Memorial Day 2011: True Battlers and Gratitude

Thank you, Nathan Hardy, Michael Koch, and all the true battlers who have lost their lives to protect a hockey (and donut) fan’s freedom to blog about that which I am grateful.

1. Aaron Ward’s comments (May 28 2001, 98.5 The Sports Hub) to Boston Bruins’ fans before Game Seven against the Tampa Bay Lightning: “Be grateful for what you’ve got.”

2. Hockey talk on the radio: Fond memories of the defunct New England Hockey Journal and now 98.5, The Sports Hub

3. Hardy and Trupiano: The ultimate sports talk radio team

4. Coffee and donuts ice cream: The Wagon Wheel Restaurant

5. Donut diversity: Dunkin’ Donuts, Dynamo Donut, Adams Donuts

6. Donut books: Time to Make the Donuts, The Donut Chef, Who Needs Donuts?

7. Hockey writers: Jack Falla, Paul Grant, Jay Atkinson

8. Hockey rinks: Valley Sports, Herb Brooks Arena, EPIC

9. The Boston Bruins’ marketing department: Best of the Bear

10. Timmy Thomas: Top Ten Saves at TSN (merci, Gilbert Cote)

11. Hockey friends on both sides of the 49th

12. The Stanley Cup Finals, Bruins versus Canucks:Win or lose, I’ll enjoy the ride.

Around the Globe: Hockey Heroes and Helping Hands

The anxiety I felt about unresolved issues dissipated as I navigated today’s Boston Globe.

Kevin Cullen’s front-page piece about Sudbury’s Scott Milley, a hockey player, isn’t so much about hockey as it is Millen’s sacrifice and his family’s grief.

If that story touches your heart, if not your tear ducts, then Cindy Cantrell’s Metro West story about Kasey, a Helping Hands miracle monkey, might make you laugh. I did. Couple the capuchin’s personality with her purpose, to rescue not only a once-athletic Concord kid but also his family, and you’ve got a story to boost slumping spirits. The story also made me think of Travis Roy.

Concord’s own (via Buffalo), Kevin Paul Dupont, reflects upon the inherent rigors of building a backyard rink. Impossible for hockey enthusiasts and storytellers like me to not to think of Jack Falla, who consulted on KPD’s  project but who is not to blame for the debacle, to be grateful for fond Falla memories.

Still in Sports, Dupes delivers a dose of sadness about a fun man: On page C9, amidst the hockey news, is a snippet about Buffalo-based hockey writer Jim Kelley, who was claimed by cancer. Sad for Dupes, who knew Kelley well, and for me, even if I never met him.

Then again, I never met Scott Milley. But reading these stories has helped me surrender my self pity. They gave me, you might say, a helping hand.

Happy Thanksgiving: A Propos de Moi

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving, Canadian style. I’m grateful for so much, like a great chiropractor, the opportunity to write, and a talent for learning languages—first Spanish, and now French. The study of the latter is an effort to replace, or at least abate, my fear of perhaps not playing hockey again.

Below is an excerpt of my first assignment "en la cours de français," my first foray into introducing myself to francophones.

Salut, mes amis. Je m’appelle Jim, mais ma famille et mes amis de hockey m’appellent Jimmy. Tout le monde pense que je suis Canadien. Je viens de Colorado—ou trois de mes quatre frères et mon papa habitent—mais je habite avec ma femme à Maynard. Je étudie le français parce que deux de mes amis de hockey parlent français, j’aime bien la musique de Céline Dion, y parce que ma femme et moi voyageons souvent a Canada. Nous adorons la Ville de Québec. Nous ne somme pas fans de l’équipe de hockey de Montréal, mais j’aime bien Patrice Bergeron, qui vient de Québec et qui joue pour les Bruins de Boston. Nous aimons les Bruins et le entraîneur, Claude Julien.

J’adore aussi lire les livres de Jacques Falla, Frank Delaney et George Plimpton; écouter et chanter la musique de les artistes canadiens comment Great Big Sea, Bryan Adams, y Les Ténors Canadiens; manger les beignes les démanche; et écrire de tout ces expériences.

Un de ces jours j’aimerais publier mon mémoire, Gloire AMHL: Une Passion pour le Hockey du Matin (et Beignes); écrire autres livres, et voyager à Nouveau Zélande—bien que ils ne pas parlent français allé.

On the Shelf, Part VI: Quotable Quotes and Open Ice

“He who learns must suffer.”
-Aeschylus

The nexus of my adductor longus and iliopsoas was on the mend. Nearly three months after tearing those muscles, I resumed skating, at least in pre-game warm-ups; I could feel the improvement from week to week as I anticipated an early-December return to the Capitals’ roster. But now, the injury may be getting worse. Maybe it was last week’s violent sneezes (coupled with my predisposition for delayed reaction) that has caused an intermittent searing sensation in the damaged area. Whatever the cause, I’ll be on the shelf for who knows how long. My hopes for a return this season have vanished, but I’m confident this unexpected and prolonged absence will enlighten me as much as I’m hopeful the following review will prod you to purchase the book.

