hand, cowbell in the other, to cheer on the team they love so much. They come to watch because they know on that night their biggest worry is if their team wins or loses. For those 60 minutes there is no thought of their bad day at work, or the job they’ve lost, the spouse they’re arguing with or, worse, the illness they are fighting. For this night it’s all about the escape that hockey provides, the wonderful sport that carries any passionate spectator to a place that leaves no room for anything else but the outcome of the game.
Maybe it’s the glow of the tv as you watch your favorite team together. The moments spent in the warmth of your home, curled up with a bag of chips and blanket. Is it the volunteer that wakes up at ungodly hours, when the snow is flying, to get to the early-morning practices to teach our young superstars how to skate? The zamboni driver who always takes the time to wave at the little ones, who are as excited to see the ice get cleaned as they are to see the game? Is it the coach that has worked all day, and raced to get to the rink so his team can see how important it is to be on time?
Or… is it our friends to the north, who take such pride in this sport they call their own? A place where they celebrate the coldest days of the year because they know it means the ponds will freeze over and provide hours of endless hockey with friends and family?
I honestly can’t decide what it is about hockey that makes it so powerful. I guess when a game can bring a country together, a family together, and quite simply bring people together the way that hockey does, do we ever really need to question its power?
So I guess it’s as simple as this: “Don’t Ever Underestimate the Power of Hockey!”
To learn more about Allyson Tufts or to purchase your copy of “Lessons from Behind the Glass,” visit her website.
This article is the property of Allyson Tufts and is not to be used or changed without her permission.
Written by Allyson Tufts, Author, Speaker, and Passionate Hockey Mom
Lessons from Behind the Glass
