The Game(s) I'll Never Forget - Part III - Rising Star

Joining the leagues was big time. The days of playing in city parks and basketball courts were over; now I would play in actual rinks with real boards, player benches, penalty boxes, face-off circles, etc. It began small when I played at the Davis League, which was an outdoor basketball court converted to tiny hockey rink. I joined a team, played a season there, and developed a reputation as a prolific scorer with my new run-and-gun style of hockey.

It didn't start out like that, though. I was undoubtedly the smallest skater on the team; I played with a bunch of brutes. Every game would end up being 10-1 or so and I would only have 1 or 2 goals, but 5 assists or so. As my comfort level adjusted with my new teammates, so did my production. I was consistent, getting at least 3-5 points/game regardless if the score was 15-0, or 5 to 4. I really didn't think about developing my game at that time; all I could think about was winning each game. The win was more important than my individual achievements, that much I KNEW. And no one would really care about a great player on a losing team, anyway; everyone knows a good player on a winning team.

After crushing the Davis league, our newly formed team joined the Woodland team. This league was much nicer: it was indoors, large rink, they used a puck (which I always preferred), they had NHL regulation size nets, etc. It was definitely a step up, and so was the competition. Instead of beating teams 20-1, the best teams would only suffer 8-1 losses.

With the increase in competition and skill also came increased ferocity. It was during our first and only season at the Woodland league when I was seriously injured. I was going on a break with the defense practically riding my back. With the puck in front of me the goalie dove at my feet. That caused me to do a face-plant right in to the concrete surface, and with the lame Jofa Gretzky helmet with visor, needless to say my helmet popped off my head and I was hurt badly. In fact, I remember hitting my head so hard that I was screaming almost uncontrollably in pain and another one of the players had to come over to calm me down. All I could see looking up from the floor were 9 players all standing around looking over me with one kneeling over me calling for towels, ice, wiping my head off, and applying pressure to my forehead with a towel before throwing it away and getting another one because it was soaked with blood. BLOOD??? Hey, wait a minute! Needless to say, I had to go to Urgent care to get stitches for that.

I missed the next few games while my injury healed up and I think I may have finished out the season. Needless to say we won champion standing for that league as well. I did pretty well, also. At this time I was changing as a player from play-maker to scorer. Unfortunately, the team was breaking up afterwards and we were all heading our separate ways.

Mark, our best forward and I went to join another team and another league in Sacramento. This league was another step up from the Woodland league, as it had an NHL size rink indoors with blue lines, red lines, face-off circles, penalty boxes, etc. This was getting in to the big time.

The Game(s) I'll Never Forget - Part II The Development

1988 was a big year for hockey. It was the year that the Oilers won their 4th Cup in 5 years, it was the year that Wayne Gretzky got married, and it was the same year that Gretzky was traded to the LA Kings. With that trade to LA came hockey mania and eventually the invention of the inline skate. Roller hockey soon followed a few years later. Needless to say that Quinn and I picked it up.

Now with rollerblades we were free to skate in the parks and play hockey there instead of driving 30 minutes in the middle of the night to play at an ice rink. We were no longer confined to the garage of our home, taking shots at a net from 20 feet away. That was about the time when Q went off to college but he would always come back on the weekends and we'd either play in the garage like old times or we'd venture out on rollerblades and go one-on-one. While in college, Q met some other players and was playing somewhat organized pick-up games.

One thing about roller hockey that I never quite got used to was the ball. Playing hockey with a ball was the closest thing to using a puck, but it wasn't a puck. It was a bloody ball, something that I never quite got used to and never liked. But that's what everyone used, so what could I do but adapt?

