The Winter Olympics are upon us, and Ryan is fired up. Four years ago, he really took an interest in the hockey tournament at the Vancouver Games. And why not? With essentially six NHL All-Star teams competing (Teams USA, Canada, Finland, Sweden, Russia and the Czech Republic are composed largely, if not entirely, of NHL […]
Read more "Don’t Talk To Ryan About Curling"January 2, 2012 was a perfect day in so many ways. That was the day Ryan skated in front of 47,000 people on the kids auxiliary rink at the NHL Winter Classic in Philadelphia. I have told the story many times in this space. Indeed, it was one of the first posts on the blog […]
Read more "A Time To Brag"You know how sometimes, you know the progress is happening, only it’s too slow to see it on a day-to-day basis? And then suddenly you look up and some major threshold has been crossed? Ryan has achieved many milestones through hockey. To just get on the ice he had to learn to tolerate the helmet […]
Read more "Hockey Skates as a Metaphor for Life"I was looking forward to a nice, quiet holiday at home today, especially after being out late Sunday night at an adult-league hockey game. Ryan was having none of it. He had something else in mind. Five years ago, when Ryan was still a relatively new hockey convert, I noticed that the New York Islanders […]
Read more "It’s a Tradition"Ryan has never been able to fully explain to us why certain shots-on-goal totals in NHL games trigger for him bouts of extreme anxiety. Maybe if I understood why it bothered him so much, I could better help him through these episodes, but the explanation doesn’t really matter. What matters is the anxiety is real. […]
Read more "A Safe Space"
Pucks and Puzzle Pieces 