The Last Days Of Summer

I'll be busy this weekend doing some non-hockey stuff as the league in which I umpire has its playoffs set for tonight, Saturday, and Sunday. This means I'll be watching very little hockey and will be on social media very little as the weekend's games yield champions of respective divisions on Sunday. It's been a fun season despite it being a short season, and a lot of that is due to the players who I've been lucky enough to get to know throughout the years as they play every season with the hope of standing atop the mountain when all is said and done. Admittedly, I don't get very emotional over this, but this year's playoffs means just one thing: the end of summer in a year where I think we're all craving a little more summer for a little bit longer.

I've been asked if I've been atching playoff hockey, and I have been watching to a certain extent. It doesn't feel like hockey season while I'm umpiring baseball, so it's kind of a weird dynamic to me right now. Playoff hockey and playoff baseball never happens at the same time, so my brain isn't processing the current playoff as playoff hockey at all since we're normally talking preseason hockey during this time.

Adding into the mix is the start of NFL season. Admittedly, I am not an NFL fan whatsoever. Ask me who's playing whom this weekend, and I'd be guessing at the very best to name two teams who meet on the same field. The issue is that with the NHL playoffs and the NBA playoffs - which I also haven't been watching - already underway, the sports world is getting very crowded on television.

Back to the initial paragraph, having local ball end this weekend for me will mean the end of summer. Normally, the end of summer means the beginning of hockey season, but that's not happening. Perhaps I'll get into the Vegas-Dallas series and the Lightning-Islanders series a little more with me having more time on my hands now, but I also feel like an already short summer is now being compounded by an autumn without the smell of ammonia and chlorine as I walk into an arena in anticipation of another hockey season.

It's weird how that smell is what I miss the most about hockey, but it's the smell of freshly resurfaced ice combined with the chill in the air as the door opens into the rink. That's the first thing I think about when it comes to hockey - more than the players, the teams, the arenas, or the games on the ice. It's the one thing that hockey truly has that the other sports don't. It's a smell and a chill that's uniquely hockey.

I'll be off the grid this weekend, so enjoy the games for whichever sport you may be following at this time. I'll be calling balls, strikes, safe plays and outs on the diamond, savouring the last few hours of summer as much as I can. Once ball season is over, the parkas will come out, the boots and skates will be on people's feet, and everyone will be forced into scarves and toques as the winter weather falls upon us.

Let's just hope that the distinctive smell of the hockey rink and that first wave of cool air that embraces us when we enter the arena return this winter. It won't be the same without it.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!