Favorite memories as a kid playing hockey...

[Dubi Doo]

I tried to post this topic earlier, but my computer froze up...

List a few memories you have as a kid playing hockey:

I loved playing knee hockey in hotels during tournaments.
I remember having BBQ's with my team and playing street hockey.
I also remember a couple open skates when there wasn't a lot people. My team and I would set up nets on each blue line; playing 3 vs 3 with the coaches as goalies. I was a squirt then.
I miss tournaments that would last all day. The sponsors would even have skills competitions for us.
I hated waking up early, but I loved practicing early. The first teams on the ice for the day. It was always so quiet at the rink. All you could hear were skates, shots, and the coaches talking. I would freeze in the lockerroom, tho...

I miss being younger...
How about you guys? What are some memories you miss?

Click to read more...

 

[Briere Up There*]

Away tournaments were always a ball. Also being able to check other players, that was good too.

 

[shaynexbruin]

honestly one of my best memories is just seeing my Dad hanging out rinkside during every game and practice. Getting me up, helping me get my gear on, tying my skates, and then watching me skate with a cup of D&D coffee in his hand.

So awesome. Also, he and my mom would ask me EVERY season if i wanted to play, they always made it clear that i didnt have to do it, never any pressure. They really let me just love the game.

 

[Reverend Mayhem]

I play roller hockey. First game I played (about 11 y/o) we were tied 6-6. I wasn't a great player. Anyways, the whole game I was skating really slow (skating was my worst asset) and a teammate dangled the whole team with about 50 seconds left. He lost the ball at the goal mouth and I was right there and popped it in. Best moment of my life.

 

[Dubi Doo]

honestly one of my best memories is just seeing my Dad hanging out rinkside during every game and practice. Getting me up, helping me get my gear on, tying my skates, and then watching me skate with a cup of D&D coffee in his hand.

So awesome. Also, he and my mom would ask me EVERY season if i wanted to play, they always made it clear that i didnt have to do it, never any pressure. They really let me just love the game.

My step father was the same way. I remember when I was a squirt; he would help me tie my skates and give me a little pep talk before the game. I def miss those days.

 

[member 30781]

I didn't start playing hockey until I was 17 (4 1/2 years ago).

But me and my friends in the neighborhood would mess around every so often on the street. We would play from one curb to the other and since we didnt have a net or a goalie, we would stand goalie pads along the curb and if you could knock it down it was considered a goal. That was probably when I was 8-9 years old. Now I am addicted to playing hockey.

 

[Wildturkey12]

honestly one of my best memories is just seeing my Dad hanging out rinkside during every game and practice. Getting me up, helping me get my gear on, tying my skates, and then watching me skate with a cup of D&D coffee in his hand.

So awesome. Also, he and my mom would ask me EVERY season if i wanted to play, they always made it clear that i didnt have to do it, never any pressure. They really let me just love the game.

Those are most of the same good memories I have of playing hockey as a kid. He would wake me up at 3 in the morning to get me to my 4 o clock practices. I would be a grouch and he would have a big smile on his face the whole time. Then I would go to work with him after and he would take me to Tommys for a chili burger at lunch time. It seemed like the same routine every Saturday during hockey season.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

I didn't get to play ice hockey until I was 17.

I always wanted to but my parents wouldn't pay for it.

My school did have a street hockey tournament though which was a lot of fun. Lost both years but oh well. I was pretty mad the second time though because we just played at some stupid park that only had one net so we set up barrels for the other net. It went to OT and the kid shot it really high and the teacher who ran the league called it a goal, even though the kid who shot it high told the teacher himself that he shot it high.

I did at least get to be the hero in one of the games. It went to OT and in the league they did 4 on 4 for 3 minutes, then removed a player every 3 minutes until it was 1 on 1 without a goalie. I lost the faceoff at the one on one point with no goalies and was exhausted but my team wanted me out there. He shot it at hit the barrels we had set up as a net and came right to my stick. I just threw it down to the other net because i was so tired. It looked like it was going to go wide but then the ball slowly curve and went off the post and in. That was my only bright point in my brief childhood hockey career.

