As the Stanley Cup Finals are coming to an end (Go Avs!), it makes me think how I have very tangential connections to a handful of NHLers.
Though he was a couple years older than me, my main “connection” was growing up on the same street as Dave Karpa (who regularly used my testicles for target practice during road hockey games!)
I’d seen a couple pre-season games when the Blues used to do their training camp in Regina but I think the first regular season NHL game I ever saw was in 1993 when my dad and I joined a bus tour from Indian Head to Winnipeg to watch the Jets play the Nordiques featuring our hometown boy (who even hopped on the bus for the ride home since it was the last game before the Christmas break!) Also got to see a Teemu Selanne hat trick – not too bad.
Another very loose NHL connection is Jarret Stoll whose family had a cottage a couple doors down from our family cottage and my dad even sold Jarret’s dad some land at one point.
In fact, when Jarett won the Stanley Cup we were hoping he’d bring it to his dad’s cottage and we might have a chance to drink from Lord Stanley. No luck though – he took it to his hometown instead (or if he brought it to the cottage, we either weren’t around or maybe just weren’t invited!) 😉