A few years later I joined Q at the same college. Our pick-up roller hockey games continued and we started to develop in to very different players as we gained experience playing on teams. Gretzky had always been my hockey idol, and so I tried to emulate his style of play by making great passes, great plays, mesmerizing the opponent with fancy moves and stick-handling. Note that Gretzky never had blinding speed or a wicked shot. He was tricky, and that's how I tried to play. Q, on the other hand, developed in to a charge-the-net-and-bowl-you-over type player that was more consistent of Mark Messier. Together we made a great team (or so I thought). Q was always the scorer and I always thought of myself as the play-maker. A very unmotivated prima donna play-maker. Almost like Super Mario before Gretzky lit that fire under his butt. Meaning? I didn't skate hard, I didn't dig for the pucks in the corners, I didn't chase down loose pucks, etc. If I ever got the puck, I'd slow the play down and then try and set someone up for the goal with a fancy-shmancy play and pass. That type of play continued throughout college until Q graduated and went off to med school, meaning I played like that for years.

Once in a while, Q would come back home from Pomona and we'd hang out and do things. One particular time, Q treated me to my first ever regular season NHL game. It was San Jose vs. Vancouver. Vancouver was the team to watch at that time, as they had Bure, LInden, etc. I was amazed at how fast these ten 6 ft. 200 lb. players were skating around on this tiny little rink. That changed me forever, for now I understood how the game was supposed to be played: hard and fast. Before then, I had never really seen an NHL game live and watching it on TV really doesn't do the game justice in terms of appreciating its speed. Now I understood and now I knew how I was supposed to be playing. I realized that what I had been doing up to that point had been downright lame, floating around trying to make a pretty play and razzle dazzle everyone with move and a pass. And so, once again Q lit a fire under my butt and got me going.

After I that I skated hard and chased after that puck like a bloodhound. Why dipsy-doodle someone when you can just skate around them? Like I said, that NHL experience completely changed my game. I became more of the crash-the-net or skate-around-you type of player, but if I needed to I could dipsy doodle and fake someone out of their jock strap, too.

Q was still away at med school and so I had no choice but to find people to play with on my own. And people were becoming scarce, as I had graduated from college and so had all my friends. They had all moved back home or away to different cities to work and I stayed at Davis. I contemplated joining a league, which Q recommended because that would elevate my game to another level. And as usual he was right.

And so, my game took another turn of events.
But that was another story...(Conan the Destroyer Theme)

The Game(s) I'll Never Forget Part 1 - The Ice Age

As a dumb jock, there are always times when I'll talk about how I've played in certain hockey games, blah, blah, blah. Some people who are interested in the sport might care to listen; most wouldn't. But nevertheless, I think it's somewhat important to document these specific games for posterity. So that one day I can reminisce and tell Dryden, "Your Dad was quite a hockey player."

In order to understand the importance of certain events, it's important to know background information. For example, what was Vince, the budding young hockey player really like? Well, unlike most hockey players out there, I didn't learn to ice skate until the age of 9. Yes, I was a late bloomer. I was first exposed to skating when I was 3, though. But back then all I did was lie on the ice and eat it. What else could I do? No one wanted to teach me. Gah would come over for about 2 minutes, get bored with holding me up and then go teach Q for the next half hour while I just laid on the ice and munched away. That was back in Toronto. Not a glorious start.

Fast forward 6 years when I was living in San Francisco. One great thing about Goh and Gah is that they always took us somewhere when Q and I were little. Goh always took us to Tower Records, and Gah would take us to the movies, or the zoo, or ice skating. Thus, it was during one of these outings when I learned to skate in San Francisco at a little rink on 48th Avenue. And I learned on figure skates. During this time, I finally was able to stand and go under my own power. As the minutes turned in to hours I was getting better and better until I was going so fast one time I skated right in to the boards at full speed. No one ever taught me how to stop, okay? Thanks, Gah. I hit my face for sure and thought I might have knocked a tooth out or loose. I remember Gah calling over the rink "guards" to see how I was. I guess I was okay because I just went back to skating.