 

[mbhhofr]

Playing pickup games on the street with my friends. If we didn't have a puck we used a frozen horse turd, left by the milkman's horse, for a puck. Putting my skates on at home and walking two blocks to the community club rink, for a pickup game, when the warming shack was closed and it was 20 degrees below zero. Seeing the puck split in half when it hit the goal post in the cold weather.

 

[Seanconn*]

first goal in mighty mights as an eight year old.

 

[StrykerB]

I tried to post this topic earlier, but my computer froze up...

List a few memories you have as a kid playing hockey:

I loved playing knee hockey in hotels during tournaments.
I remember having BBQ's with my team and playing street hockey.
I also remember a couple open skates when there wasn't a lot people. My team and I would set up nets on each blue line; playing 3 vs 3 with the coaches as goalies. I was a squirt then.
I miss tournaments that would last all day. The sponsors would even have skills competitions for us.
I hated waking up early, but I loved practicing early. The first teams on the ice for the day. It was always so quiet at the rink. All you could hear were skates, shots, and the coaches talking. I would freeze in the lockerroom, tho...

I miss being younger...
How about you guys? What are some memories you miss?

You hit the nail on the head with every single one. But you missed the most critical one. "Duh. Winning." quote by Charlie Sheen.

 

[Rocko604]

Playing during the intermission of a Canucks game back in the Pacific Coliseum.
Another one would be when I was in Atom and my team won two tournaments.
Going on a road trip down to Seattle and then getting a game misconduct 17 seconds into the 1st period.

Didn't really have much success, winning wise, but I had the same coach from my second year atom to my last year of Bantam, and generally played with the same core of players, so going into the season we always knew what the coach would expect from us.

That's about it. I played until I was 16 before I was Marc Savarded and had to retire.

Too be honest, I had more fun playing lacrosse than I did hockey.

 

[DanielWoolridge]

My favorite memory was just last year, 2nd year Bantam. I'm from Ontario, and I was playing for an AE, but being ap'd to an A team that I really should have been on, but didn't go back for tryouts. So I got called up in the 2nd round of playoffs, went through the playoffs with them.

Then I was with my AE playing a tournament in st. catherines, left to go play a game in Acton for the A team, tied. Then had to go home to play the next day. We were up 5 points to nothing in the series. That game, I got a goal and an assist, played the best game of my life probably. It was awesome to have all those friends and team mates there after congratulating us... best feeling ever.

 

[RobertKron]

Playing street hockey from the time we got home from school until about 15 minutes after it was too dark to see the ball. Every. Single. Day.

The progression from being the kid who couldn't skate starting out at 8 years old, to having a teammate that I'd played with a lot over the years, and had been playing since he was 3, turn to me at 15 and say "Jesus, when exactly was it that you got that fast??" after I beat him badly in a puck race drill. I used to love getting up for powerskating 3 times a week, knowing that I was putting in the work and making myself better.

My mom getting me to those powerskating sessions. And every practice. And every game. Driving those same routes to all the rinks, talking about the other teams, previous games, etc.

Great coaches. Good practices, good structure on-ice, good atmosphere around the team. It sucks playing on a rec league team where nobody backchecks, guys take 4 minute shifts, and nobody gives a damn.

Playing games that mattered. Obviously, they weren't really a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but I miss skating out on the ice for a playoff game, lining up for the opening faceoff, and having that crazy tension that boils over when the puck hits the ice. It's a lot harder to get that feeling for even the finals in beer league, especially when you've got work, bills, stress, etc. whirling around your head at all times. That's the biggest thing I miss, for sure, is just living for hockey and eating, sleeping, breathing the game.

 

[hlrsr]

Street hockey -

- Every day I'd get home from school and have 20 minutes to eat something before there would be a knock on my door to play hockey in my carport.

- *****ing (or laughing) at the 1-2 guys who were wearing blades when everyone else was on foot.

- When it was just me and my cousin we'd argue about who had to go in goal, and whoever ended up goalie wanted the other guy to take slapshots from pretty far away so they could catch it.

