Hockey Education

So, on Tuesday Anna and I were home alone while the other girls were at girl scouts. We hunkered down under the blankets for a good night of hockey. Carolina was playing Tampa Bay, their division rival and we had front row seats (courtesy of NHL Center Ice). So Anna just sat there drinking her milk and watching hockey until a moment perked her interest; there was a penalty and someone was going to the penalty box. And then the questions began.....
Anna: "Why is he in the penalty box daddy?" (in her 4 yr old lisp)
Dean: "He was called for hooking Anna, that is where another player impedes the progress of another player.... Oh, never mind, he is in the penalty box because he poked another player with his stick."
Anna: "Do you ever go to the penalty box when you play hockey daddy?"
Dean: "No, not really, Daddy plays goalie and they do not have very many penalties called on them"
Anna: "Does anybody on your team go to penalty box?"
Dean: "Sometimes, they get called for holding or something like that"
Anna: "Why do they do that?"
Dean: "They make a mistake or do something they should not and so they have go to the penalty box"

These questions continue for some time. It is funny, all the girls seem to be intrigued by the penalty box in hockey. Anna, in this case, fell sound asleep a few minutes later on the couch, like she does every night after 8:00 PM...


In other hockey news, we beat the numbrer one team in the league on monday. We came back from 4-1 in the third period and won 6-5 with 38 seconds left. I had a good game, and towards the end of the game, the words "goaltending clinic" were uttered by a few of my teammates...