I belive in hockey

What do you believe in?

I posed this question to my journal friends list yesterday, the emphasis for the most of them on hockey, as it is the initial thread for many of our friendships.

My thoughts.

I believe in fresh ice.

Now I’ve never skated on fresh ice, I've actually only been on an ice rink twice in my life and that was at public skate session so not only was the ice not fresh but the skates sucked. I'm assuming though it's like skating on our empty inline rink (a basketball court with boards) the feeling of gliding, almost effortlessly across the surface, the rhythmic noise of blade (or wheel) and surface echoing your heart beat. I believe in the peace you get from that.

I beleaf.

Well. I beleaf'ed. I was a Leafs fan. My first jersey I ever bought was a Leafs one but in reality I'm more a player person and while my support for Matt Stajan (and now Alex Steen and John Mitchell - Marlies) continues, the Leafs this season left me feeling a bit well meh. It's like the Bruins, who while they failed, at least did so in rather spectacular fashion, with their huge trades, team shake up and the love that is the Triple B's (Bergeron, Boyes and Boynton)

I believe in brilliant hockey players, no matter HOW old or young they are.

Give me Patrice Bergeron, Give me Dion Phanuef, Give me Henrik Lu...ist (So I can't spell it) Give me Yzerman, Shannahan, Pronger (I'm still working on forgiving him for the Edmonton / San Jose Series). Give me brilliant hockey and I don't care who you are, where you're from, and what you do as long as it's thrilling (and legally fair).

I believe in hard shots from the point

I'd love to say I believe in these and I do but it's a conditional belief. I love them when I'm not in goal. I love watching them, or when you're on the team shooting. The line up, the back swing the thundering shot and hopefully the shimmer of the net as it hits the twine.

I believe in hockey.

I believe in hockey as an equaliser, a unifier, and a divide. I believe in hockey as a cause, a passion, a game, and an opportunity. I believe in its speed, its intensity.

I believe in its lifelong friendships, the trips in cars stacked with gear, the madness and the exhilerating freedom it can give.

I believe in hockey as catharsis, a release, as sanity.

But most of all I believe in hockey, because I believe it to be, like all sports, the greatest unifying force, the world has.

Sport is my universal language.