LA Hockey Underground

The NHL, no, the world is conspiring against Los Angeles.  The Lakers were poised to possibly secure championship number seventeen, thus tying the much maligned Celtics.  The Los Angeles Dodgers were expected to make a title run as well.  In addition, the Kings, while pretty far from winning a title, were still playing their best hockey in several years.  All stymied by the covid 19.   The Kings, for the first time this year were playing darn good hockey.  Actually, it was really really good.  I was enjoying the games.  Not only was I enjoying watching the development of young players, but I was enjoying the competition of the game.  The Kings had a legitimate chance to win every night.  To be fair, the Kings were competitive in a large number of games, but up until recently, the theme for this season has been, "We Can't Win."  Things have changed. Seven wins in a row against the league's bottom dwellers would have been ...

Hockey brings with it all of the best things that sport has to offer children.  Fun, fitness, hard work, teamwork, perseverance, and so on.  I firmly believe that youth athletics can be an amazingly positive experience for kids.  However, the fun doesn't just have to be for kids. It can be hard for competitive parents to not be that parent.  It can be tempting to scream at the ref, get up in the coaches business, and treat that 8U game like it was the most important thing in life.  We all want our children to succeed, to be given world class instruction, the best opportunity to succeed, and to always be treated fairly.  Sadly, having these expectations is asking the impossible, and a recipe for disaster.  It will make everyone involved miserable.  The best thing I ever did was let go. One of the rinks that we ended up frequenting had a bar/restaurant that straddled the two sheets of ice.  We could sit comfortably behind glass windows, in ...