I Feel Twelve Again

I remember when I doodled hockey players, I remember when all I thought about was, when is recess, when is lunch, I remember school not as a place of learning, but a place where 20 or 30 like minded friends would bolt to the gym or parkinglot as soon as the bell rang, grab a hockey stick, bend the plastic blades into ridiculous curves and play. When the school bell would finally ring at 3:30 I would run home grab my own stick, usually a Mike Bossy Titan, maybe a Gretzky, and play some more until supper, supper finished the games would continue until dark.
One day I would be Patrick Roy, and I would make the huge glove save that would preserve yet another 7 game Stanley Cup victory, the next I might be Mike Bossy scoring 50 goals in 50 games, Mario Lemieux with 3 North Stars defenders on his back, winning the cup all by himself, or Mats Naslund the smallest guy on the ice but with the biggest heart of them all.
The year and a half long lock-out was tough on me. Hockey has always been an escape from reality for me, deep down somewhere in my subconscience, I've always been a NHL superstar. For a year and a half the glory that where my childhood dreams have been dragged through the mud. Suddenly hockey was not the greatest game on ice, but a seminar in failed Capitalist expansion. Like an automobile maker with too many dealerships, and too many models, the product and brand became stagnant and uncompetive and began to fail. Did this lock-out solve the problems that exist in the NHL, I am not sure, yes there is a new economic model that evens the playing field, hypothetically the Detroits, Torontos , and Phillies, are now equal to the Nashvilles, the Columbus', and Edmontons, in that all these teams have a limit on how much they can spend and not spend, that being said it is still far more sexy to sign in a strong hockey market with a strong hockey history, no one wants to play in a half filled arena. Has the lock-out solved the problem of the subpar product on the ice, again I am not sure, there have been quite a few rule changes, tougher obstruction rules, no red line, smaller goalie equipment, and the shootout. My concern and returning to the automaker reference,is that all these changes my simply be cosmetic, like adding power windows, a/c, a dvd player, to a car instead of fixing its real problems that are in the engine. The fact that all 30 teams survived this lock-out may be its true failing, there are too many teams, in too many non hockey markets, that are employing too many average hockey players. Funny how the NHL if viewed as a corporation did not go the way of every other failing corporation, and bow at the alter of the cutback. Funny even more that a pinko socio/humanist like myself would be in support of this.
But who cares about all this, last night for the first time in a year and a half I heard Stompin Tom singing The Good Old Hockey Game, I saw a puck dropped, I saw big hits, and powerplay goals, and glove saves, and yes I even saw the brand new shootout that everyones talking about. Last night I was twelve again, and man did it feel good.