The crisp cool air, the sound of blades carving the ice as I make for the net, the slap of stick on puck sending it high top right into the mesh, hands raised in triumph, the rush of scoring a goal! Before I ever donned skates I fell in love with the game through playing street hockey in front of our house, and on our knees with cut off, mini hockey sticks in the basement TV room during the 1970’s Stanley Cup dynasty of Les Canadiens! When I played out I was Guy Lafleur. When I played in goal I was Ken Dryden.


It was the fall of 1977 at our home town community center where I watched my first organized Minor Ice Hockey game. My cousin Jeremy White was playing in net. I hung over the boards and tried to get as close to the ice and the play as I could. I watched my cousin making saves and I stared at the other goalie with one thought in my mind. I went back to where my Dad was sitting in the stands with my uncle Ken and my Dad said to me, “I bet you were hoping the other goalie would get hurt so you could play.” How did he know, I must have been thinking really loud; it must have been written all over my face.

I wanted to play hockey! My Dad had been the manager of my flag football teams for several seasons. He had dreams of me playing ball, of picking up where his dreams were left unfulfilled. I literally had to bug my Dad for a year until finally in 1978 when I was ten years old he relented and bought me some second hand hockey gear and I finished the Atom year playing on the All-Star team. My skates were so beat up that one skate boot toe was cracked and the other fell off during the game and had to be taped back on. Not to mention the skates were two sizes too small!

I had wanted to play goalie but the coach’s son, who couldn’t skate, already had all the gear and was put in net. I could skate but hadn’t learned to stop yet, that’s what the boards were for. One day the coach and his son couldn’t make it and so now it was my chance.
All I remember of that game was leaving the crease to dive out straight in front of the net at an oncoming puck but an opposing forward beat me to it, simply went around me and
scored on an empty net. I was so embarrassed and didn’t don the pads again for twenty-four years.

It was the fall of 2003 in Ottawa, Ontario when I was given a set of goalie gear, Montreal Canadiens colours. I was in hockey heaven playing pick up hockey with a friend taking shots on me in net on a practice rink all to ourselves. A handful of indoor and outdoor pick up games was all I had time or money for until the summer of 2006 when I was given a gift of going to Jack O’Hallaran’s Head to Head Goalie school. That was fun, and painful! Two ice sessions a day and dry land sports on a concrete floor for a week, my knees were soar for a month afterwards - I couldn't let the young kids show me up and pass me in the skating drills. The suicide shuffles were a killer.

So now it’s the fall of 2009 and I’m easing into goal tending playing ball hockey goalie on Tuesday night in the NSA league, yes I’ve made my decision. So depending on what happens in the draft I’ll either be a starter, or back up and a forward. I’d be happy playing out too but I think a lot of guys would be happier to have me in net for at least two reasons:

1) So they wouldn’t have to face me (my intensity) and the blade of my stick and
2) So they could now take shots at me and get away with it.

We'll see what happens next week and this season...