Is Ice Hockey Bigger Than The Game Of Life?
By Johnny McKenzie, Thu Dec 8th

Why do we love the game of hockey so much?

On TV we see financial problems and people are starving. We seeproblems in our healthcare system and there are problems in theschools our children go to.

Everyday we face this, but do we take action to make a change?

If I speak for myself, I sometimes do take action when there isa local problem that really concerns me, but when it comes tonationwide or worldwide issues, I most often don’t care.

What I care about is the game and I don’t think it’s a goodthing to be that narrow minded.

How can one love and care about a game as simple as hockey whenwe have all these problems in the world?

The salaries of all the players in the league would probably beenough to solve the starvation in the third world. They make alot of money, but there are people in other professions thatmake more.

Do you think that there’s to much money in hockey and that itcould be used for a better purpose?

Maybe, but on the other hand, the money the players makes is histrue market value. There is a break even between supply anddemand or otherwise no team would sign him and the money wouldend up in the pocket of the team owners.

One thing I think the sport have done well is the founding ofthe Hockey Fights Cancer organization. If you compare it to adisease like cancer, it isn’t that important and I think it’svery well done that it raises money for cancer research.

We fans all followed Mario Lemiux’s and Saku Kouivo’s battlewith the disease and those guys sure must have love hockeybecause of the way they fought back.

How can you even think about returning to the game aftersomething like that?

I guess the answer is that it do play an important part in ourlives. What kind of force makes a young player put the time andeffort in that is necessarily to reach glory?

Isn’t the time spent on the rink (or the stands for us fans)better spent on studying to become a doctor or lawyer? Somethingthat really matters or can you say that it is of equalimportance?

I have given these questions some thoughts and I simply don’tknow. Maybe hockey is bigger than life.

About the author:HockeyTribute.com is an informative site for ice hockey fans anda place where you can learn more about ice hockey and NHL history.

A Day In The Life Of A Minor League Ice Hockey Player
By Johnny McKenzie, Thu Dec 8th

In the Canadian junior ice hockey system almost every youngplayer dreams about one day making it to the National HockeyLeague.

When you do a fast count in your head you soon realize thatthere are a huge number of guys playing junior hockey in Canada.You also soon realize that very few of these ice hockey playersactually will make it to the National Hockey League.

This article will focus on all those ice hockey players that donot make it directly to the NHL.

These players have to prove themselves in the minor hockeysystem, before a few of them head up to the NHL where they wantto play.

The minor hockey leagues are as follows:

At the level below the National Hockey League you find theAmerican Hockey League and here most of the players have NHLcontracts. It is good ice hockey with many good players.

Players that do not make the American Hockey League findthemselves looking for a job in the minor leagues at the levelbelow. A few of these leagues are East Coast Hockey League,Central Hockey League and the United Hockey League.

As you understand the players do not make as much money in theminors as they do in the NHL and life is tougher as well.

You still play about 70 to 80 games a season in the minors andit is very rare that teams at this level travel by plane. So, ifyou do not know how to sleep on a bus, you better learn. Fast!

A game day in the life of a minor league ice hockey player couldlook like this:

You wake up at around eight, have breakfast and arrive at therink at nine. At the rink you make sure that your equipment isOK and you get ready for the mandatory pre-game skate.

Probably you are hoping for that the coach doesn’t have a badday and skate you too hard. Even though a hard skate has nothurt anybody, very few players enjoy this.

After the morning skate, you shower, get dressed and head for apre-game meal at a greasy restaurant. The food could probably bebetter, but who cares.

After lunch it is back to the rink, pack up the bus, watch twomovies and four hours later it is time to prepare for tonight’sgame.

When you get out of the area after the game it is already darkand you watch two more movies on your way back home. You hit thesack at 2.30 AM and if you lost the game you know that it willnot be fun at practice tomorrow morning.

Hopefully they will be called up you before that.

About the author:Article written by HockeyTribute.com, a NHL hockey fan sitewhere you can read more about NHL hockeyand junior ice hockey.