Saturday, March 11, 2006

AMHL Tuesday: Birthday Boys

Bill Mahony. Terry Carkner. Both celebrated their 40th birthdays on Tuesday. Bill plays defense for the AMHL Flyers; Terry played defense for the NHL Flyers. Bill has scored five goals this season (two on Tuesday); Terry notched seven goals in the 1990–91 campaign with the NHL Flyers. Bill’s team is 4–6, while Terry’s squad is 3–5. Both were born in North America. Both are married. Okay, so now I’m grasping for similar straws.

But so what if Mahony is a project manager and part-time hockey player and Carkner the head hockey coach at Villanova University. Who cares if Mahony’s hobbies include chasing his kids around and that Carkner enjoys… (I don’t know what his hobbies are because he didn’t return my call). Doesn’t matter that Mahony’s favorite donut is Strawberry Frosted and that Carkner’s is (wish I knew, but I’m guessing it’s not Strawberry Frosted).

Big deal that Mahony has spent a grand total of two minutes in the penalty box in his six AMHL seasons and that Carkner amassed 867 minutes during his five seasons with the Flyers. So what if Mahony is hardly a presence on the Internet while you can find Carkner’s autographed picture and clips of his hockey fights in less time than it takes to say, “You wanna go?”

More important is that Bill, who attended graduate school at Carnegie Mellon (Pittsburgh) and Terry, who went attended Broad Street Bully U. (Philadelphia), are both doing what they love at age 40. Happy Birthday, fellas!

[Editor's Update, 3/17/06: Bill's reply, edited to protect anonymity: "I knew that poor scorekeeping would be my doom...I have 0 penalty minutes in my entire AMHL career. In fact I got my first penalty minutes ever as an adult for tripping in my Wednesdy League 2 weeks ago."]