We all know that when you can't fall asleep, the common
advice is to count sheep. But has anyone
ever told you to relive your most exciting personal sports successes? Well, that's what I do, and it's led me to
ask myself "Some People Count Sheep, Why Do I Relive Scoring Hockey
Goals?"
The cement playground in front of my apartment building |
For a short, skinny, Jewish kid from Brooklyn, I would say
I'm a decent athlete. I grew up on the
18th floor of a twenty-three story high-rise apartment building. I didn't grow up honing my baseball skills shagging
fly balls in my backyard, sliding easily on fluffy green grass to make a great
catch. No, instead, I snared line drives
fired off my closet door by diving across my rugged carpeted floor resulting in
some pretty nasty rug burns. I only ice
skated a few times as a kid, yet I learned to handle a hockey puck by
practicing shooting tennis balls through a small opening in my sliding closet
doors with a broken-bladed hockey stick.
And my basketball skills? I got
those by shooting a bright orange rubber basketball into a cardboard box with the
bottom cut out and taped to my wall. No
one would ever mistake me for Cal Ripken, Wayne Gretzky or Michael Jordan, but
on the cement playgrounds in Brighton Beach, some did call me mini Air Jordan. Don't laugh, I'm serious!
I went to college at RPI.
That's short for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. RPI had one Division I sports team in
hockey. That was it! So our lives revolved around going to hockey
games. Right after getting to RPI, I
joined the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity.
One of the best parts of fraternity life was the intramural sports. Having never really skated before, I decided
not to play on the fraternity ice hockey team. But after going to watch a game, I
decided I had to try to put my puck handling skills to the test. I rushed out the next day to the hockey shop
and bought myself all new hockey equipment, and within a few days found myself
dressing for my first ice hockey experience.
As soon as I stepped onto the ice, I knew this was the best decision of
my life. And then I fell. And I fell again. And again.
And again. In fact, I spent so
much time laying on the ice, they starting calling me The Mattress.
Dressing for the game |
So I decided to dedicate myself to practicing my skating at
the expense of some silly college courses and quickly put my Mattress days
behind me and became one of our better players.
Our team wasn't that good that year, but we managed to make the
playoffs, and found ourselves down a goal with seconds to go and the goalie
pulled. The puck found its way to the point,
where our biggest defenseman, standing a good 6' 7" on skates, blasted the
puck toward the net. I had positioned
myself to the side of the opposing goalie and managed to get a stick on the
incoming shot, deflecting it up and over the goalie's pads and into the back of
the net. The crowd of at least ten fans
went nuts and we were headed to overtime, and then eventually to a shoot
out. With a 1-0 lead after one round of
shots, I got the call to give it a go. With all eyes focused on me, I scooped
up the puck at center ice and raced toward the net. It felt like I was flying, but in reality I
think I was probably skating pretty slowly.
As I neared the net, I faked a shot and then slide the puck to the right
to my backhand. The goalie slid over to
block the shot and I quickly drew the puck back the my forehand and lifted a
shot into the vacated net. It was the
most incredible feeling I had ever felt playing sports. For a few seconds, I could hear nothing. I was truly floating on clouds as I skated
away from the net, pumping my fist and eventually high fiving my teammates on
the bench. I don't think I slept a wink
that night thinking about how I had saved the day!
Now, almost twenty years later, I often find myself run down
from a long day of work, taking care of the kids, and numerous other
responsibilities. Yet I lay in bed at
night with too much on my mind to drift off to sleep. So I do what relaxes me most. I close my eyes and transport myself back to
that incredible late night in March 1994 and relive scoring hockey goals. Why does it relax me so much? Perhaps it's because I can feel the complete calm
that came over me in those seconds after I scored in the shootout. Perhaps it's because for just one night in my
life, I accomplished what so many little kids fantasize about...scoring the
winning goal in the final seconds and becoming a hero. Or perhaps it's because I know that while my
best athletic days are clearly behind me now (I can't even run to the mailbox
without catching my breath), I can always close my eyes and for a moment feel
young again.
What's your shining moment?
What accomplishment do you often think about from your younger days to
make you feel better? Please take a
moment to share a comment below with all of my readers!
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