Father’s Day Special

Today being Father’s day, we here at the NHL side of FanSided Sports have decided to do something special for the day. Some of our NHL sites will be writing stories about an experience or two that they’ve had either with their Dad, or as a Dad. Some of the writer’s have decided to submit a short answer to the question:

“What’s the one memory you have either from your father, or from being a father that you can say was a special hockey moment in your life”?

Here are some responses from around our network:

Gary Harding from Eyes On Isles:

My dad took me to my first hockey game in 1969 (Rangers vs. Blues). At that time, as you can tell, the Islanders did not exist.

As I grew up – I didn’t develop that ‘cross town hatred’ that many Islander/Ranger fans had. I respected the team from Uniondale, but rooted for the Rangers. My dad, who took me to said Ranger game, did the full-time shuffle to the Islanders, and would remind me of it, every time Bossy or Trottier scored. He would just scream, Goooooooal (almost like Andreas Cantor). Although I made like I hated it, I thought it was funny!

He was always so happy when the Isles won; and made sure I knew about it.

My dad got cancer during the Summer of 82, and passed in the Winter of 83. I know that he would have loved seeing the Isles win their 4th Cup. He never went to the parades, but he was proud of them nevertheless.

At that time, until the late 80’s, I never dropped the one for the other, until Trader Phil Esposito did his work. I then become totally loyal to the Islanders, and have never turned back. I know that my dad smiled in heaven when I made the switch. If only he can talk to God and get the Isles to start winning more…

From Tim Redinger at  Sabre Noise:

This past year, those of us in Buffalo watched as our old friend, Memorial Auditorium was reduced to nothing more than a distant memory of Buffalo sports lore. No longer will we get to drive by the archaeic building and remember the echoed footsteps through the halls, or the smell of concrete and stale beer. My fondest hockey memories, like many in Western New York, find their roots back to the Aud. As far as my childhood goes, I can’t remember specific games by what happened at them, but I will never forget a trip to the Aud with my grandfather.

Growing up, my father wasn’t in the picture. One night I get a call from my Grandfather and he says, put your Sunday best on – I got four tickets from work. Now to understand how special this is, my grandfather is old school. He always pampered the girls in the family; we were boys [men] and he treated us that way. He had gotten four seats in the blues – with access to the Aud club. What a treat. This was my first live hockey game. I can remember the smell, the one thing that stuck out in my mind was the fact that, even though my grandfather wore a sport coat, he had to trade it in for a blue one, with the Sabres emblem on it to get access into the Aud Club. Right then and there I was hooked. That classy move, which had nothing to do with the game of hockey itself; had hooked me into a lifetime of passionate hockey. Thank you, Memorial Auditorium, and thank you Grandpa. Happy Fathers Day.

I’ll have my own post on my main site The Rat Trick as will some of our other writer’s on their respective sites.  So take a look across our network and check them out.

Thanks for reading.

Have a great Day and a Happy Father’s Day to all the Dad’s.

Cheers