The Irish influence on Hockey

When I first heard the term as an 11 year old I thought it sounded so cool. I think it was my older brother who said it. We were watching a wild, wild brawl erupt between the Boston Bruins and the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden — on the ice, along the boards, up the glass and it appeared some of the ‘gentlemanly’ fans in the Garden were trying to participate in it as well.

“It’s a full scale Donnybrook”, said my brother as he took vicarious enjoyment at seeing NYR defenseman, Jim Nielsen, railing on Boston’s Derek Sanderson. I am sure using ‘full scale’ to modify the word Donnybrook is redundant anyways.

I believe the term came from Donnybrook, Dublin or the Donnybrook Fair …and it must have been some fair to have the name synonymous with any wild scale brawl.

And the Irish have so many names that conjure up images and define people if not their role. In hockey if you are a brawler- you may be a Hooligan! And if you are a Shanahan……you probably run the Leafs …..and if you are a Quinn you probably have run most teams in the league.

But I wonder what it must have been like living in Ireland on some crescent. You had the Shenanigans one side playing tricks on everyone in your household and on the other the Hooligans on the front lawn fighting –only to combine and cross the street for a fight with the Donnybrooks. And at the house in the corner the Mulligans probably watched this all occurring from their front porch saying

‘Can we see this again?’

 

A Great Way to Start a Season

Yesterday Pucksense was at our local arena, the South Delta Rec Centre, where we conducted a ‘school’s out hockey camp’ for a bunch of kids in our Atom and Peewee House program. It was a great way to start the season as we had 50 kids out for separate sessions of some low key skills development and a lot of shinny.

The kids especially love the Russian Scrimmage which involves defining the number of players on the ice with the number of ‘whistle bursts’ by the referee. It keeps the play continuously moving as groups of 1 to 5 players from each team jump on the ice to capture an open puck and try to score.

But the biggest highlight of the day came when South Delta’s own Taylor Peters came out to have his picture taken  by the Delta Optimist, our local community newspaper, with all of our kids. Taylor is one of the success stories having played for the Portland Winterhawks- one of the top 5 Major Junior A teams in North America. Taylor is a draft choice of the Dallas Stars and last season he played with the Dallas farm club, the Texas Stars, where they won the Calder Cup as AHL champions. Taylor brought the trophy to show the kids, and wearing his #25 Texas stars jersey he gave the kids a very impactful message.

“I grew up playing hockey in South Delta and I played on the very same ice as you kids – and one day like me if you work hard enough you too can play professional hockey”

For those kids it is the stuff of dreams………and a big thanks to Taylor for making it happen for all of us yesterday!