In my job as a sports reporter, I’ve had the chance to try out some activities that I may not have had the chance to do otherwise.
For example, when I was working in Fort Frances, Ont., I had the chance to try my hand at shooting clay targets, attempting to catch bass on Rainy Lake, and missing every single serve attempt on a squash court.
So when I was asked on April 26 if I wanted to try my hand at sledge hockey at the Henry Viney Arena with members of the Calgary Venom novice team, I jumped right in.
Now this may be a bit of a surprise to some of you with me being a sports reporter, but I did not play minor hockey as a kid.
I’m not sure why that is, but perhaps it’s because I never asked my parents if I could take part. Well that and I also played curling, but that’s another story.
So while my ability to be Sidney Crosby is somewhat lacking, I thought that I would be able to do pretty well out on a sledge.
Although I wasn’t really the proper gear other than my helmet and hockey gloves, (a Pro Tip for everyone out there, a light spring coat, dress pants, and dress shoes are not the smartest idea for sledge hockey), I don’t think it really mattered as I was quickly flying around the ice.
Much to my surprise, it was actually pretty easy to manoeuvre around the ice as I used the two sticks with picks on the end of them to catch up with the play, and turning and stopping ended up being pretty simple.
The one problem, however, usually occurred when I was attempting to battle or reach for a loose puck, as I would quite often crash onto the ice when over-balancing on my left and right side.
My big moment of truth happened at the end of my half-hour out on the ice, when everyone took part in a shootout contest.
After watching the more experienced sledge hockey players take their shots, I made my attempt down the ice and tried to move the puck over from my right-handed stick to my left-handed stick.
That play didn’t go as well as I had hoped as the puck ended up getting stuck in between my sledge and the ice, and forcing me to do a complete 360-degree turn just to get the puck again.
After finally making it to the front of the net at a blazing speed of two km/h, I attempted to make a backhanded shot on goal, which ended up being an easy save for the netminder.
Once that happened, I proceeded to throw my gloves and sticks in the air in mock disgust about missing the net, which turned out to be not the smartest idea in the world.
For you see, I now had to slowly use my hands to work my way back into the corner of the rink so I could grab my gloves and sticks and get to the dressing room.
That marked the end of my time on the ice, but it was something I won’t forget about for a long time.
In fact, it made me respect the skills of not just those taking part in the Paralympics for Canada, but those new players who are trying it out at the novice level and can already do better than I can.
