“That hockey is a dangerous sport…” is the response I keep on hearing when I tell people how I broke my leg. One look at the National Hockey League injury reports and you might just agree. Concussions, broken ankles, separated shoulders, blown knees. Even our beer league team has had a number of players injured this year.

This is the second injury I have ever had playing hockey. The first injury I got when I was young, maybe 11 or 12 years old. I was playing shinny with a few friends in the winter on the outdoor Fauquier hockey rink. I tried to slide down to block a play and ended up sliding into a friends skates. He fell backwards onto me, with his elbow landing on my mouth. This probably wouldn’t have caused too much of an injury for me if I hadn’t had braces. Unfortunately his elbow dislodged two of my braces and pushed them up into my gums. I remember being in the hospital and having the doctor straighten the braces with what looked like needle nose pliers. I kept thinking to myself, “Dad could have done that and saved us a drive up to Nakusp”.

I have played hockey for most of my life. Mostly recreational with friends, however over the past 5 years competitively (as in beer league competitive) in and around Vancouver. I have seen friends and teammates go down with numerous injuries. From separated shoulders, to pucks in the face. You do what you can to keep safe, but sometimes it is just bad luck.

I like to play a pretty aggressive game. Go hard in on the forecheck, and win the battles against the boards. Once the puck is free try and make some offence. This is how the story of how I broke my leg begins.

Our hockey team (The Master Bladers) were into the second round of the playoffs. We were one of the hottest teams leading up to the post season, and swept our first round opponent with 2 very commanding wins. We were playing some excellent hockey and feeling pretty good about ourselves before the first game of the next round.

Unfortunately the second round proved to be a lot more tough than the first. Our opponent got up to an early 1-0 lead. Then after a quick goal by each teams we found ourselves down 2-1. Despite the close score, we were being outplayed pretty badly. Mid way through the first half I jump out for another shift. I wanted to bring some energy and get playing my aggressive game. I brought my forecheck and started challenging for a puck along the boards against one of the opponents players. I had the player pinned up against the boards and was trying to work the puck loose. I could sense the opponent was starting to lose balance, so I tried to get a handle on the puck and get out of the boards. Then he fell.

I am not sure if our legs were tangled, or if he fell directly into me, but the first thing that I remember was hearing a crack. I wasn’t sure if it was a stick, or bone, or something else. I looked down to where I heard the noise, and began to scream. My foot was pointing almost 180 degrees in the wrong direction. Heel where my toes should be, toes where my heel should be.

By this point I was crumpled on the ground. My screams were now due to the pain. Teammates rushing off the bench to help out. At this point I realized I needed to calm down. I could feel myself freaking out, bordering on shock, and needed to settle down to help prevent any further damage. Like a monk reciting their mantras, I kept tell myself, “Be calm, breath deep, be calm breath deep.”

With the help of some teammates I was able to roll over onto my side, in doing so my leg flopped over as well. Then I waited for the paramedics, while my friends did what they could to make me comfortable. A few long minutes later and the ambulance had arrived, and I was off to the hospital.

After x-rays it was determined I needed surgery. I had broken both my tibia and fibula in a spiral fracture. There was some major separation and work needed to be done. They put my foot in a cast, and sent me home to await my surgery date. Over the next few days I worked my way into a hospital in Vancouver, and was able to get surgery a day afterwards with one of the leading orthopaedic surgeons in Vancouver.

The surgery was a success, not that I can remember it. I had a metal rod implanted into my leg that starts just below my knee andl ends just above my ankle. Each end of the rod is secured to my bone with two screws.

Now here I lie a week later on my couch anxiously waiting for the swelling to go down in my leg, and to eventually get back on my feet.

