tennis, life and a few things in between

Golfer drags me to their practice, the minor leaguers of New York Islanders.  The arena is cold. More pix in gallery

One of the Islanders – Kabanov

Kabanov is talented but has a reputation of partying too much ..

with

father and son

I’ve heard that a mother accidentally washed off her son’s hard collected signatures ..

I’ve heard that ..

March 2, 2012 by JOHN HANC. Special to Newsday

It’s 9:30 on a midwinter Thursday night, a time when many suburban dads have tucked their children into bed and have themselves hunkered down in front of the television, watching “SportsCenter” on ESPN.

Matt Bernstein has already kissed his 8-month-old daughter good night and his wife goodbye. In the garage of his Massapequa home, he is making preparations to chill out his own way.

“Step one,” he said, opening the trunk of his vehicle. “Take the baby stroller out of the SUV.”

Placing the stroller to the side, he then picks up an athletic bag as big as a couch, and heaves it into the trunk.

“Step two. Put the gear into the SUV.”

Protruding from the bag are gloves, shin guards and shoulder pads.

Bernstein then produces a small bottle, and puts it in the cupholder by the front seat. One last thing to address, before he goes driving off into the night.

“My postgame Advil,” he said with a grin. “I already took my pregame Advil.”

Such is life for a 39-year-old who participates — of his own volition — in a contact sport generally played by strapping 21-year-olds from Alberta and Minnesota.

Such is life in the Midnight Hockey League.

It was founded in September 1992 to give recreational, adult hockey players more opportunities to suit up — if to get a little less sleep.

“The idea was to play the games later at night, when the fees at local ice rinks are reduced,” said league founder Tom Lynn, 54, of East Northport, who started as a teenager organizing pickup games on frozen ponds.

In the first season, the league included 75 players and six teams whose games were all played in the Town of Huntington rink in Dix Hills. The league now boasts 875 players on 75 teams, using nine rinks in Nassau and Suffolk counties, including Nassau Coliseum after Islanders games. Participants pay $425 each to play a season of 16 games plus playoffs. Although games now start as early as 8 p.m., most still go past midnight, and the name endures.

There are two seasons from October to April, a total of 28 weekly games, plus playoffs. It’s a schedule that roughly follows the regular NHL season.

The league’s growth speaks to a passion for hockey among a segment of Long Island’s population that grew up during the Islanders’ Stanley Cup winning streak of the 1980s and still loves the game — but unlike recreational runners, golfers or softball players, would have few opportunities to play if not for a league like this.

“It’s not like you can just go down to the local park and get into a hockey game,” said Bernstein, who started playing intramural hockey as an undergraduate at SUNY Plattsburgh.

After graduating in 1996, he wanted to continue, and heard about the Midnight Hockey League. Bernstein, an environmental scientist by profession, has played every season since — most recently as a defenseman on a team of 40-somethings who call themselves the Jurassic Pucks.

On thin ice

A shrill whistle echoes through the rafters of Superior Ice Rink in Kings Park, and the Pucks, sitting along the bench, stamp their feet and bang their sticks against the wooden boards, as their teammates take the ice. Tonight’s opponents are the Seahawks, a team composed largely of players who live in the same neighborhood in Cold Spring Harbor. They practice together regularly — a distinct advantage over the geographically dispersed Pucks, who see each other about once a week during the season, on game night.

The two teams play in the second of four proficiency levels of the Midnight Hockey League (teams are graded by skill level, from former college players to novices). But you wouldn’t know it by the élan they display in tonight’s playoff game to decide the winner of their division in a culmination of this season.

Sticks clatter, skates dig into the ice, players pound into each other in pursuit of the puck.

There are, however, no fans cheering them on, no vendors, no announcer. It’s just the Jurassic Pucks and the Seahawks, plus two officials and one scorer who are paid by the league.

The absence of a crowd doesn’t seem to matter. “It’s the highlight of my week!” said the Pucks’ Jeff Blum, 45, an attorney from Dix Hills who joined the league eight years ago.

Asked to characterize his team’s style of play, he chuckled and said: “We shoot first and ask questions later.”

