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"If Las Vegas had odds on Ryan’s most successful Christmas gift being a book, they would have been in the thousands-to-one range. But among his Sharks gear (a new Joe Pavelski jersey!) and Jets gear (these!) and a really cool table hockey game, the present he loved the most was, improbably, inconceivably … a book. […]
Read more "Reading for Pleasure"I’m declaring my blog vacation over with a rare Saturday post. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and a happy New Year. I’ve just returned from an amazing experience at the NHL Winter Classic, played this year at my beloved University of Michigan’s stadium, the “Big House.” A personal highlight for me was […]
Read more "Like Son, Like Father"“Show me a good loser, and I’ll show you a loser.” It’s a quote famously attributed to legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi. Thankfully, Mr. Lombardi wasn’t speaking of youth sports. He was a professional coach, paid to deliver results with players whose job it was to play football. He was not speaking of, […]
Read more "Show Me a Good Loser"
Pucks and Puzzle Pieces 