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A golden day tarnished by truants

The country's glowing hockey moment may also have been road hockey's darkest day.

With Sunday's gold medal showdown between Canada and the United States scheduled for noon, the start time for the morning's road hockey game was moved up an hour to give the roadsters time to play a great game and watch the climactic battle for Olympic hockey supremacy. It was to be the perfect primer for the perfect end to a dramatic tournament, an all-Canadian day of hockey celebration and spirit.

While Sidney Crosby and his mates lived up to their end of the bargain, only an unexpected reprieve from a roving band of roguesters on the prowl for a game to pump up their adrenaline for the afternoon's festivities saved the trio of hardened roadsters, Living Legend, Colonel and Beetle Boy, from slinking home in hockey humiliation.

"It's humbling and disheartening," said Beetle Boy, who admitted the trio was ready to go home without a game when the roguesters arrived with beers in their hands and shinny on their minds.

It's also a long way from a similar circumstance eight years ago, when the roadsters prepped for another Olympic hockey showdown between Canada and the U.S., in Salt Lake City, with a spirited game that became one of that season's highlights.

"It's a different time," said the Colonel, disconsolate at the lack of dedication from many of the game's current generation of players. "At the end of the day people could have got up and come out, had a great game and made a great day of it."

Instead, the sole standing representatives of Sunday Morning Road Hockey had to watch as their rivals in the neighboring court were able to keep their three-year game alive with a full contingent of two teams and then begrudgingly accept the offer of a pick-up shinny match from another band of roguesters to at least make their early trip to the court worthwhile.

It was a bitter pill to swallow, said Beetle Boy. "The roguesters were out there with a full complement and we had to be saved by an outside group."

"I don't think that's the true Canadian spirit," said the Colonel of his truant teammates. "We're not Americans, we don't sit on the couch with beer and chips and just watch hockey; we go out and play it."

And that could become difficult for the roadsters next week if the visiting band of roguesters were enthralled enough by their first experience at the courts to return and claim them as their own.

Posted by jaysuburb at February 28, 2010 06:07 PM