In a game against the Winnipeg Jets on February 16, 2017, Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins reached a major milestone, netting his 1,000 career point as a professional hockey player. The team, the media, his parents and of course Crosby himself celebrated this astounding achievement, as well they should. Sidney Crosby has been a favourite player of mine for about a thousand years.

I’ve reached some other pretty significant 1,000th-time milestones in my hockey mom career too, I’ll have you know.  In fact, I could probably name about a thousand hockey mom things I’ve done a thousand times or more but let’s focus on the ones that stand out the most in a typical hockey mom’s memory:

1. Tied hockey skates – what hockey mom hasn’t tied skates about a thousand times (lost circulation in her fingers, broken a freshly-manicured nail just before the big night out, sliced her finger on a torn aglet), right?

2. Purchased rolls of hockey tape – you might be thinking that I’ve taped a thousand hockey sticks in my lifetime but truth is I’ve probably used a thousand rolls of hockey tape for everything but taping a hockey stick! If in doubt… hockey tape.

3. Tripped over a hockey bag left on the floor of the garage – “Just what does it take to bring that hockey bag down to the basement?” (and other things I’ve said about a thousand times)

4. Lied to teachers (and employers) about missing school (work) on Fridays due to illness (hockey tournaments) – fess up; you’ve all done it too!

5. Team pictures – between tournament photos and association team photos we’ve managed to get three kids through a total of almost seventeen hockey seasons. I’ve lost count of team picture days at this point.

6. Sharpened skates – not only have I brought skates in to be sharpened about a thousand times I probably also have about a thousand skate shop loyalty cards lying around that are all one skate sharpening shy of my freebie.

7. Drank out of a plastic hotel cup – it’s probably safer than glass anyway, but still…

8.  Given my autograph – between signing league and team fee cheques, parent code of conduct forms, player medical forms, player affiliation forms, hotel registration cards and those pesky waivers during a hockey tournaments, away tournament restaurant bills, and various game sheets, I am practically famous!

9. Lost my voice from cheering too much, too loud, too often – and that wasn’t even at the game but at the hockey party!

10. Patched up the hockey puck dents in walls, garage doors and several major appliances – it’s to the point where I might as well just move.

Let’s not even talk about the kilometres I've put on my car or the grey hairs on my head! Ah yes, some of these milestones have probably surpassed the one millionth mark, but who’s counting, right? It’s all just one, big, happy hockey life!

Three cheers for hockey moms – and all your own 1,000th milestones!