Comments on: A Room to Themselves

By: pucksandbooks

pucksandbooks — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:15:45 +0000

Sandra,
I greatly appreciate your vantage, and the role of hockey moms in the room is ripe for its own book, I think. I have very mixed feelings on the matter. For starters, moms’ presence in the room is a practical imperative this day and age, as your own experience tesitfies. But I also understand the need to include a tactful withdrawl as the lads age. It’s a room the requires unfettered camaraderie. It’s a bit of a delicate balance to be sure, but I think as the years pass we’re accumulating experience enough so as to get it largely right.

By: Sandra Cormier

Sandra Cormier — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 02:30:59 +0000

In writing my latest novel, I wonder if I managed to capture the close-knit cameraderie (and hostility) that weaves through a hockey dressing room. After a lot of guesswork, I can only hope I got it right. At the time, I never found a beta reader who played the game. God knows I tried!
My only personal experience was tightening the skates of an eleven year old boy who had never skated in his life before being thrust into House League (at his insistence).
In a few short years I watched those boys sprout into fine players, and I was soon banned from the dressing room. Even when our kids were young, we parents patiently waited in the hall while the coach gave his pep talks before and after the games.
I often wonder what was said, but I never asked. I suppose, even then, I respected the sanctity of the dressing room.

By: pucksandbooks

pucksandbooks — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 16:40:17 +0000

Lee – purely speculative on my part, but my sense is that the strenthening room arrived somewhat in relation to the club’s affiliation with Hershey and the commitment to rebuild. You may recall that various and numerous Portland Pirates were none too pleased with the allocation of parent club jobs to free agent outsiders for some seasons. But the synergy and connectedness between the Caps and the Bears is much different, and this in turn, I submit, is having a direct and important effect on the locker rooms of the clubs.
I also believe that we saw evidence of the strengthening room back in ’05-06, when a cellar dwellar Caps’ club easily could have folded its tent in March and played out the string. But they didn’t.

By: Lee (PTO)

Lee (PTO) — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:57:19 +0000

Great story, but not being a jock I wonder which comes first, the Wins or the Room? Can the Room solidify and supply the impetus for better play, or does a group start winning and then realize that they’ve got each others’ backs? Specifically, it would seem that the Room came together for the Caps and then the wins once Gabby turned the horses loose but I guess each champion team’s story is unique…

By: T

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:07:09 +0000

I loved this post. Great way to start the week!

By: Hockey Mom

Hockey Mom — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 12:48:36 +0000

This is a fantastic post! The same holds true for youth hockey families – you spend so much time together you tend to become “one big family” – as portrayed in the film “In The Crease.” Thanks for giving us a glimpse inside the the boy’s club…