I’ve been feeling sorry for myself lately. In a couple of months I will send my first born off to college. It’s going to be very tough for me. We’ve spent so much time together over the last 18 years. So much of it at ice rinks. So many long drives, early morning practices and airplane flights. Weekends in hotel rooms, trying to get to sleep after a big win and cussing the alarm clock together the next morning. I don’t know what I’m going to do with all the extra time . . . besides miss him.

Yeah, I’ve been feeling sorry for myself. Then, yesterday I got this email.

It was from Rod Churchill of Newfoundland, Canada. He wrote to tell me that he had just bought a couple t-shirts from my website and that he really enjoyed my blog. As I was typing up a thank you response, I noticed way down at the bottom of his signature information, was a link. It said, ‘Tribute Site: www.matthewchurchill.ca’. I clicked it.  Oh my God, I thought, it’s his son – he lost his only son to a hit and run driver in 2005. As I clicked through the site and read the heart-wrenching wounds of this mother and father laid bare, I cried. I cried for the Churchills, and all of the parents who have lost a child.

I can’t know what it must be like to suffer this worst of all tragedies. And God, I hope I never do. But it must be beyond any pain imaginable. Many people never climb out of the abyss. I lost a 12-year-old cousin to brain cancer recently and I’ve seen the devastation that it leaves in it’s wake.

I thought about all the times I felt frustrated because my son got a short shift or his team lost a close game. Then, I thought about how Rod would surely give anything to see his son get a short shift, to see his son’s team lose a close game . . . to see his son. It’s so hard for us to keep things in perspective all the time. However, it’s stories like this one that can quickly make things fall into their proper place.

But from tragedy, sometimes the phoenix of inspiration rises. Rod Churchill has found a way to stay connected to his son Matthew through hockey. He has spent the last 5 years coaching other young men. Obviously, I’ve never seen Rod Churchill coach. But I’ll bet you one thing. I’ll bet Rod teaches these kids more than how to win. I’ll bet they take more away from their time with him than how to make a proper hip check. I’ll bet they learn something about life, and priorities, and what’s really important. And I’ll bet you somewhere, his son Matthew is smiling about that.

Spring is here and it’s playoff time! The offices here at HockeyShirtShop are buzzing. We’re super-psyched! Not because of the playoffs, although we are certainly excited about that, but we’re all revved up over the long-awaited announcement of an exciting new product. A product that has been in the works ’round here for a very long time . . . The Hockey Fan Hat!

We designed and built this puppy for you, the (been-workin’-all-week-and-now-I’m-gonna-get-nasty-at-the-rink) hockey fans.
It’s SAFE! Sportin’ a state-of-the-art full-helmet cage made of space-age polymer. Take a puck, or a fist in the face and laugh it off.
It’s WARM! Lined with synthetic bleached weasel fur. And not to worry, even with the lining, there’s plenty of room for your flow to retain it’s full awesomeness.
It’s RECEPTIVE! No more wrestling pucks away from young children. Take ‘em right off the stick with the patented head-mounted ‘Scrotuff’ microweave puck catcher.

I hope you are as excited about this new bucket as we are. Just download the flyer/order form by clicking this link and get ready to wear the most exciting, innovative hockey gadget in years. The ‘Hockey Fan Hat’ from HockeyShirtShop!

O.K. I realize I’m a little late to the party on this one, but I just gotta have a link to it on my blog. It’s simply one of the most creative goals I’ve ever seen.

It happened on March 31, 2009 by Linus Omark of Sweden in an exhibition game against Switzerland.

Related designs from the eBrush Design hockey collection? Of course there is!
But only one that does it justice . . . Wicked Sick & Nasty

There are many reasons that fights occur during a hockey game. One, that’s been around throughout the history of the game, is a baiting tactic called a “face wash”, also referred to by players as “stinky glove”. It’s when a player rubs his wet, putrid gloves into the face of the opposing player in an attempt to bait them into retaliation, thus drawing a penalty. There’s a New York Times article that goes into detail on this long-standing instigation technique. It’s pretty humorous to say the least.

I made a new hockey t-shirt design on this time-honored tradition. It’s called “Fear The Face Wash” and is available through HockeyShirtShop.com.