- going to a relatives in Abbotsford and challenging the neighbourhood kids to a game

Ice hockey -

- just wearing a "real" jersey and playing "real" games, having practices and being properly coached .. beer league doesn't come close.

- while I hated (and still do) getting up early, having 5am practice, home at 6:30, back to sleep until 7:30 and then off to school... I always felt really good that day at school.

- out-of-town tournaments ... always a good time.

- listening to stuff like this in the dressing room before games:

 

[NICO NICO PANIC]

Always loved playing floor/knee hockey with my brother as a kid. Playing in my mother's living room, and always having the danger of knocking everything over. Although my brother would use the advantage of being four years older at the end to try and cheat me out of victory every time.

Sometimes, if I only needed one goal to win (we would usually play to ten), he would end up knocking me over to tie the game. Haha, I miss it so much.

As far as real moments, I didn't have many great ones. But I'll never get the few that I did have.

- Making a breakaway save on the top goal scorer in the league, then falling on my ass afterwards from the impact of his shot.

- I was a genuine midget in my playing days, so I always took it upon myself to bully kids who were smaller than me on the ice. One time when my team was getting blown out and it was my shift, I went straight from the bench and hammered some guy behind the play. I skated away, and I heard him ***** at me as he lay in a crumbled heap.

- My favorite came in the championship game. It was tied late, and a turnover occurred at the blue line. The guy had a clear breakaway from the blue line in. I was at the red line at the time, and made a mad dash towards him. Luckily, the kid on the breakaway was eleven, and couldn't skate very well. I managed to catch up and dove towards him, missing the puck with my stick, but getting my stick lodged between his skates. Managed to screw him up just enough so that he couldn't get a clean shot off, and did so without taking a penalty.

Team ended up winning in the shootout, but the coach called me the hero of the game for that play. I'll never forget it.

 

[OrangeZebra]

Being in my dec hockey league and playing shutout hockey throughout the game and into overtime, and then making a save like #7 in this video.



By the way, it was the championship game.

 

[PerpetualTankYear]

I had wanted to play hockey since I was 2 or 3, and my parrents never let me. When I was 12 tho, I was playing video games and my dad randomly asked me if I wanted to play.

I said yes

 

[mooseOAK*]

The aroma of hot chocolate....

 

[Czar]

I miss the 5am practices like the OP said. The only sounds you heard in the rink were crisp shots and passes, coaches talking, and blades cutting ice. There was something special about that, I can't even describe it.

That or getting a full sheet of ice to yourself...the rink I skated at was pretty secluded, so hardly anyone showed up to shinny. Oftentimes, I'd be the only one out there on the ice. Amazing.

 

[Beville]

My favourite memories playing junior...

Well, not gonna lie, I was shocking at hockey. I was playing 18's hockey (I'm from GB) and was at a mediocre 5'8, 55kg.

Somehow, I could run around like a headless chicken and obliterate people who were 6'3 and about 80kg.. HOW? I do not know..

BUT,

One of the final games of my 5 year long junior career, Scored a beautiful goal, set up another, and got a 5+Game for checking to the head.. Knocked the poor kid out cold...

That was probably the best game I'd played..

OR, one of the many games where I started a bench clearance..

 

[Axman]

My step father was the same way. I remember when I was a squirt; he would help me tie my skates and give me a little pep talk before the game. I def miss those days.

Funny you mention that, my brother and I are doing the same thing with my 6 yr old nephew playing Mites. Something we will all remember later.

 

[FlyerBearsCheesehead]

I was a checking forward, so those rare goals were always a pleasure; and a clean, hard hit against an opposing forward or defenseman was always nice.

But I think my favorite memory was getting to play pick-up hockey with a bunch of local elite players at the old Hersheypark Arena when I was in high school one summer. The other players left the ice and I had the entire arena to myself. When I went into the locker room, Vaclav Prospal and Tony Horachek were dressing to go on the ice for an off-season workout; if I didn't have to work, I could have played with them, but it was still cool getting to hang out with those guys for a bit of time.

