Would you step in front of a 400 pound mass of speeding flesh for a friend?
Also take into account that:
- It's armed with a stick.
- It has knives strapped to it's feet, and
- it probably can't stop.
Sad but true, I very nearly was in the running for a Darwin Award last week. At least if you believe what the other guys on my hockey team say about me. Of course, if you do believe all they say let me say unequivocally that I have never even BEEN to a farm.
A week ago, we took the ice for our "blood feud" against one of the other C-League teams. One of their players (the aforementioned 400 pound mass of speeding flesh) had cross-checked our captain in the mouth. For those not in the know, Bill, our captain is almost 50 (the only guy I know who's been elbowed by Gordie Howe), maybe an inch taller than me and about 20 pounds lighter. You see the mismatch. We had been saying all during the holiday break that we would exact our revenge the first chance we got. What we hadn't counted on was playing in a tournament the three days immediately before our showdown. So physically depleted and short a couple of players, we rethought our plans and decided against revenge in favor of
survival. It seemed like a great plan.
And it was until the third period.
With less that two minutes left in the game, we're down by one. This behemoth steals the puck from one of our defencemen and begins to rumble down the ice at me. I say rumble mainly because planetary masses don't move at any other speed. And as I had said once not long ago:
No forecheck.
No backcheck.
Only a gut check.
In my mind, there was only one course of action. As he got closer, I dropped down and jammed the paddle of my stick directly in front of the oncoming skate blades. It had a twofold effect. First, it knocked the puck away. Second, it sent the monster tumbling. Unfortunately, it also sent all 400 pounds of him crashing into my back, knees first. I heard a distinct cracking sound from the vicinity of my ribs, though at the time I wasn't sure it wasn't my back. I laid on the ice, listening to the flurry of activity taking place around me and wondered, "Is this what David felt like when he slew Goliath?"
Probably not. But one thing I did know: Never underestimate what you might do for your friends.
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