Open Ice
by Jack Falla

Falla was a master at connecting the dots, those seemingly so-far-away quotes—from Aeschylus to Emerson—to poignant points in his own life. From “A Death in Montreal”, where Falla found solace in Emerson’s thoughts about other men, lenses, and reading our minds, to “Goodbye to the Backyard Rink?”, where the self-proclaimed “hockey lifer” juxtaposed Jewett’s comments about chapter endings, Open Ice has become a posthumous farewell to all those who love hockey as much as the author did and—I believe—still does.

“I kept thinking about religion, death and the possibility of an afterlife…,” Falla wrote, in “Requiem for the Cucumber”, about his road trip from Chicoutimi (where cool as a you-know-what George Vezina is buried) to Quebec City (where Falla felt connected to his forebears).

Falla, of French Canadian heritage and a former amateur netminder, chronicled his evolving connection to the namesake for the trophy awarded to the NHL’s finest goalie; describes the rise and fall—and rebirth—of a “particular subspecies of the genus hockey player” in “The Rink Rat”; and finds strength by learning to let go of his home ice in “Goodbye to the Backyard Rink?”

As I recount my reading of Falla’s gracious revelations, I think of the quote that he employed—this one to enrich his respect for hockey’s greatest amateur player in “Searching for Hobey Baker”—as it relates to Falla himself.

“His nature is too noble for this world.”-Coriolanus, by William Shakespeare

On the Shelf, Part II: Jack Falla

While I’m still on the shelf (see Part I), I present to you a tribute to Jack Falla, who wrote the two books I’ll review below. Jack, who died on Sunday September 14, was more than just a great writer.

Home Ice: Reflections on Backyard Rinks and Frozen Ponds

I was geared up to read about the experiences the Fallas and their friends shared on the Bacon Street Omni. And Falla delivers the goods with humor and honesty, with wit and wisdom. But Home Ice, for me, has become more than a celebration of hockey and that which unites families and communities.

I, a relative newcomer to New England, didn’t expect to learn so much about the Boston Bruins. I had heard of Orr and O’Reilly, of course, but I didn’t grow up watching them as Falla did. He brings his memories of the Big Bad Bruins to life. Falla also mixes Black and Gold with the Oil. His skate with Wayne Gretzky enriches the book, giving it balance: the Great One juxtaposed to the average Joes who play on the pond.

Because I enjoyed the book so much and had started writing my own hockey book, I was compelled me to seek Falla’s literary counsel. Finding Falla was easy. A staff member at the Framingham Barnes & Noble told me that the author dropped in every once in a while to sign his books and that he would tell Falla about me.

In 2004, Jack took time out from his schedule, which included teaching sports journalism at Boston University, to discuss my own hockey memoir. Jack taught me about tighter writing, how to trim the fatty words. Later, he convinced me that I had a unique story and that readers deserved me as the central character.

As I wrote more and more and have developed this site, Jack has continued to encourage me. On December 29, 2007, he wrote this in an e-mail:

“Hi, James...looks as though you’ve created a nice hockey writing niche for yourself. Good for you. All best with it in 2008 and beyond.”

Then he told me about his book that would be released ten days later.

“I wrote my first novel, actually my first fiction of any kind not counting Sports Illustrated expense reports… It’s a humorous love story that plays out over a modern NHL season.”

Saved

A fictional account about a goalie of French Canadian ancestry and who plays in the NHL, Saved borders on non-fiction. It’s no serendipitous coincidence that Jean Pierre Savard plays goalie for Jack’s favorite team, the Bruins. It’s no surprise then, that Jack was also a netminder, and that like his protagonist, Falla’s family tree is partly rooted in French-speaking territory.

Falla’s description of the on-ice action and insights into how players deal with the media, and what happens in a player’s private life—as well as what he’s thinking—all read true. The novel also contains characters, names that Bruins and/or AMHL fans will recognize: Cam, Rancourt…even a cameo by a Dwyer. Other characters’ names sound more cartoon-like—“Flipside, “the Mad Hatter,” and “Rinky”—but add color to Falla’s commentary. And like any good book, conflict, sadness, doubt, compassion, faith, and redemption make this a keeper.

In that e-mail to me, Jack also mentioned the book he was writing, which would be released in September 2008.

I haven’t read Open Ice yet because I’m too sad.

You see, Jack closed the e-mail by saying, “My rink opened last week, this for its 25th consecutive season. Won’t be 25 more I’ll tell you that. May not be any more. But we did a quarter century. I’ll take it.

“A belated Joyeux Noel and an early bonne annee.”

I only met him face-to-face that one time. I'll take it, but I miss him.

Adieu mon ami. Repose en paix.