Hockey Chat:  Oh the skates!  A premium fitted boot with a sharp blade can have you moving across the ice with fancy footwork. Try a loose boot with a dull blade.  You’re better off playing barefoot.  Having a fitted skate gives you peace of mind knowing that you can get where you want to go confidently.  If you tell your feet to move, you’ll dig in the ice and make the play. 

Any athlete engaged in athletic competition—whether individual or team competition—is aware that his or her well-conditioned and dedicated athleticism is the most important weapon of defense. Regardless of his or her size or the opposition, an athlete without properly conditioned athleticism is the prime target for an adversary.

There are mornings when we awaken with a heavy schedule bearing down upon us. When that happens, we are tempted to skip prayer and Bible reading and head right into our work. However, the very opposite response is really what we need. When we are feeling pressured by our schedules, that is the very time when we ought to pause and pray. The more we have going on in our lives, the more we need God to give us wisdom to accomplish one task at a time. It’s comforting to know that God cares about every aspect of our lives.

The Lady Bing trophy is awarded to a player for the most sportsman like conduct.  This is the only sport that actually gives an award for playing within the rules.  Sounds ridiculous?  Not really considering it’s the only sport where fighting is generally expected and only punished by 5 minutes of offsetting penalties.  The point is that to play in such a tough field, and still keep courteous to those who generally don’t deserve it, deserves to be acknowledged and rewarded.

Hockey Chat:  You’ve seen hockey players try to argue there way out of penalties saying that it was just a little hook or they just slashed at the puck not the opponent.  They try to minimize the offense.  Fact is, when they are called for penalty, it’s a penalty.  If they say they just barely hit the guy with their stick, they still are called for slashing.  If plead that they just nudged the guy head first into the boards, they still get called for boarding just as if they slammed him.  When the ref sees a penalty, regardless of the degree, he calls it.

Baseball immortal Ty Cobb, one of the greatest hitters of all time, was also a base- stealing “demon” during his playing days. In his autobiography, My Life in Baseball, the True Record, Cobb admitted that often he would use trickery to fool his opponents and steal a base.

Hockey Chat:  Being great at hockey skater is not instantaneous. Hockey coaches that teach young kids know that there are stages to learning.  It’s starts with balancing on skates then to moving forward, skating backwards, and then eventually backwards crossovers. Each stage is difficult for the student but it builds them up and makes them better.

If you listen to people, being thankful is not a very common attitude. They complain about their classes, their jobs, their practice schedules, their parents (or kids), their friends, the weather, their teammates, and on and on it goes. In the world, it is easy to complain because everybody does it. Yet, as followers of Jesus, we are called to be thankful. That is no easy task when everyone around us is doing the opposite. It is just easier to fall in with them and do the same thing.