Will I play hockey again? I hope so. My injury was freak and accidental. I could have just as easily broken my leg by tripping on a step or getting hit by a car crossing the street. It is unfortunately I broke my leg, and the recovery process is slow and painful, but I won’t use that as an excuse to be fearful and not play a sport I love and am passionate about. So is hockey a dangerous sport as everyone keeps telling me? Perhaps it is, but I don’t think it will stop me from playing. If you think that during the entire time I have been playing hockey, I have only had 2 notable injuries, I would say I am doing pretty good.

Also just wanted to say thanks to all my friends and teammates who helped me out the night I got injured and throughout the last week and a half. Also to all those wishing me well it has been appreciated! Lastly I have to give a big shout out to all the nurses at St Paul’s hospital. They were simply amazing. Actually all the staff there were really fantastic, nurses especially.

In October 2009 I flew out to Philadelphia to experience seeing the Philadelphia Flyers play at home, as well as to see Pearl Jam close out the historic Spectrum. After that trip I didn’t anticipate making it back out to Philadelphia anytime soon. However when the Flyers finished off the Montreal Canadians in 5 quick games to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals I felt compelled to make the trip out east once again.

After the finals schedule was release I realized two conflicts in my schedule. The first was the Sasquatch Music Festival, which was taking place during the first two games of the finals in Chicago. The second was a Metric concert at the Malkin Bowl in Vancouver. I was alright with missing the Metric concert, but wasn’t about to skip out on the always fun Sasquatch. So I looked at flights, and found a red eye the day after Sasquatch that would put me into Philadelphia the morning of game 3. A quick reality check, OK’ed the trip with my boss, and the trip was booked.

Before leaving for Sasquatch I was able to find a single ticket to game 3 on the Flyers official ticketing website. This took a little pressure off for the first game. Arriving into Philly on little to no sleep, and a full day of work scheduled, I wasn’t in the best shape to be hunting down a ticket to the game. Work day done, a quick nap, and a whole lot of nervous excitement filled me. I hopped on the subway down to the stadium. On the subway I met two guys from Ottawa who drove down that day just to watch the game in a Philly bar. One of several Canadian Flyers fans I met during my time in Philly. When I was walking into the arena, I ran into my friend Phil from Vancouver, who just so happened to be in Philly for the game also. We exchanged contact info and agreed to meet up the following day for beers.

When Everything Goes Right

Game three was everyone I could have asked for in a hockey game, and made the trip completely worthwhile. It was a back and forth game, that saw the Flyers take an early lead only to lose it early in the 3rd period. The Flyers fought back and scored quickly after the Hawks to tie the game and send it to overtime. In OT the Flyers had a heart wrenching goal called back, minutes before Claude Giroux scored the winner to move the Flyers with one game of a tied series. Such an amazing finish and great way to start my trip. After the game I was going to meet up with the guys from Ottawa for a beer, but when I got back to my hotel I simply crashed out on my bed after a good 40+ hours of no sleep.

Game four I was without tickets. However from previous experiences with concerts and events I knew that if I showed up at the venue box office a few hours before the event I would be bound to get something. So after work I headed down to the arena where I stood in line with 25 other fans in the sweltering 33 degree heat hoping to get a ticket. An hour later I had a ticket which came with access to the Lexus Club which gave you a free food buffet as well as free beer.

Game four was a lot more dominant by the Flyers than the previous game. They came out strong and held the lead throughout the entire game. Despite a late charge by the Hawks, the Flyers were just too strong and ended up winning 5-3. That night I hooked up with a friend Andrew who I met through Joe in October. We went out for a few beers to celebrate the win and catch up. He invited me to a Phillies game and to show me around town the following week.

A Brief Interlude

After the game three win, I received an email from Jason who was currently in Hungary. He had sent me his Expedia itinerary and told me I should meet him in New York. I had never been to New York before, and while I would have liked to spend more than a weekend there, I figured a weekend would give me a good first taste. So Saturday I hopped on a bus, and 2 hours later I was downtown Manhattan.

