Hangin out kinda late on a Friday night.  Hockey Mom and the Boy ventured four+ hours this morning for the Midget A International Silver Stick tourney our Colts qualified for a couple of months back.  A nice experience for many who are maybe in their final years of rep hockey.   The team left amidst a first-round playoff series in which they trail two games to one in a best of five format.  Their win came two nights ago, which put them in a positive mood for the tourney.    The Devil and I stayed behind as she has two games of her own this weekend.

While I wasn’t physically there to watch the Boy and his team in their first game this evening, I was provided with a running commentary of via text from a sympathetic mom who would be my remote eyes and ears; my fan-via-proxy if you will.  This duty couldn’t fall on Mom as she was perched on the bench fulfilling her role as trainer/rabbit’s foot.  And while I wasn’t physically there, I most certainly experienced the up and down nature of the game as the Boys reportedly fell behind 1-0 then came back and scored a go ahead goal with only two seconds left in the second period. I then followed with growing anticipation as the Boy redirected a shot from the point in behind the rival goalie.  3-1 good guys.  I may have even done a little fist pump for no one but me and the dog to witness.  But then I also tracked the action with mounting disdain as the two-goal lead disappeared amid a flurry of questionable penalties. I could feel the game slipping from 400 km away. As my phone announced the next update, I had a feeling it would not be of the positive variety.  4-3 bad guys with only five minutes remaining. I wanted to jump through the phone to implore a last ditch surge by the boys.  I held out hope on the second-last mobile chime I received, which pronounced a hitting from behind penalty and the final death knell for our beloved Colts in game one.  Unfortunately in a 14 team tournament where only four squads advance to a semi-final round, there isn’t a whole lot of room for losses in the three round-robin matches.  They will hopefully continue to battle hard in search of outside shot with a 2-1 record.  I will have my cell at the ready for whoever is willing to keep me updated when game two rolls around bright and early tomorrow morning.

Later in the day tomorrow the focus will turn to my girls’ team who we’re hoping to be able to refocus for a momentum-building final three regular season games.  Focus and discipline will be the recurring message.  As always, time will tell whether or not the message is heard and applied. I’m fairly certain mom will do her own patient waiting for a scoring update sent from my phone.  She may even try to coax someone into being her fan-via-proxy.

It’s weekends like these when my good hockey wife’s notion of rigging arenas up with closed circuit TVs and offering pay-per-view or recorded coverage of our kids games may not be all that far fetched.  For now I’ll have to settle for the OMGs, WooHoos and Scooooores accompanying the goal announcements from afar.

#imahockeydad