By Lindsay Chung
Danny Listhaeghe blocks a shot and starts skating up the ice
All of a sudden, the red line jumps out at him, and he goes flying headfirst into the ice.
Laughter erupts from the wives cheering in the stands.
Later, with a beer in his hand, Danny would blame the fall on his non-existent toe pick.
This is one of many highlights from the Canadian Adult Recreational Hockey Association (CARHA) World Cup, held in Ottawa last week.
With multi-million dollar contracts and prolonged disputes, the business side of professional hockey is damaging the game.
Luckily, this virus of the hockey business, where making money comes before having fun, hasn’t infected all levels.
The CARHA tournament is a great reminder that hockey can still be just a game, often with as much fun off the ice as on it.
Listhaeghe’s Spirit River Ol’ Dogs, from Alberta, took the week off to compete in the tournament, which showcased the skills of players ages 19 to 89.
While recreational players care about winning, they are really out there to have a good time with their buddies.
Losses don’t bother Mark Barlow of the Prince George Rusty Nuts, who says rec. hockey has a lot to offer players who want to stay with the game.
“The best part about old timers’ hockey is the showers and beer after the game,” he laughed. “We don’t even talk about girls anymore. We just care about whether everyone’s taking the right medication.”
Believe it or not, this was not the only time someone mentioned beer and recreational hockey in the same sentence.
Beer and showers aside, players spoke of camaraderie as the biggest benefit of rec. hockey.
These players pay to keep their hockey hopes alive. They know there won’t be a line of autograph seekers when they leave the ice,but they don’t care.
They play because they still can, because they still love the game as much as they did when they started out.
Their motto is “CARHA, simply hockey,” but they’re wrong.
It’s not “simply” hockey.
It’s everything that hockey should be, everything hockey is to a little kid taking those first shaky steps onto the ice, holding that stick in his or her goofy, gloved hands. It’s why people play the game in the first place.
The CARHA tournament brings together different cultures from around the world. But the fun wasn’t limited to the ice. Here’s the Centretown top four tournament highlights:
3. CARHA Trend Spotlight: The Dave Babych mustache is back with a vengeance, as seen on many a Canadian player. This bushy mustache, which can also hide small objects, can be traced back to Lanny McDonald’s glory days, and it resurfaced as the must-have look during Vancouver’s 1994 Stanley Cup run.
2. Improving Canadian-Finnish Relations: The Spirit River Ol’ Dogs befriended some Finns at the bar and came away with an appreciation of the Finns’ sense of humour. A Finnish team put an ad in the paper selling their goalie’s equipment without telling him. The goalie was bombarded with calls from strangers. The Ol’ Dogs liked the story so much, they want to play this priceless prank on their own netminder.
2. Flashback to the Summit Series — well, almost: In a game between Russia’s Lada Togliatti and Ontario’s 66Raiders, I couldn’t help being intimidated by the Russians. Their warm-up was ultra serious, with a couple guys doing sit-ups and push-ups. They didn’t even smile. The Canadians were laid-back and loose and seemed to be having fun. During the game, the Russians were just as scary, with their speed and sharp passes, but they had to settle for a tie after the 66Raiders scored with 42 seconds left.
1. And the Ultimate Canadian award goes to: Mark Barlow wins this one hands-down. The big man from northern B.C., who told me I should be scouting for a husband since the arena was full of old men with good jobs who would die soon, thinks recreational hockey is great for players who get “old and fat. You won’t have that six-pack anymore,” he laughed. “The only six-pack will be in your bag for after the game.” Barlow believes he and his Rusty Nuts epitomize being Canadian. “The first thing we did when we get off the plane was look for a Tim Horton’s and check out the price of gas,” he laughed.