I mentioned earlier that it was hot in Philadelphia. New York was no different. 30+ degrees and extremely humid. That type of heat really makes the smells of the city a lot more pronounced, especially when you have a city as busy as New York. I decided I would venture north from the bus station until I hit Central Park. I ended up walking straight through Times Square, which was a bit of an experience. A few too many people for my liking, which made Central Park such a good target. More than any other park I have been to in a city, is there ever one needed more than Central Park. It is a haven from the craziness of people, tourists, and smells of the city. While it was a little busy in many areas of the park, it was easy to find more secluded areas where you could be by yourself. I found a great bench in the park and spent a few hours reading waiting for Jason to arrive from Hungary.

After meeting up with Jason, we dropped off our bags at his girlfriends sisters place, and headed out to get some food and hit the town. We ate overpriced sushi, and drank beers at a hockey themed restaurant. New York, New York. Sunday we wandered around the city and saw a bunch of a the sites. More Central Park, Rockefeller Center, Grand Central Station, Empire States Building. Before long it was time to head back to Philly to catch the Flyers game five.

When Everything Goes Wrong

Game five was an absolute ass kicking by the Hawks. The Hawks came out hard and fast, and finished the first period up 3-0. This was not how I had anticipated this game to go. Whenever the Flyers would get anywhere near to making the game close the Hawks would score to put the game back out of reach. The game ended 7-4, leaving Jason, Andrew, and Myself a little heartbroken. It meant there was no chance the Flyers could win the cup at home, and an even worse fate that Chicago might win the cup in Philadelphia.

Fast forward to Wednesday, game six, Flyers needing to win to have a chance to win the cup. We spent the day looking for tickets online for the game. We were trying to get 3 tickets together, which was becoming a hard feat. Eventually we found someone on craigslist who said he had 3 seats together for the price we wanted to pay. We exchanged a few emails and phone calls, and eventually waited for him to arrive from ‘Virginia’. Two hours turned into four and a half, and Jason and me began to get worried. Eventually the guy called and let us know he was close to our hotel.

We met him outside the hotel. A short black man, with a bit of a hunch, who appeared a bit on edge. My first impression of him was of his hand shake. It was weak; the kind of handshake where the other persons hand just falls out of yours. Second impression was that he got really nervous when I questioned why there was no date on the ticket. Despite the warnings, the tickets looked pretty legit. Jason and I had a quick chat, then decided to buy them. As we handed him the money he told Jason “Hold onto my number, if the Flyers win tonight, I will be heading out to Chicago and will have some more tickets for you…” Last impression was of Jason handing over the money in an envelope, and the guy walking away briskly without even counting it. When that happened all I could think of was we had been had.

As we walked away I brought this up with Jason. He said he noticed that too. We double checked the tickets again. They looked pretty legit. However I noticed the seat numbers he told me via email and the seat numbers on the tickets were different. Perhaps he just read the wrong ticket. As Jason and I had dinner before the game you could tell we were both on edge, and a little nervous that we bought fake tickets. Only time would tell.

We arrived at the venue and walked past a scalper who was holding up a single ticket for sale. The ticket looked really similar to the tickets we had. This put me a little at ease, as I thought that maybe I was just being paranoid. We walked our way up to the gates. Went inside the building. Held out my ticket to the usher. He scanned the ticket. Written on his scanner in red was, “STOP”. He scanned the ticket again. Same result. Scanned it a third time. Same thing. He instructed that I better go talk to the box office about my ticket. Jason had the same experience. Yup we were hosed.

The box office confirmed the tickets were fake, which brought forth a mix of emotions. Anger, humiliation, self-pity. We were not in a great mood. Insult to injury, the skies opened up and started to pour down rain. Eventually we picked ourselves up, and headed over to the bar at the ball park. We were both in no mood to watch the game, let along with a bunch of other people. However by the end of the second period and a few beers later, we realized 2 things. One, what happened happened, and there wasn’t much we could do about it. Two, the Flyers were playing a hell of an exciting game.

