The Labatt Blue Pond Hockey Tournament is truly a spectacle to behold.
This is my first year participating and from what I observed today, everything is being run well and Mother Nature has done her part, so far.
There are enough rinks to accommodate the large number of teams at this year’s tourney, 124 to be exact. The city workers and tournament staff are all diligent about touching up the rinks once a game has completed. Albeit, pouring some slushy water onto a rut and pushing it with a shovel (one-handed) doesn’t fix much.
It is obvious the tournament organizers know what they are doing. The beer tent is large and the beers are cheap. The Sahlen’s dogs are also quite affordable and quite delicious. The change tent is rather crowded and could use an expansion or a companion. Lastly, there is plenty of room for spectators to watch.
My team, the Pilthy Puckers (it should be Philthy, but our captain didn’t grasp the concept of ph matching the sound of an f), won our first game and it will be interesting to see how we fare tomorrow. It would certainly be fun to get an extra game on Sunday, but three is enough to really savor the experience.
I’ll have more tomorrow. In the meantime enjoy the scraggly group of guys that make up our team – and please enjoy my homemade burnt cork eyeblack.
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