Minor Leagues?

Even though the NHL lockout is only about three months old, I have been locked out of the league by the owners for years by exorbinantly-priced tickets combined with absurd parking prices and $7 Pepsi bottles. Even so, I almost miss hockey, and my eight-year-old son doesn't know why they bother printing a newspaper every day if there is no hockey season.

It was his vacation, so and he is always so well behaved, so I took him to an OHL game. We tried to go see the Plymouth Whalers, but they were sold out. Insteada, we went across the border, to see the Windsor Spitfires play the Owen Sound Attack.

The building was small by NHL standards, seating only about 3,000, but our seats were right on top of the ice, and we got to watch a game in the land where ice was born. Over 2,500 people got to watch future stars like Bobby Ryan and Robin Big Snake make a name for themselves. We saw great fights, the kind the NHL stopped providing for its fans when they decided they wanted soccer moms in Nashville and Miami to watch their game. We saw some spectacular goaltending by a kid named Brown, as he shut out the hometown Spitfires. We saw powerplay goals, penalty kills, injuries, slick passing, and heart and blood and fire all over the ice.

We also saw the misplays. Overskated pucks, immature reactions, stupid penalties, and poor decision mnaking.

But in the end, this is what won out. After the game, we stood outside the visitors locker room for five minutes. The team trainer came out, and we asked him if he could get Bobby Ryan to sign my son's Bobby Ryan OHL card. (If you're surprised they have OHL cards, ask yourself what you would do if you owned a card company and a large portion of your business was in a labor dispute.)

We gave him a pen and the card. A few minutes later he returned, looking for a Sharpie that would show up on the card. He found the Sharpie, and came back to us with the autographed card. We talked hockey with the trainer for a few minutes, and found out that Owen Sound is about four hours north of Windsor. That their best player was playing for his native team in the Junior World Championships right now. And that they beat a tremendous London 30-2-2-0 team last night, the only team with a better record than the Attacks' 24-7-3-1.

As we were ready to go, the trainer told us to wait a minute. He went back into the locker room, and came out with a Owen Sound Attack puck, and gave it to my son.

The whole ride home, my boy glowed. He had just been to a hockey game, and was coming home with an autographed card, a puck, and sweet memories that may last a lifetime.