Author: Rakib Hasan

If you give a boy a pair of skates, he’ll want a stick and a puck to go with it. You’ll buy him a stick, and then a helmet, gloves, and the rest of the equip- ment. The boy will ask you to drive him to practice, and to watch his games. The games will be played in different towns and cities, and each year they’ll be further and further away. Sometimes, it’ll take longer to drive to and from the games than the one-hour game that is played.

Canada’s identity is maybe better defined by C what it isn’t, rather than what it is. We’re a country born without a mission statement. Fame is not a Canadian experience. We go south for that. Neil lives on a California ranch, Celine resides in Vegas, and Bieber lounges at Snoop Dogg’s house. We’re the hole in the donut. But without it, Tim Hortons can’t call it a donut.

A shot was fired. One man lay sprawled on the floor still flailing in his battle-like equipment. Seconds passed before he knew what happened. The shooter, wearing a uniform emblazoned with the word DE-STROYERS, towered above the fallen man.

Almost anyone who knows ball hockey in Asia has witnessed Mekong Moments. These are times during the annual Mekong Cup Ball Hockey Tournament, when eyes widen, jaws drop and sounds are uttered in gasps.

To spin a yarn is to tell a story, usually a long and fanciful one. A good one will spin a big crisis for entertainment value rather than to communicate important information. However, Mook V’s yarns are for serious concern.

RORY RAWYLK was told to leave the gym immediately. He was only halfway through the morning fitness test. Standing 6’5” he doesn’t scare easily. He would soon exit the building to a whirl of police cars and fire trucks.

“We know that hockey is where we live, where can best meet to overcome pain, and wrong, and death. Life is just a place to spend between games.” Fred Shero, Coach, Philadelphia Flyers, 1971-78

The Bangkok Brewsers were a hapless bunch during this year’s annual Mekong Cup. Winless in six games and scoring a tournament low eight goals, they salvaged their only point in a tie to the Vietnam Vindicators. But the Brewsers scored big after the tournament.

MMike Nightingale has laced up the skates with Keanu Reeves. They had played on the same team in Los Angeles, along with fellow Canadian, actor Kiefer Sutherland. (Reeves, a goalie, showed off his hallucinatory Matrix-flexibility; Sutherland is chippy on ice, off ice he’s blatherskite chirpy.) This week, however, Nightingale is in Bangkok for the annual Land of Smiles Ice Hockey Classic. The tournament’s in its 26th year. He’s played in it every year since 2010.

It was the shot heard round northern Thailand. Dan Sinaguglia looked up at the clock. Less than ten sec-onds remained in the period. Standing beside his own goalie, he wound up for a slapshot. The golf equivalent to scoring from this distance would be to get a hole in one on a par five. His missile screamed its way for 50 meters – sizzling passed eight players – to needle its way by the opposing Hanoi Donkeys goalie. Players
were in dumfounded belief as the buzzer sounded to end the period. Bangkok’s Thai Stix had just taken in a 2-1 lead into the final period of the championship game of the LANNA Cup Ball Hockey tournament.