The third period started with the Flyers down 3-2. It took them until late in the period to tie the game 3-3 and send it to overtime. New hope emerged. However four minutes into the overtime period the greatest letdowns happened. Patrick Kane scored a short side goal against the Flyers. It was such a bad goal that nobody knew he had scored. It took about 20-30 seconds before everyone clued in that the Hawks had just won the Stanley Cup and the Flyers season was now over.

That night we head back to our hotel, had a few drinks in the lobby bar, while guests from Chicago celebrated. The only thing that made that night somewhat memorable was meeting the real life version of “The Dude” (a story for another day). “Sometimes you eat the bar and sometimes… well, he eats you”.

Last Few Days

My final days in Philly were spent doing some touristy things, like running up the Rocky steps, taking in a Phillies game, eating too many cheese steaks, exploring the 9th street Italian Market, and sampling many of the fine craft beers from the area. I wasn’t as upset about the ticket anymore, and enjoyed my time in one of the most historic cities in the US.

You might think Chicago had done everything it could to try and disrupt my trip. My flight home, which was routed through Chicago, got delayed for close to 3 hours due to a thunderstorm in Chicago. Finally the plane arrived and everyone boarded. Our plane made it to the tarmac, at which stage we sat for another hour plus on the tarmac as the thunderstorm had now moved south to Philadelphia. Good times.

I missed my connecting flight home, but was bumped up onto the last flight back to Vancouver. They put me in their executive plus section of the plane to make up for my troubles which was a nice gesture. Finally I arrived in Vancouver to find my bag was left in Chicago. What more could I expect?

Final Comments

Despite some bad luck I really had an amazing time in Philadelphia. I got to spend time with some really great people, and explore some of the more historic cities in the US. Without a doubt I will definitely make my way back to Philadelphia sometime in the near future.

One final little story. On the Tuesday after game five, I had performed a major release of our website at work. It was eight months of development, and a complete rebuild of our website. After launching the site I had to checkout of my hotel room and check into a new hotel. I did some final tests on the launch and everything appeared to be working correctly. Since my new hotel was half a block away I didn’t think it was a big deal to go offline momentarily to change hotels.

I arrived at the new hotel only to be told I had booked the room for the following day. I had just performed a major release of our website and now was told I had no place to work or stay. I scrambled and eventually found free wifi at the local market, where I spent the rest of the day working. Everything turned out fine with the launch, but it was a moment of complete panic when I found out I didn’t have a room that night.

Finally I just wanted to say a big Thank You to Andrew who helped us out with a place to stay when we had no hotel, as well for being such a fantastic host and tour guide.

In a few short hours I will be off to pickup a bunch of friends on route to the Arrow Lakes. Some of my friends are from the Arrow Lakes, while others had never heard of Fauquier, Burton or Nakusp until they had met us. We are all traveling to the valley to take part in a celebration of Burton Hockey, and the 10 years since it’s official formulation when we added Kyle Kusch to take stats for us.

For most of us though, hockey has been a part of our lives for more than 10 years, but rather a lifetime. Hockey was never about winning or losing, how many goals you scored, or that sick deke (not that we didn’t want to win, score goals, or revel in how awesome that deke was!); It was about getting to spend time with your friends and having fun. Some of my fondest memories of when I was young were from playing hockey. Foot vs blade sessions in the Fauquier Rink, knee hockey in Steve’s living room or shooting balls at his shed, and of course those ridiculous sessions up at the Burton basketball court with some of my closest friends.

As we grew older, hockey became more and more a tool to keep friendships together. Often times coming home for a visit your time was short and mostly spent with family, so it was tough to see all your friends. However you were bound to see most of them if you showed up to a Burton Hockey session. In that way Burton Hockey was a tool to reconnect, to be apart of something, and to be with Friends.

With many of us original players now living in Vancouver it was natural for us to branch out, and start what we had in Burton here. It took a while, but that same enthusiasm for the game was found here with the new Vancouver based players. In the same way, Burton Hockey in Vancouver provided friends to get together, to have fun, and reconnect.

