Writer Dave Bidini, founding member of rock band Rheostatics, second from right, and fellow players outside McCormick Arena in 海角社区官网following their weekly Sunday summer game.
Men take to the ice for their Sunday shinny game at McCormick Arena, part of a summer hockey tradition that keeps skaters sharp long after league play ends.
Women play their weekly Thursday night shinny game at McCormick Arena, part of a long-running summer skate that鈥檚 as much about community as competition.
Writer Dave Bidini, founding member of rock band Rheostatics, second from right, and fellow players outside McCormick Arena in 海角社区官网following their weekly Sunday summer game.
In the traditional hockey season, winter challenges me to get to every game 鈥 manifesting sudden blizzards, biting wind, and frozen roads, as if trying to make a hard game even harder. Summer hockey, on the other hand, delights in getting me to my station in the crease with ease, sending me to the rink in sunshine and warm breezes, sporting a tan that belies the role. From May to August, the game transforms me from an ice warrior into someone in running shoes, holding a Sno Cone.
I met new people, deepened an important friendship and counteracted modern digital despair.
While winter ends for some of us, playing hockey does not. The ice is still Zamboni鈥檈d, the benches are mopped and swept, the showers and washrooms cleaned with ammonia, and the clocks set and reset on the game clock, which is how the chilled skaters of summer measure the passing of time. Just this year, Lambton Arena in Etobicoke kept their ice in for the whole calendar, and my home rink, McCormick on Brock Avenue, while a little less busy than in the depths of February, still sees people lugging hockey bags through the double doors 鈥 only this time in shorts instead of winter coats, exiting into the sunshine where equipment, when laid out, dries in a crisp instant. For many, hockey is forever our cardio, our social release, our strategy for keeping our mental health in decent shape. We can鈥檛 all be mountain biking or swimming in the river or water-skiing at cottages that we don鈥檛 have. Canadians identify as cold-weather creatures fighting through the sleet and snow, but it鈥檚 those that seek a frozen place in the heat of July who go beyond even that.
Summer hockey works in different ways for different leagues and people. My adult rec league 鈥 the GTHLA (the 鈥淎鈥 stands for 鈥渁rts鈥) 鈥 pauses in May and resumes in September, but some skates, like Chuck Molgat鈥檚 Sunday evening affair, run through until fall.
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鈥淭here鈥檚 no way I鈥檓 not going to skate for four or five months,” says longtime hockey organizer Molgat. “I love it too much. It鈥檚 my primary source of exercise and a stress valve like no other. And there鈥檚 still plenty of stress in the summer in the city.鈥
Men take to the ice for their Sunday shinny game at McCormick Arena, part of a summer hockey tradition that keeps skaters sharp long after league play ends.
GIOVANNI CAPRIOTTI
Summer hockey is also聽a rigorous detox 鈥 the sweat is heavy and relentless, pouring out all those patio hours and backyard beers into soaked equipment. The workout keeps us physically honest in a season when lying in a hammock with a tub of salsa on one鈥檚 chest is all but unavoidable. I can do that, too, knowing that regular ice time continues to await.
The GTHLA runs a Summer Mingle聽program 鈥 named as much for the social hang as for the games 鈥 where people wanting to rediscover their game get back on the ice in a fun, low-pressure hockey climate. The Mingle bracket is inherently convivial. Last weekend, a Princess Margaret fundraising party set up near the stands with music, brownies, pizza, and players wearing all manner of hockey ensembles. The skate is devotedly co-ed, with men and women sharing benches and dressing rooms, and discreetly showering afterward, channeling a Scandinavian approach to collective play.
鈥淩egular season hockey is more tribal, but summer hockey lets you mix it up a little more,” says Molgat, who co-founded the Mingle. “Sharing the bench with people you鈥檙e more likely to be playing against in the winter.鈥
Carousel Bakery’s Robert and Maurice Biancolin on the peameal bacon that started it all 鈥 and the beloved customers who joined them on the journey.
Sometimes the rink in summer is sauna-wet and warm 鈥 Plexiglass gets clouded over and there鈥檚 a mist about the ice 鈥 and it鈥檚 a struggle for rink staff to keep the ice cold enough to stay dry. A few times this year, it鈥檚 been as much like swimming as skating. As a goaltender, I鈥檝e been drenched in water coming off a stick blade, and sliding across the crease can sometimes mean an accidental bath in the rink鈥檚 soup. But this happens only on preposterously warm days and despite the outdoor torpor, a game is a game is a game. If we can shinny in minus 35 weather on rugged lake ice, we can also play in Everglade heat.
Women鈥檚 hockey in the city also embraces the summer game. For decades, Karyn Freedman, Julie Martin, and their friends 鈥 all women except for Martin鈥檚 partner, goalie Mike Loveless, and occasionally, yours truly 鈥 have kept their game alive through the summer on the small pad at McCormick. This three-quarter size practice rink also hosts games, sometimes moving to the big ice in the relative quiet of July.
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Karyn Freedman, centre, joins fellow players for post-game beers in McCormick Park 鈥 a summer ritual after their Thursday night women鈥檚 shinny game.
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For writer and professor Freedman, the post-game beers in the park are a highlight. For Nathalie Ouellet, hockey time on the ice is sacred. 鈥淓specially after a stressful day,鈥 she says. 鈥淭here鈥檚 nothing like skating and chasing a puck to clear your mind. Team sports are good for your heart and brain. And you can make friends, too.鈥
For one night only at a Danforth venue, a group of seniors will be trying their hand at one of the hardest entertainment gigs out there: standup
Unlike winter, when we鈥檙e hunched over in a cold dressing room with a can in our hands, players head to the park beside the rink, gathering on a slope to hang out after the game. This year, Martin, who also helps run the GTHLA, is taking the summer off to heal a few nagging injuries, which is also an option for rec league skaters; rehabbing in the warmth to get ready for when league play starts again. Still, at this age 鈥 most of my teammates and fellow skaters are in their 50s and 60s 鈥 you鈥檝e got to play when the body is good, and the open rinks allow us to do that. Summer hockey means more hours in our safest and best third place 鈥 not home, not work 鈥 and, to paraphrase the recently maligned Wayne Gretzky: 鈥淓very time you take to the ice, that鈥檚 one more chance to skate.鈥
Women play their weekly Thursday night shinny game at McCormick Arena, part of a long-running summer skate that鈥檚 as much about community as competition.
GIOVANNI CAPRIOTTI
This summer is the first summer that I鈥檝e taken a regular turn in goal at the Lambton Arena game, which I鈥檓 purposefully protecting here because of the wild demand for spots in the league. It鈥檚 really the closest any of us will get to understanding how a northern player must feel after getting traded to a warm weather team: window rolled down on the car, stereo loud, and the streets free from the crunch of ice and snow. The hockey bag is still heavy and the heart still races a little at the promise of competition, and the dressing room and arena are still redolent with all of the signposts of the game. But it鈥檚 hard not to feel just a little freed from the relative burden of choosing this sport as our physical and social activity. It鈥檚 another way of experiencing the game we love in a city that loves it.
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