So last Saturday morning I walked into a hockey rink, (I’m not really sure which one because at this point of the season I’ve been to roughly a million different ones in the past 5 months, as have most of us, and does it really matter anyway?) and I see Kevin DeMichelis standing there talking to a fellow hockey parent. Kevin is one of the squirt coaches for Tyler (and a damn good one, I must say) and as usual he’s smiling and talking enthusiastically about something. You know, the same way he always seems to be. But then I notice his left arm is being held at a right angle, and his hand is covered by a sleeve type thing that goes right up to the thumb and fingers. Wait a minute. He’s in a cast! (I’m so quick)
I immediately got excited, because whenever you see someone in a cast, you know there’s a good story coming your way. In a split second, I started thinking of how he might have broken his arm. Maybe he saw a mini-van full of kids sliding out of control, and he jumped in front of it and did his best impression of Superman, saving the kids, but breaking his arm in the process. Yeah, that could’ve happened. That’s what went through my highly logical mind, in the first split second.
Then split second number two rolled around. OMG, Kevin played for the Badgers on Thursday night! Commish: “Dude, what happened. Please don’t tell me this happened on Thursday night”. KD: “It did”. And he said it with the same smile you see on his face in the picture below.
He then proceeded to tell me the story about how it happened and how it was through no fault of his own (this statement put the HBHL attorneys minds at ease) and was a result of him playing at his typical 100% all-the-time, pace (truth be told, he plays at a minimum of 125% all the time, which is exactly why we love having him out with us). The story goes something like this. There were a couple of minutes left in the game and he was racing towards the boards for the puck. He doesn’t remember if he got tripped up with the other player or not, so he wrote it off to the fact that when you skate head first into the boards at 47 mph, there is a distinct possibility that some part of your body will break when it meets the unmovable boards. Later on, I learned who the other person was that he was racing against. But kevin didn’t want to name him because he didn’t want him to feel responsible at all, so I won’t either. Wait a minute. Yes I will. It was Callaway. Nice going Aaron.
And so it’s official. The HBHL has now elevated it’s injury reports to now include a broken bone.
I think Kevin goes into every hockey game with the Mr T mentality. Get well soon Kev.