I Love Hockey!

Last summer, Grandma Genovese bought Tyler a “rod hockey” tabletop game. When it was brought home, Tyler went to town. Being a bit young, he did not quite understand that the player moved in coordination to the rod they were attached to. Well, after just a few hours of play time, all the players and both the nets were stripped from the game in order to satisfy Tyler’s urge to play “real” hockey with the game.

Fast forward a few months to the fall. Frank brought home his old dry erase board that he had been using during the games. Instead of letting it go to waste, he gave it to Tyler. After all, it has all the essential markings for playing a pretend real hockey game—the red and blue lines, the face-off circles, and the crease! Now there was an even better excuse for those rod hockey players to be moved! Tyler quickly went to town and set up his own teams and reenacted some of the best games he has seen in his short 4 years.

Often times, he will play while we are relaxing at night. I have watched him set up all the players and at times I have asked him what they are doing. He always has these 12 men in various game mode—whether it be warming up before the game, listening to the National Anthem, or celebrating after a goal, they do it all! He also makes sure that his teams are aptly named—usually the “Fermi’s” are playing another team in their league. For those of you who need a refresher, Frank coaches the Fermi Falcons high school team.

I had to share these shots with you! I watched him for quite awhile and then when I went to upload the photos, I found a lot more shots I had taken of Tyler that I never posted of him setting up his guys in preparation for the “big game”!

The Zamboni cleaning the ice before the game. Tyler has a few little "Boni's" and is more than happy to explain to anyone how it cleans the ice!

Staging a fight-- an essential part of any great game!

Celebrating after a great goal (you can faintly see the black puck in the net)!

A closer shot of all the guys celebrating on the ice after their score!

And of course, shaking hands after the game! You can see that the goals have been moved from the crease and the 'Boni is getting ready to come on the ice and do a fresh sheet for next time!

As I was sitting there watching him put all this together, it is amazing how methodical he is-- he knows exactly what should happen when, who should be where, and he is very precise in it all! In the morning, he makes sure that all the guys are set up off the ice, standing, in perfect order. After all, you can't play a game with no one around to watch!