my first hockey sweater was a montreal canadiens sweater. well, no. it was actually a CCM polyester knit that was completely free of any NHL team or corporate logo. I was five years of age and it was the early 1980s, so i probably didn’t care if the big CH was on the front or not.
my first hockey game, in the garden city kiwanis hockey league, was on a team called The Eagles (ou, Les Aigles). That sweater was white with baby blue numbers and a green shoulder yoke. i can’t exactly remember what my number was, but I think it was 16. What i do remember was that the number certainly wasn’t my first choice. i think because i was five, and i still couldn’t skate, that i was a low priority when the numbers were being handed down. It take more than ten years before I’d finally get my choice of numbers.
(underneath that hockey sweater and the hockey gear was a yellow Pittsburgh Steelers shirt. If you squint hard enough right now, you’ll be able to see the endearing smiles on my parents’ faces from 26 years ago.)
my first encounter with a hockey celebrity was with Don Cherry. Cherry took a liking to me, probably because I couldn’t skate. To me, he was just an old man in a Santa Claus outfit whose identity we all had to guess at Christmas. To him, I’m sure I was the future of our great nation. If only he’d see me now.