"It's this whole other Country...."

The cliché of oversized SUVs carting around spoiled little hockey protégés and their helicopter parents has been written about many a times. Although I now again feel fully qualified to throw my opinion out there about Old School Hockey vs. the Land of CakeEaters, I will politely refrain.

Saturday and Sunday, Emma and the rest of the Squirt B2s skated "On the Edge" in a tourney up in the hillside, port city of Duluth. This Band of Misfits has had the date marked on their calendars for a long time. This would be the first official Hotel and Hockey trip for most of them. Having lead these "emerging" players through a grueling season so far, us coaches agreed that a waterpark oasis would be just the right thing to motivate the kids to keep playing hard.

Let's be honest for a second. There isn't a delicate way to put it. We've regularly struggled against teams that come from a distinctly different socio-economic demographic. Again I will do my best to hold off from turning this in to a rant about the Haves vs. the Have-Nots, but, to put it bluntly, we have been continually railroaded by teams within our District that are pulling players from a population that is exponentially larger than ours and represents a very different tax bracket. Over-matched and seemingly playing every shift shorthanded, us four coaches have done our best to remain positive all the while, balancing the acquisition of skills and teaching basic hockey systems.

Saturday's first game was held at the beautiful, Duluth Heritage Center but unfortunately it started quickly with what we've become all to accustomed to. The Ponies from Stillwater could literally skate circles around some of our players. Until their coaches called off the pressure, they were pumping in goals at an alarming rate . A final score of "A Lot to Not Enough" was immediately erased from the score board and almost as quickly we did our best to erase it from the players' minds. Lunch, snacks, waterslides and fellowship washed away any bad feelings that may have lingered as I was reminded that our "Misfits" were truly good kids just out to have some fun. With smiles and a bounce in their step, we started to look forward to the evening tilt against the Lumberjacks of Cloquet.

Game #2 on the Consolation side of the bracket found us leaving West Duluth and the land of swank, high-end, hockey digs. Up the hill and away from the lake sat the steel and aluminum thrown together in the early 1970's that the locals call Fryberger Arena. I breathed a sigh of relief when I walked into that arena. Hockey, as we know it in Pine City, is an equal effort by both athlete and fan to not let the thrills and chills of the building itself get the best of you. There is a shared level of comfort and respect in the discomfort of a cozy "working man's" rink. Fryberger Arena could very well be the Up North cousin of good old, Korbel - Home of the Dragons, and our B2s played like it. Many more smiles were had because we matched up a little more favorably against the Lumberjacks. Pizza and waterslides followed.

Losing on day one earns everyone an early wake-up on day two. I was pleasantly surprised to see everyone report to the locker room with renewed optimism. Say what you want, but our team of little miscreants sure are resilient. On more than one occasion, I've heard players banter back and forth in pre-game conversation how the next game is going to be all ours. Today held much of the same. Some parents even showed a little spring in their step and a twinkle in their eye as the buzz in the corridors was the fair and equal match up of the two teams about to take the early morning ice.

 There was this one other thing though...

Normally, a few players will wander out of the locker room before a big game. Sometimes they're in search of some last minute advice from a parent. Other times, the kids like to catch the tail end of the game preceding ours or some just get caught in the hypnotic draw of watching the Zamboni work it's pattern of magic. Today,there was none of that. We were the first game on the docket and the Zamboni had resurfaced the ice long before we ever got to the arena...

So why were there so many of our fully dressed players outside of the locker room just before game time? And why had some of the kids we don't normally see out of their routines,changed things up by lingering along the glass? And what was with the silly grins and giggles?

Something was up.

So I asked. "What's going on gang?"

To which someone in the back quickly replied, "Coach, is it true? Is the team we're playing from Canada?"

"Yes?" I responded...

To which my own daughter squealed, "I wanna see the Canadians!"

And everyone laughed...and the game was good.
And the weekend was good.
Practice on Monday @ 5:45 p.m.