That one rink in Or-uh-gone
by Steve, June 2nd, 2006
So the Buffalo Sabres, with local boy Paul Gaustad, have been eliminated from the quest for Lord Stanley’s cup. Quite disappointing, but they put up a heck of a fight.
Gaustad grew up in Beaverton, and played youth hockey at Valley, my regular rink. He was there quite a bit last summer working on his skills.
Now, it’s nice that the TV guys have finally realized that even though he was born in Fargo, he’s really “from” Oregon. So last night, they talked about his “amazing story” (true, it is) about how he moved here when he was six and there was only one rink in the state. Huh? There are three hockey rinks in the Portland metro area alone (OK, one’s actually in Washington state), and there was one more when Paul was playing youth. Yeah, okay, Sherwood and Mt. View are pretty new, so maybe they weren’t available to him. But there are (and have been) other rinks in the state with youth hockey, e.g. Eugene. A minor point, true, but come on.
Anyway, now it’s Stanley time. Edmonton vs. Carolina. Got to root for Edmonton, even though there’s a former Portland Winter Hawks player (Glen Wesley) on the ‘Canes. Go Oilers!
June 6th, 2006 at 1:47 pm
Have you read “How Hockey Saved the World* (and defeated George W. Bush, but not necessarily in that order)” (iUniverse 2006) by a certain hockey-playing Durham, NC Canes fan? Check out an excerpt and a great hockey protest photograph at
http://indyweek.gyrobase.com/g.....?oid=32411
Yours in hockey (Go Canes!),
Alex Charns
P.S. The chant “More hockey, Less War” was heard in the RBC last night, Game 1, by a collection of Oilers and Canes fans joining their voices in the concourse. Pres. Bush was not in attendance.
PPS Love your bumper stickers.
June 8th, 2006 at 8:42 am
Hey Alex: Awesome!
My “wife”:http://wackymommy.org/ has talked about writing a book on How Hockey Saved my Marriage. She claims I’m unbearable when I don’t get enough ice time. And it helped me lose all of (well, most of, anyway) the baby fat I gained when she was pregnant.
BTW, after last night I don’t think I can root for the Oilers any more. Interesting pattern emerging in the Stanley: Teams from Alberta getting beat by sunbelt teams…
June 9th, 2006 at 1:28 pm
We could have a series of “How Hockey Saved . . .” books. Did you make it down here for any games considering the empty seats? BTW – I grew up in the Detroit area so the Oilers already hosed down my birth-hometeam.
Yours in hockey protest,
Alex Charns
June 12th, 2006 at 11:50 am
No, I didn’t make the Oregon to N.C. trip to help fill out the crowd (if I had, I’d have been rooting for Buffalo anyway). But I did order a copy of your book from Amazon. Looking forward to it!
BTW, I’m still rooting for Edmonton. What a show in game 3, eh? And what the hell happened to Detroit, anyway? Did all those Swedes just give up, having won Olympic gold?
June 12th, 2006 at 2:27 pm
Game 4 should be a wild one in E-town. As for my Red Wings, they didn’t consult with me on their Euro-based goal-scoring woes. It’s that bias against Dixie hockey (redneck hockey is the preferred term at the RBC). When I was in Motown I played basketball and they didn’t consult with me either.
I ordered three bumper stickers. I suspect a lot of my beer-league buddies will want them after they see them on the J-tron at Game 5 of the Finals if they arrive in time.
Go Canes!
-Alex Charns