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)
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)
posted by V-Hume at 12:17 AM
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