Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas” jingles through the ear buds of my iPod, and I smile, thinking of last December, not so much because Christmas was great here in Maynard but for Aaron Sherman’s antics in the AMHL playoffs four days before Christmas Day and again this morning.
A little more than two hours ago, as my teammates and I dressed for our game on Rink Two, Sherm—whose Panthers would take on the league-leading Bruins on Rink One—stepped into the center of the locker room, encouraging us to keep our heads up and to have fun. Then he pondered, aloud, whether he should make a pit stop before his game.
We urged him to do so.
Aaron’s Avalanche dumped the Bruins in OT, 5–4, to inch a game closer to the league-leading Bs. Although winning is wonderful, it’s always better for the Sherminator when he defeats his arch rival, the B’s David “Mr. Hockey” Losier. All the better that Sherm now leads Losier by three points in the race for the AMHL Art Ross Trophy.
As Losier, dressed in typical regal legal fashion, chatted with a few of his AMHL brethren in the breakfast lounge, Sherman opened the glass door, unable to conceal a smirk. He revealed an action photo the AMHL photographer had given to him and all participants in the Thursday Championship game on December 21, 2006. Sherman scribbled a note on the picture, placed it back in its clear plastic encasement, and then walked over to where Losier was holding court.
Losier read the message:
MR. HOCKEY,
ALL MY BEST,
SHERM
He grinned, saying that there are no pictures of Sherman backchecking and then that he’d try, unsuccessfully of course, to sell the signed picture at a silent auction.
Sherman said he didn’t have any takers at eBay…
…With work still four or five minutes a way, Mariah Carey ends her upbeat Christmas classic. I press the REWIND arrow to listen to it again, still smiling.
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