On a marginally related note, I also released another new hockey t-shirt design called “Wicked, Sick & Nasty” that is intended to refer to one’s hockey skills. But I suppose it could also refer to a perfected “face washing” technique

And while we’re on the subject, there is also our top-selling “Smell My Bag” design.

God knows the goalies need some love. What a special breed they are, huh? Is there any position in any sport with more pressure on them than an ice hockey goalie?

One of my favorite all-time hockey quotes was by Jacques Plante, speaking on the matter of his occupation: “Goaltending is a normal job, sure. How would you like it in your job if every time you made a small mistake, a red light went on over your desk and 15,000 people stood up and yelled at you.”

I made a new goalie t-shirt this week. Actually, it’s a new graphic approach to a classic phrase that has appeared on many hockey t-shirts over the years; “My goal is to deny yours”. I should point out that I have made three other shirts specifically for the netminders. You might want to take a look at these. Odds are pretty good that there will be a night in the near future in which your special goalie will need something to cheer him up – something to remind him that he is THE MAN between the pipes.

Links below to designs in photo above.

Brick Wall Goalie “Bring It”

Iron Goalie

OMG “One Magnificent Goalie”

“My Goal is to Deny Yours”

Pat Crowley, one of the most creative, talented people I have ever worked with, recently started a blog called “My Handsome Life”. It’s a tongue-in-cheek look at society’s last taboo, conceit. Join Pat as he explores his inner, and outer handsomeness and celebrates the handsomeness of others. Read along as he shuns the surgery-enhanced “beauties” of today’s society as merely “nouveau riche”. And celebrates the vanishing world of “Old Money” handsomeness.

Yea, I know. Pat’s blog is not really about hockey. But there is handsomeness to be found on the ice, for sure. In fact, this blog inspired my latest t-shirt design – “Hat Trick”. Sick Speed, Mad Skills AND you’re Handsome! That’s a Hat Trick, and you’ve got it.

We all have those special sports moments that we’ll never forget. Not the ones on TV. The ones you were actually a part of. The historic game that you can say, ‘I was there!’ A no-hitter, a World Series or Stanley Cup game 7, A Super Bowl, a game where an athlete did something so special that it became legendary. I saw Henry Aaron hit a grand slam once. That’s one I’ll always remember. But there was one special night that I will hold dear for the rest of my life. Not because anything spectacular or historic happened on the rink. But because, well, let me explain. Read the rest of this entry »

Your son, daughter or grandchild plays hockey. You gotcha a camera and are fixin’ to take some great hockey pictures of him tearing up the ice. Boy are you going to be disappointed. If you don’t end up with a bunch of blinding flash reflections off the glass, then you’ll probably score some really nice shots of the safety netting. And even in a best case scenario, you’ll get a memory card full of very dark blurry images of what looks like might be a hockey player, but could just as easily be Sasquatch.

Been there, my friends. And it ain’t pretty. But if you’re really determined to take good hockey action photos, listen up. I’m gonna tell you exactly what you need to do to make it happen. Read the rest of this entry »

You know, I wasn’t always a hockey fan. I grew up in Ohio, about 30 miles from Pittsburgh – before the Mario Lemieux days. It was a relatively poor little coal mining town and nobody had the money to play hockey. So I wasn’t really exposed to it. It was football country, Steeler country, and that’s what I played.

My exposure to this outstanding game didn’t really happen until 1999. I was 39-years old. My son, who was about 7 at the time, used to watch the Mighty Ducks movies over and over again. In between screenings he would go onto our screened-in back porch and slap a hockey puck into the door of my daughters big plastic play house. When he missed, pucks tore through my screens letting all the bugs in Florida in.

I signed him up for an outdoor roller hockey league when he was 8 and the rest is history. Nine years of inline and ice hockey, traveling to tournaments around the country. He’s 17-years-old now, my screens are all fixed, and I’m a huge hockey fan. It happens that way when you are immersed into a magnificent sport that you’ve missed out on much of your life. Not a day goes by that I don’t wish I could turn back the clock and play the game myself – one of the few regrets in my life.