Unfortunately for the Pucks, the Seahawks shoot faster and leave no question as to which is the better team on this night. By the end of the first period, they’re up, 3-1. The reaction from the Pucks bench is heated.

“Come on, we can play better than that!”

“What are you doing out there?”

“Let’s show some heart.”

Tensions flare on the ice a couple of times, particularly as the Seahawks begin to add to their lead. But no one takes a swing. Fights — so common in the NHL — are strictly forbidden here. As Lynn notes on the league website, “If you are one of those players who think hockey is not hockey unless you can hit someone, do not register in our league.”

As time runs out with the score 8-1, the Pucks’ bench falls silent. The Seahawks erupt in cheers and, in grand hockey tradition, mob their goalie. Asked why he continues to play a demanding and time-consuming sport, the Seahawks’ John Yaccarino, 47, smiles. “It’s still fun to win,” he said.

The real goal

“You ask most guys why they play in this league, and they’ll tell you it’s really about the camaraderie,” said Jurassic team captain Jeff Berson, 45, an attorney from Plainview.

Indeed, the mood among the 11 members of the losing team changes abruptly as they stream into the locker room. Now there’s laughing and good-natured joshing. But not for too long: It’s a half hour past midnight — and most of these guys have to get up in the morning. How will they get through a day’s work tomorrow?

“I’ll take a nap during lunch and have a big cup of coffee in the afternoon,” jokes the Pucks’ goalie, Rob Roth, 38, an IT manager from Centereach.

The sore muscles, the expense ($500 on average for the skates, pads and equipment), the late nights are a small price to pay, they said.

“Once you get hooked on this game,” Roth said, “you’re hooked for life.”

Driving home, and having popped his postgame analgesic, Bernstein is philosophical about the loss.

“I guess it’s a good thing we have day jobs,” he said. “And hey, the new season starts next week.”

Islanders lost their game in over time to San Jose Sharks 2-3. The refs, four of them on the ice made a terrible call resulting the winning goal scored in the power ensuing play. During the game, the tv station showed Darius Kasparaitis among few players of 1993 team that’s being honored tonight. 1993 was the last great year Islanders had had – they almost made to the Stanley Cup playoff. We watched it in a bar in Newport (Rhode Island). They played well and beat Mario Lemieux and his Pittsburgh Penguins. Some accomplishment.

During the the game, the station [tv] showed few clips of Darius Kasparaitis beating Super Mario. When Mario got up on his feet, Darius threw more pouches at him. Mario is a good head taller than Darius. I had to laugh. Darius was a good player but he was mostly known for his fight, a goon who shadowed Mario. Even in the fight, and was pushed down on the ice, Mario didn’t loss his cool and didn’t return a single pouch. The divider separate a great player from good player?

Golfer is pretty mad at the lose, said he’s too upset to eat when I offered him a cake.

Update: on Jan 3, 2011 Golfer scored a hat trick .. .. 3 goals in a game, becoming the most improved player out there.

Forgot how long I’ve been a golf widow. Getting used to it by now. Will I be ok with another widowhood? Too late, it’s unavoidable: ice hockey widow. Since Golfer started his quest back in the winter, I’ve been getting deliveries of huge boxes on daily basis. Many of them dwarfed me into midget. The former maid’s room is piled to the ceiling with ice hockey stuff. It used to store wine now I have dig deep to retrieve a bottle.
Not complaining but stating the fact and my plight.
It takes a long while to be ready: all those stuff need time to be put on. Think about it, man on skate travels fast and so does the little puck. You’d better have something that could block a shot ..
And it takes a long long while to take them off. And the time in the locker room was precious. Boys enjoy it very much. Perhaps beats out the drink after the 18th hole. The next shift crowd came and many had to do changing in the open: guess the locker room is too full with the departing crowd who had no desire to leave any time soon.
The Stanley Cup (French: La Coupe Stanley) is going on at the moment, so the fans are all acting up, excited and crazy.
The first layer of defense.
After winning the championship and trying to pretend to be a supportive wife, I went to his ice hockey game last Monday, at Syosset where the New York Islanders trains. Upon entrance, there is the artist’s rendering of future Nassau Coliseum that Charles B. Wang (王嘉廉 Wang Jialian) had envisioned since 2003, long time ago. There are lots going on regarding this development, to a point that Mr. Wang is considering move away. I haven’t been to Coliseum for a number of years because it felt yucky and depressing, like old Euorpa that every where you turn you see dilapidated corner, a beauty in her 80s and barely holding on. It’s just too brutal.
What’s stopping the county to grant Mr. Wang’s wish? The Lighthouse Project‘s already nixed..
..
The rink is in a decent condition, could be better but it’s ok. The large rink was being used by kids and the big men are using the side rink. I thought Golfer’s game bag is huge, which I dab it as body bag. Really, it can fit me probably without being cut into half. But compare to his mates, his is really 小巫见大巫 pale into insignificance by comparison.

