Mike's Hockey Memories

One thing I noticed while watching the sell-out Rangers @ Coyotes game is the number of very young kids at the game. This is awesome, especially for the Coyotes who've not had the greatest attendance statistics in recent years.

It got me wondering if the kids would remember the game, and if Vrbata's hatrick would be their first memory. That then begged the question what's my earliest memory of hockey? And that took me on a little trip down memory lane.

I'm a Whitley Bay lad, if that place sounds familiar, it's where Red Wings coach Mike Babcock was player/coach in the late 80s. Babcock had a successful time stint at Hillheads, scoring 45 goals and 127 assists in 49 games. 

The oldest game I remember going to was 10 years after Babcock had joined the team, by which time he was at the Spokane Chiefs but the Warriors were still doing pretty well. The rink, built in 1955 was a shed. In the 96/97 season, it was not a cool place to be. But it had character. Not unlike Fenway Park*. The hockey was good but the food was awful. It's funny what you remember. To say the rink was shoddy was understatement, a few years ago a fire broke out, by the time a fire brigade turned up, there was still skaters on the ice, obliviously skating away. Still, it was the rink where the Warriors played, so it was a fortress.

Between periods, my friend David, who got me into hockey in the first place, and I would hit the bowling lanes upstairs, at first I loved the retro 50s styling. But then I learned the equipment was actually installed in the 50s and hadn't been maintained in as many years. Still when you're a teen, you don't care about such things.

In 1996, goalie Chris Salem signed with the Warriors for the second time, and he finished the season with a 5.99 goals against average (which was good for the league, although it doesn't compare with Martin Brodeur who posted 1.88 GAA in the same season). Despite that, he became my first hockey hero and I'd been bitten by the bug. I went to every home game I could.

At the end of one game, Salem gave me his stick and I held on to that until it fell apart. Using it for roller hockey didn't help either. If that happened now, it would be framed and hung on the wall, but when you're a teenager you don't think about these things.

My first memories of hockey are watching the Whitley Warriors play, a keeper who could do no wrong and eating crappy chips. 

*probably the first and last time the Whitley Bay Ice Rink will be compared to Fenway Park.