Dear Hockey,

I miss you. I miss the sounds of the game from sticks, pucks and skates hitting the ice to the anthems to the on ice noise balanced by the arena crowds to that final buzzer. When I try really hard, I can still hear them ever so faintly, but it’s not the same. I miss the game day rituals from my own superstitions to seeing my friends at the games to witnessing magic with 18,000+ other fans.

At this point we should be deep into the first round of playoffs and getting a feel for what the second will look like but that’s not where we are. These are unprecedented times unlike any other. Instead of seeing an flurry of playoff excitement and brackets busting, we are all hunkered down while we adjust to the new normal of self-isolating and a world with no sports and world health crisis. It was absolutely the right move to step away right now but that doesn’t make it hurt any less. It is times like these when the world feels heavy, that you are often the place we turn to for solace.

When things go dark in the world, hockey is often my safe place to fall back on. The world is in a very hard place across the globe, and there is no hockey, no sports, no concerts, and no big events that can be our distraction. In a matter of seconds the game takes my breath away. It both breaks my heart and makes my heart burst with joy.

Yes, the truth is that I miss hockey and I miss it immensely, but it needs to do better when it comes back from this suspended season. Hockey is far from perfect, there is a massive amount of work to be done when it comes back for it to truly feel like hockey is for everyone.There are a lot of times when there are gaps to the truth of that statement and too many are on the outside looking in. People will often ask those on the outside why they keep coming back to it when it’s an unequal space, we come back because we deserve to be a part of that space too. The season may be on pause, but that doesn’t mean that the work to improve should stop, it means there is more time to really dig deep to be better across the board.

Until the puck drops once more, nuck said.

Sarah E.L.