Power Play

Who are we kidding, mite hockey can be boring. At first it's cute because they're tiny and they're uncoordinated. I've had many a chuckle watching a miniature version of a professional hockey player standing alone on the ice, not moving, no one around and suddenly...he's on his miniature mite ass. For no other reason than that the ice is slippery. This is ridiculously entertaining for the first year of hockey. But once they move onto the second year, it kind of loses its charm. Now I find myself shivering in Rink Three at 6:00 a.m., shotgunning coffee like it's my job and thinking "for the love of pete, can we hurry these drills up already?"

But the Kid's select team games are actually becoming a lot of fun. The teams are more evenly matched. (Except those atoms, who have totally figured us out.) The kids are actually trying to play their positions and even seem to be trying to avoid off-sides. Emphasis on the word "trying."

And apparently some serious strategy is now being considered, at least by my child. First, a quick hockey tutorial for folks who typically come here for figure skating. In hockey, if a team is down by a goal and it's toward the end of the third (and final) period, the losing team will "pull the goalie" so they can send out an extra attacker and increase their chances of scoring a goal and sending the game into (ulcer-inducing) overtime.

The Kid's team was down by two goals. (Or so they said, not one adult in the room ever keeps score.) Apparently my son looked at one of the coaches and said, in all seriousness, "We should pull the goalie."

Never underestimate a one-mite advantage.