1987. NHL vs. Russian Red Army in Rendez-vous 87. . It was one of the rare times that hockey would be televised in San Francisco, even on ESPN. We taped it and watched it until the heads wore out on the VCR. But after that, Q and I were hooked. After that we went to the ice rink repeatedly, trying to improve our skating skills. It was nice having Q there with me while we were doing all this; I think I would have been bored doing it all alone. But as brothers, people can't help but make comparisons. Of course, Quinn being older, stronger, and more coordinated, he was a better skater. He always was (for the record, I was the first in the family to figure out how to skate backwards, though. Gah built on that and discovered the technique for the backwards cross-over).

Then soon after, Gah moved back home for UCLA, finally. It was during that time that I begged her to take us to the hockey store so we could buy some gear...I mean, so Mom could buy us some gear. And it was then that for the very first time I had my very own pair of hockey skates. They were the Bauer Panthers, size 9. It wasn't just me, though. Q got a pair, Goh got a pair, Gah got a pair. Hell, even MOM got a pair of hockey skates (more for dust collecting purposes).

Later on, we discovered there was a much bigger rink in Belmont, CA. It was a pain to get to because it was 30 minutes away on the freeway, but the rink was huge (it was a hockey rink) and very few people went there. I'll always remember that stupid sign that said "Home of Brian Boitano" on the walls. Poor Mom would have to drive us down to the rink, but before long Q got his license to drive and soon we would have the means to go whenever we wanted.

It was during one of these evening skate sessions that we noticed a bunch of guys coming in and dressing up in hockey gear for games. Q and I wanted to stay and watch and we did with wide-eyed wonder. Eventually, we talked with some of the players and discovered that this was a pick-up game (as opposed to a league game) and that anyone could join in. Anyone! We couldn't play just yet, because Q and I didn't have all the equipment. We had skates, sticks, helmets, and gloves. Nothing else. No face protection, elbow pads, shoulder pads, pants, or shin pads. So we still couldn't play. That is until Goh discovered a hockey shop in San Jose that sold equipment. He then took me to buy my very own set of full equipment. Cooper helmet SK2000 with Itech full face shield, Cooper shoulder pads, CCM gloves, Cooper elbow pads, CCM pants, and Cooper shin guards. At that time, only Cooper and CCM made most things. Jofa had equipment but it was way expensive. There was nothing else to choose from. Now we were ready.

It was such an important event for the family as well as for Q and I; we must have been the first in the family to suit up and wear full gear to play hockey in a real rink...in California. Ironic that we never did this in Canada. But anyway, it was such a spectacle that I remember Mike taking pictures of us. I was so excited that after gearing up I rushed outside to the rink. I watched the warm-ups from the side and saw Q take a wrist shot at the goalie and then totally wipe out. Woah, what a spaz. It can't be that hard, can it? I climbed over the boards and the instant my skates touched the ice I fell flat on my butt. What the? I tried to stand up and fell right down, again. I looked at my skates and it was then that I discovered that I forgot to take off my blade guards. How intelligent. This was a sign of things to come.

My play at Belmont was anything but stellar. For the first time, Q and I were playing with other people, with full teams and so it was challenging to figure out where to be, where to skate, what to watch out for, and anticipation for the plays because we had never had a coach. It all came from watching NHL games on TV. Needless to say I was slow, I was always behind the play, I never received a pass from anyone or made any nice plays. Q on the other hand would always tell me about the 2 goals and 3 assists that he had, or the really nice play he made, etc. Which is fine because at least that meant one of us was doing well. He was always the better player, and the other players made sure I knew it. And watching from the bench I could tell he was stronger, faster, smoother, over all better player.

Interest waned for a few years, as playing hockey became too expensive. There was the gas, the game fee itself, and not to mention that games were scheduled from 10:30 until 12am. So Q and I would get home around 1am all sweaty and dirty.

Then someone came up with the bright idea of roller hockey. Q and I definitely bought a pair so that now we could skate wherever we wanted, whenever we wanted. And we wouldn't have to pay for that.

And so, my career with roller hockey began. But that was another story...(whistle theme to Conan the Destroyer)