What frustrates me now is that so many people are missing out on this wonderful sport. Hockey’s popularity hasn’t exactly grown by leaps and bounds in this country. But it’s certainly no secret to the rest of the world. If they could only get past the notion that it’s just a bunch of fighting and see the beauty of the game. The speed and the grace that these athletes display is nothing short of astounding.

It’s June and I just saw my beloved Penguins win the Stanley Cup. I’m still on a hockey high. There really is nothing quite like the Stanley Cup playoffs, is there?. Now we’ve got months of nothing but baseball and it’s steroid-ridden players lulling me into summer slumber. I’d almost rather watch golf – or the grass grow.

So here’s to hockey, and waiting for next season, when we can all wake up and witness the excitement and raw fury of the this most magnificent sport once again.

Now, in the spirit of self-promotion, I must mention that one of the best ways to keep the hockey spirit through the long, boring Summer is to score yourself a hockey t-shirt from Hockey Shirt Shop! So stop on in, where it’s always hockey season.

I spent a large part of this season being pissed off at Marian Hossa for turning down a larger contract offer from Pittsburgh to sign a one-year deal with Detroit, because he felt he had a better chance there to win the cup. It was insulting to Pittsburgh and it’s fans, who felt they had a pretty good chance themselves of carrying around the big trophy all summer.

I went through the playoffs routing against Detroit for the same reason. I wanted him to regret joining the Red Wings. As it became apparent that the Pens themselves might actually make it to the dance, I began to push for the Wings to make it, too. How sweet would that be? The team he bailed out on beats him and the team he thought he had a better chance with.

Well, it happened exactly like that. Funny, though, how winning makes you charitable. Overnight, my feelings about Marian Hossa have changed. I started looking at his story more objectively. I began to realize that what he did was actually  the converse of what I have disliked about so many professional athletes that have left my favorite teams for more money elsewhere. We, as fans, make emotional investments into these players. And when they tell us again and again that money is more important that their teammates, the cities they represent and winning, well, we feel betrayed. It is personal to us on some level.

Hossa did leave the Penguins. But he did it for an admirable reason. He actually took less money for what he felt was a better chance to win. How often have you actually seen a player do that? So now I feel bad for him. Now, I feel bad that he wasn’t rewarded for his winning-over-money decision. Don’t get me wrong, I certainly wouldn’t have wanted this one to end any other way. But It would be nice some day to see a player that makes a similar decision have it work out for him.

Well I’m basking in the glow of a Pittsburgh Penguins Stanley Cup championship today. The exciting thing is, they should only get better. With their core of young stars, it certainly looks like the Pens should be a solid contender for the cup for years to come. As I said in an earlier post, it’s sure good to be a Pittsburgh fan these days. Now if the Buccos could just get it together

Looking for a championship t-shirt, hat or other type of gift? Check out my favorite Pittsburgh fan store ‘The Pittsburgh Fan’ and do a little crowin’

And don’t forget my Pittsburgh gift designs got ‘burgh? and The Joy of Six

I’ll apologize in advance for this partisan post, but it’s really good to be a Pittsburgh fan these days. I was thinking about this the other day. My son, despite having been born in Florida, is a rabid Steeler and Penguin fan. I guess that’s my fault. I grew up about 30 miles from the Steel City and along with my father before me, have always bled black and gold. But I don’t think my son realizes how lucky he is. Certainly the fans in cities that have been waiting decades to even come close to a championship know just what I’m talking about. It just doesn’t happen all the time. And here is my 17-year-old son, with a couple Super Bowls and now 2 Stanley Cup finals under his belt. I just hope there’s not a draught of any kind on his horizon. I’m afraid he just might not be able to handle it.

So, for all you Penguin fans out there, I found this really cool poster of this year’s Penguin studs. It features Sergei Gonchar, Evgeni Malkin, Marc-Andre Fleury, Jordan Staal and Sidney Crosby. The 16×20 poster is available at AllPosters.com for $34.99. I’ve seen it for a lot more at other places. If you’ve seen it for less, please post a link in the comments.

And here’s a shameless plug for two of my Pittsburgh t-shirts: got ‘burgh? and The Joy of Six