Happy New Year to all HockeyNow readers and my fellow hockey moms! I hope Santa was able to deliver on all those pleas for new pucks and sticks! 

 

Yesterday, I was part of something very special that had nothing to do with the IIHF World Junior Hockey Tournament (though that is definitely pretty special too). I was able to witness my six-year-old nephew get his very first pair of hockey skates! As we struggled with the stiff new boots and laces, the grin on his face was entirely contagious, and my husband and I could not help but congratulate him on this very special occasion. Later, his uncle made some minor adjustments to a hockey helmet no longer being used by my niece and my nephew was all set for his January adventures at the local arena with his Grade One classmates.

 

I no longer remember my own first pair of skates. As the third of four children, they were no doubt hand-me-downs from my sister anyway but I do distinctly recall my first pair of new skates as an adult. Upon our relocation to Ottawa some seventeen years ago, we were soon invited to go canal skating with new neighbourhood friends and my childhood skates had long been abandoned in one of my many moves. 

“What kind of skates do you want?” asked the salesperson. “Hockey skates, figure skates or canal skates?” It turns out buying a new pair of skates was a lot more complicated than I imagined. After trying on all three, I was sold on canal skates, a type of skate I didn’t even know existed prior to this shopping trip, and am still sporting those skates all these years later.

 

Soon thereafter my own three children began their minor hockey careers and life as I knew it became one trip to the sporting goods store after another. As a mother to three hockey players, I was on a first name basis with most of those who worked there! At one point our basement resembled a sporting goods store of its own as we probably owned a pair of skates in every size possible. Now that my boys’ minor hockey careers are over, the surplus pairs have long since been donated or exchanged for some other sporting equipment necessity. I took for granted the excitement I observed yesterday as my nephew donned his first pair.

 

We have not been successful in convincing my brother and sister-in-law to enrol my nephew in hockey quite yet. I presume watching my husband and I shuttle three kids to and from sporting goods stores and arenas while emptying our wallets for almost two decades has quelled any excitement the minor hockey life might hold for their son. He does however now own a pair of hockey skates. And that is one glide closer to understanding Canada’s passion for the sport.

 

Three cheers for my nephew, and his brand new pair of hockey skates – may they serve to ignite his fire for hockey.