For those embedded deep in the hockey culture we seemingly instinctively know hockey. We take much for granted, resist change, and tend to be oblivious as to why other people may not love the sport as passionately as we do. So it is always good to get an “outsiders” perspective. Alistair Potter provides us with this fresh perspective in his article simply titled “Ice Hockey” in the inthenews.co.uk. The article can be found here, and i urge you to check it out. Here are a few highlights…
continue reading "Hockey: As Observed From The Outside"

Selling beer in the dressing room is about trying to raise a little cash to make the financial strain of belonging to a group a little easier. We’ve all done it in the past as kids with our school, sports team or association. But we’re a little older now and we may have a problem motivating the team of thirty-something year-old men to go door-to-door selling chocolate covered almonds.

All we want to do is trim a bit off the top of our league fees and have a little left over to throw a kegger at the end of the season. Here are some observations about selling beer in the dressing room. No guarantees, just life experience and a little bit of bullshit put down on paper. Because after all, if we can help you raise some cash for a kegger, we might get invited.
continue reading "Dressing Room Beer Sales"

Now that the Hockey Heart Study and it’s critique has cautioned me to do some pre-season training , also known as exercise, perhaps I should clean off my equipment rack - also known as an elliptical trainer - and start using the thing. But first, we must procrastinate! Sure this contraption will make me sweat! But will it really help?

Off I go into the realm of the intraweb searching through articles, risking downloads and compiling information regarding the physiological benefits of working out on the elliptical trainer all in the name of Beer League Hockey.
continue reading "Evaluating Elliptically"

When it comes to exercise, one of the hardest things, for me anyways, is to drag your butt out of bed 40 minutes before your alarm usually goes off so that you can subject your body to rigorous exercise. But if you can wake up early to watch World Juniors or World Cup games when they’re hosted in Europe, then you can do this. Besides, exercising in the morning does have it’s benefits…
continue reading "Morning Motion Means More Moxie"

It’s game time, and the equipment is not exactly fresh, but no big deal. The gear may stink a bit, the helmet a bit damp, but that mouthguard, should it really taste like that? Ah… no worries, it’s your own germs, it can’t hurt you. Or can it?
continue reading "Dirty Mouthguards Responsible for More Than Halitosis"

Beer League Hockey (BLH) has finally returned after missing 3 days after falling victim to an on-line slew-foot. The server farm that hosted BLH was attacked from behind on Sunday April 25th in what equates to a cowardly move. Someone uploaded a Trojan into the server and knocked it on its ass. The server was unable to recover from its injuries and has since been replaced.
continue reading "Beer League Hockey Slewfooted"

In this first fundraising series we’ve been discussing the age-old tradition of making money through beer sales. So having an article about free beer may seem contradictory at first, but only to those that are thinking of free beer as free, as in beer, and not free, as in speech.

The term “free beer” is sometimes misunderstood–it has nothing to do with price. It is about responsibility. A beer is a free beer if:
continue reading "Free beer, as in speech, not beer."

“We weren’t the only ones to lose tonight, but it sure felt like it.”

These words coming from teammate Troy described perfectly the demoralizing mood we were in as we lugged our heavy bags from the rink. They do get heavier after a loss; it doesn’t just feel that way.

The last game of the regular season and we choked. We couldn’t keep possession of the puck. We couldn’t keep out of the penalty box. We didn’t skate, we didn’t check, it goes on and on and on. We wanted to go into the playoffs with momentum, but now we are wallowing in despair and self-doubt. What can we do now? ……….Tailgate!
continue reading "Tailgating; The Ultimate Team-Building Tool"

According to one author, hockey is not a religion or a way of life.

I’m still having trouble comprehending that statement but let’s humour that thought and consider what else he has to say.

Games, he says, are not useful for increasing or maintaining physical fitness

In the league I play in now, we have 35 regular season games spread out over 8 months. This calculates to approximately 1.5 games per week over the season. Our team is seriously beer-league meaning that there is no such thing as practice time, and no one but our goalie and our “franchise” player make a habit of sparing for another team. The issue here is other life commitments, not laziness or lack of passion. For most of our players these games, unfortunately and obviously, are the sole source of exercise that they receive.

Sure there are stories bandied about the dressing room of attempts to create and stick to a self-imposed jogging program or the like, but after a few weeks when questioned about the success of their commitment… the responses are usually a quiet shake of the head and any verbalization is drowned out by the crack-and-hiss of an opening beer can.
continue reading "Hockey Not a Game For Fitness"