It has been once year since the CWHL was formed after the demise of the NWHL, giving national team members such as Sami Jo Small a place to play.
The NHL may be right in the middle of playoffs, but the women's hockey season has officially drawn to a close.
The players on Canada's National Team finally have a chance for a little R&R. After a season of training sessions, long bus rides, and airing our equipment out in the back of our cars, we finally have a couple of weeks to let our bodies morph into a relaxed state until fitness testing begins our next season in the middle of May.
Players head on vacations or some just stay at home and finally get some time with their families. So what did I do? I headed to the west coast, to California to be exact...to play hockey?
It's hard to get it out of my system, but this tournament was different. This tournament was a "men's league", as it's called in some parts of the country, or "beer league", as it's called in others. A tournament where it's more about reuniting with old friends than it is about the score. It's about the free drink tickets you get after the game and sitting and chatting about "how we used to be able to do this or used to be able to do that."
The group of guys I re-united with were my old college buddies. I am a Stanford University alumnus where the education may be great, but the level of hockey is as diverse as the vegetation. No one goes to Stanford to play hockey, so what we end up with is a mish-mash of players from either the North-Eastern US or Canada sprinkled with a few roller blading Californians and just for good measure...a girl. I was the lone girl for my four years of University moonlighting on the Stanford Men's Hockey team while on a track and field scholarship.
Playing in this tournament might be the most fun I have all season. No pressure, no scouts, just fun. Last year's tourney brought the Stanford Alumni team to Montreal, but this year's tourney brought us back home to California, which generated enough excitement to be able to field two teams. My knee taped up from an MCL tear, I was placed on the over-40 team, which was just perfect. Not too strenuous but still a lot of fun!
Talking about old times, hanging out in the parking lot, it's as if, despite an average age creeping up near 50, we were all 20 again! It was so great to see the guys I played with, our old coach...to be transplanted back in time.
We all have different lives, different responsibilities, from National Team members to cardiac surgeons, but for this weekend we are teammates.
And this is exactly why I love hockey. And that's why hockey is also my vacation.