Everybody watching the Olympics? I've always enjoyed following the games over the years, and usually my main interests have been in ice skating and ice dancing. I used to be enthralled by the skaters from the moment when their routine music would begin until the very last competitor left the ice and the professional commenters were rehashing the medal results.
I'm still enjoying skating this go-around, but I have found another area of interest:hockey.
Yeah. Very strange in that I've never been in the least bit interested in hockey before. But I was scrolling through the zillion or so channels that carry the events on TV when I paused on the USA/Russa men's hockey game last weekend. The only reason that I didn't continue flipping through the channels was because I heard the name of one of the US players: Joe Pavelski.
Hey, I thought. That's Mom's maiden name. And one of my favorite guys in the Pavelski clan was my great-uncle Joe. Joe Pavelski? Hmm. Are we related? Mom told me emphatically that we aren't, but I choose not to believe her. Because this guy is really, really good; at least as far as I can tell being pretty ignorant about the sport. And because Joe has all of his teeth (which isn't always the case with hockey players from what I've observed) and he's pretty darned good looking.
We must be related.
So I sat down and watched the game and it was a nail-biter. It went into some kind of overtime shoot out thingie which the US won. I was hooked.
My goal for the remainder of the Olympics is to learn more about hockey. Currently my level of understanding is pretty skimpy: I know that everyone has skates; the players wear short pants, they wave their hockey sticks around, the goalie has crazy amazing pads everywhere, and that there's three periods in a game. That's it.
Oh, and one other important thing: My relative Joe ROCKS hockey.
4 comments:
I got hooked on hockey when I lived in Chicago! When I moved down south and retired I had to buy the special hockey package so I could see the games. Several of the Blackhawks players are playing in the olympics on their country's teams. It has been so exciting to watch them, and you are right, that was a nail biter. Those shoot outs are my favorite part of the game. Go USA!
Plus, he carries a cane. Sort of.
I'm Canadian and have no interest in hockey except for the olympics. Work has been stopping to (secretly) watch the games, today's women's game was amazing, and while I'm so thrilled we won I though the American ladies were great too! I'll most definately be watching the men tomorrow!
I am a 56 year old Canadian woman, which means when I was growing up there were only 6 teams (with the exception of the Canada-Russia series in 1972 when the school shut down classes to watch the games), mostly Canadian players on the 4 out of 6 teams, all men. The nearest a girl could get to hockey was figure skating or ringette (yuk). We had 3 channels on TV and Hockey Night in Canada was the only thing we were allowed to watch on Saturday evenings. So it's hard wired into most of our heads and hearts even those who couldn't play (girls). I think it helps to understand these things when you watch Olympic hockey.
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