Why were stats important? Stats first and foremost were a way to include a really close friend in the fun we were having. Stats turned out to be more than that though. Stats provided a way to document our sessions, and have a record of all the good times. Along with the website the stats were a way to build excitement, and a way to make things ‘official’. It was a way to build excitement, and to entice new players to play, and in the more recent years they have been a good way to fuel the friendly rivalries between the two leagues.

While the stats provided the momentum to Burton Hockey 10 years ago, it would all be for not if there wasn’t a rink. It took a major effort from Lorne, Joern and Simon and their parents to fight for the community to build that plot of asphalt. When they had won the community over and were given the grant money, those 3 spent every day at the rink to help build it. It was a community born effort that has gone on to strengthen not just the Burton community, but the community of the Arrow Lakes as a whole.

This weekend as I take part in the DecaSession, it will to celebrate a lifetime of great times I have shared with friends. It will be to take part in something that has reconnected old friends, and made new ones; and finally it will be to play as much hockey as humanly possible to help kick start another lifetime of great memories.

Most people who know me knew I wasn’t a big proponent of the Vancouver Olympics. The city of Vancouver has a laundry list of problems that the money spent on the games could have gone towards. Despite my opinion the games were going to go on, and I had the choice to make the most of them, or sit them out sulking. I decided since I would likely be paying for these games (along with the rest of Canada) for many years I would do my best to enjoy all they had to offer; and to be quiet honest, it was hard not to.

My Olympic experienced started off with the torch running through my neighborhood down 4th avenue. Chip Wilson of Lululemon fame was the torch bearer, and got to run it past his flagship store. I was blown away by how many people were on the streets. hundreds packed 4th avenue in both directions as far as the eye could see. The city was excited.

One of the things I was looking forward to during the Olympics was all the free concerts that were going on around town. I was able to catch a good number of great bands. The Arkells and Broken Social Scene at Ontario House, The Stanfields and Julie Doiron at Atlantic Canada House, Wilco at Livecity Yaletown, and Wintersleep at the Ozone in Richmond. The sheer musical talent that was in the city over the 2 weeks was outstanding, I just wish I was able to catch more of it.

I was also able to attend one event during the Olympics; a hockey game featuring Russia vs Latvia. It was a bit of a blowout by Russia what was expected. I got to go with Jason for free courtesy of our good friend Brian in Lethbridge.

In addition to the concerts and the events I tried to get out to many of the houses and pavilions after work. It was often tough to get into specific places as the lineups were just horrible. This is to be expected when over a million new people show up in your city.

Ultimately though the Olympics came down to experiencing the excitement of the games and the city with friends. The experience wouldn’t have been the same if it weren’t for my buddies.

It was also great to have visitors from out of town in the city. Joe and Kasie made the trip up from California, Sophie was in from London, Bryan from Lethbridge, and of course Mr Newfie Joe made it to town as well.

In the final few days of the Olympics I got more and more into watching the events, especially the hockey and the curling. Out of shear luck we were able to find a place to watch the semifinals game against Slovakia as we just happened to be watching the womens curling finals outside a fully booked bar that happened to have one table just come available.

Since finding a bar to watch the gold medal hockey game was near impossible, I invited friends over to my place for an impromptu brunch to watch the final game. It was an amazing finale to the Olympics, and a nail-biter of a game to watch. Eventually Canada pulled out the victory in overtime thus calming all of our nerves.

After the game we took to the street and marched down Granville Street to join the city wide party to cap off an amazing 2 weeks.

Despite my opposition to the games I did do my best to make the most of them. Now that the party is over, it will be interesting to see what happens with this city. Will it go the way of Barcelona and turn this city into an exciting, “fun” city? Or will we be the next Athens riddled in dept. Only time will tell. One thing is for certain, that 6 billion dollar price tag certainly won’t be going away anytime soon.