 

[Sensfanman]

From when I was like 7 or 8 and lived in Regina: we had this one tournament way out in the middle of nowhere (which, relative to Regina...well you get the idea). On the way, our car got stuck in a ditch in the snow. So me and my dad walked like 3km in the snow with my gear to the arena while my mom stayed with my brother and the car and was rescued by a farmer and his tractor. Anyways, the tournament was a one day, 3-game affair; there were 8 teams and the games ran from 9am to 8pm. Our team was pretty good and one player eventually drafted in the WHL (4th round). So we steamroll a few teams and get to the finals against the local Kings (I guess they weren't as exhausted from travel as we were). In a heated affair, we end up down 8-7 with 12 seconds to go and the faceoff in our own end (no goalie pulled). We put our best line out there but we lose the faceoff towards the boards. Our winger engages and a scrum ensues around the puck which squirts out to our best player who skates with 8 seconds left to their net from our end and the play turns into a 3-2. Our guy passes the puck and a shot goes to the net, he crashes, bangs away and with 1 second left, we score to tie. In the resulting double overtime, everyone is so dead from playing all day that the play has slowed to a crawl. Eventually we lost but it was an amazing day all together. That's how hockey players are made.




More recently, like 10 years later, I was playing summer hockey in a 3 team league. Our team was mostly low-level rec players with a few tier 2 rec players and a couple of ex-rep players. Our goalie was a 13 year old AAA player and absolutely unreal. Another team was even more scrubs than us and the 3rd team was stacked of older, rep and high level rec players. Their goalie was terrible though; a big slow guy. So we get to the championship, which was two 20 minute halves, and we're down 7-2 going into the second half. An absolute ****-kicking.

We had this one guy who was one of the better low-level rec players but was always like 5'2 until he grew to be 5'8 in the last year. Apparently that made him awesome as he proceeded to score 4 goals and add an assist to make it 8-7 with like 45 seconds to go. Then, on a defensive faceoff, we won the puck back behind our net. The guy picks up the puck and starts to rush down the ice. He blows past the faceoff circle and puts the puck on one hand while using his free hand to shove the defender at the blueline on his ass. As he goes in one on one, he dangles the puck around the guy and jumps over his sprawled body to go in on a breakaway. Forehand, backhand, shelf. Tie game with 30 seconds left. Again, the game goes to OT. First shift, he gets the puck off the draw, chips it deep, we recover and get a shot on net with a whistle. Next faceoff, he lines up behind the centerman, we win the draw to him and bam, back of the net. We won 9-8 and he has 6 goals and an assists against a bunch of older, rep guys. That goal he scored to tie was simply amazing.

We later drafted him in the winter season and again got to the championship. Down 2-0 with a period to go, he proceeds to score a hat-trick to win the game 3-2. I believe he goes by Mr. Clutch now.

 

[Trevor3]

Oh man, where to start...

Playing house league with teams done by district, all the kids from one neighbourhood that played street hockey and everything together, being on the same team was alot of fun.

Nearly destroying hotels playing full contact hand hockey. It got to the point where the other teams in the hotel weren't allowed to go anywhere near us.

The rivalries - Stephenville vs Corner Brook - always a barn burner resulting in at least 1 fight, 2-3 ejections and a suspension in there somewhere.

The parent parties, one guy's dad woke up in his bathtub with a guitar the next morning.

The time we hosted Hockey Day in Canada, getting to play in front of an over capacity crowd in Bantam was amazing.

Being on a B team and beating A and AA teams.

One time we went to a little town called La Scie and played in the opening ceremonies for their winter carnival. We blew them out like 8-1 but man we took a beating from the fans out there.

Going on tournaments and losing so badly we put other teams out.

Getting named captain of my team, trying to rally the troops before big games and at intermissions. Skating onto home ice for game one of my very last Midget tournament and hearing the PA announcer introduce me as "Captain of your Stephenvile Jets, number 7...", that one time it felt like the NHL.

One time we were playing Mount Pearl, down 2-0 after 2. In the room I took out a rubber chicken, we all kissed it then went out and tied it up. A tradition was born.

The last game my friend played with us before he moved to Alberta after his parents lost their jobs when the mill shut down. We tried so hard to get a win for him, we were up 4-1, ended up losing 8-4.