The Boy, I and our STICK U teammates are off to our 2nd annual Walter Gretzky Street Hockey Tournament bright and early tomorrow morning; which means I should probably be hittin’ the hay and not the keyboard.  This is particularly true in light of the fact that we will be running a little lean over the next couple of days. We will play a minimum of three games over the next two days. It’s a 3-on-3 plus a goalie format.  We will have nine players tomorrow, but will lose three of those for our third game on Sunday. If we happen to secure a playoff spot and a fourth game it could get ugly.  Our saving grace is that we will be going in with five guys over 40, one in his 20s and three teenage whipper snappers.  Two other sets of fathers and sons will be joining me and the Boy.  Suffice it to say, the former five have every intention of letting the latter four do all the running and a majority of the scoring. With experience, but a decided lack of fitness on our side, we dads will play a more strategic game. For better or worse, we have five hours between games tomorrow to sit in the sun, swap stories and share a pop or two – the real made bonding stuff.

Win, lose or draw – I’m certain there will be tales to tell at the end of this weekend so I will leave it at this for now as I head off to dream of the victories ahead. The real victory, as always, will be having the chance to play alongside my kid. The chance to share a rink, albeit a concrete one, for a glorious weekend in the hometown of the the world’s greatest hockey dad no less.  Ya really can’t be that.

#imahockeydad