Ice hockey is a very graceful and elegant game, still don’t understand why it isn’t as popular as other major league sports. It has speed, force, violence, blood .. beat out basketball when men running around half naked any given day, IMHO.

Golfer and his mates warming up first, then little drill and games. They mostly are middle aged men. It was exciting. One of the guys came out, jokingly asked me if I knew how to skate and should join them .. .. ha ha ha … Couple of the mates are grandpas who couldn’t skate the way the middle aged boys do but boy they could handle the puck. Although I saw no Alex Ovechkin nor Sidney Crosby (hahaha but again none of us are Pete Sampras or Agassi or Roger Federer) – actually both boys are already knocked out of .. so the NHL might need some replacements?

As we were driving home, Golfer thought out loud enthusiastically that should our home rink offers such program he would have played everyday. I was like, silently, thank lord or whoever lives above that our home rink is geared toward figure staking. A supoortive wife indeed.

I couldn’t grasp the reality that the ice hockey isn’t as popular as say the drug ridden, slow motioned baseball, or half naked basketball in the USA.  The ice hockey has grace, finesse, speed, drama, fight, blood, goons and heroes, and is elegant and clean (years ago, a promising rookie caught using drugs: he’s banned for life — kiddo, you’re in the wrong sport, switch to baseball, you not only get 2 more chances, also get longer shelf life!!)  All the ingredients that makes a sport exciting .. .. but unfortunately the Yankees just don’t take it the way they take to baseball or basketball, and it certainly dictates the fate of that sport.  Ice hockey players seemed never show up on the top ten (best-paid athletes) list.

It’s summer, and news is all about ice hockey in Toronto. Do the Canadians have other thing on their mind? The Maple Leafs has new home .. .. Anyway, Toronto is the seat of hockey, so first thing first.  We visited the it as soon as we arrived.  The building that bears the Hockey Hall of Fame on the corner of Front and Yonge Street is very elegant, but the museum is housed in the basement at the adjacent mall.  Hockey news dominated their newspapers and airwaves, even in the sweltering summer: Mark Bell has pleaded no contest to felony drunken driving and hit-and-run, will face jail time after the season; Sam Pollock has passed away on 8/16 .. ..

The media room in the museum was showing a documentary on Mario Lemieux as we walked by.  I always prefer him over the more famous Gretzky, whom I thought on the girlie side.  Super Mario also battled cancer and came back to play again.  The last time I saw him playing was at the MSG Madison Square Garden against the Rangers in May 1993 – I remembered it by heart: pregnant with King in the 8th month.  Mario scored 5 goals and the Penguins eventually won 8:1 or something like that.  I was wildly happy and cheering for him loudly.  That had irritated the Rangers fans that packed the house.  Few of them fixed me with the menace-est looks.  I supposed if my belly weren’t visibly enlarged they’d throw me onto the ice in no time.

I left the meseum early to entertain the kids – they refused to go to the Hall.  Golfer stayed longer.  Our local rings at home are always packed to almost 24/7: mens league starts at 11pm and boys’ starts at 5 or 5:30am; girlie figure skaters always get up before school.  Is the lack of rings or hockey is indeed popular at grass root?  Parents would kill for it.  You hear term ‘soccer moms’ when soccer isn’t popular at all.  (David Beckham made to the top ten in 2004 as the Mr. No. 8th, beating out A-Rod the 9th and Kobe Bryant the 10th.)  Another myth.