Hockey's Sorta Done?

With hockey in North America officially coming to an end on Monday, I often get asked what I do in the summer on both the blog and radio show. The answer is easy: I still cover hockey. Yes, there are fewer stories from hockey to cover thanks the sport slowing down for a couple of months, but there are interviews and historic stories to explore. One of the best ways to get into those stories is by reading books about hockey, and that's what the rest of my summer will entail as I sit on the patio with a cold beverage and flip pages.

With as busy as life gets sometimes, I haven't been able to crack the spines on the stack of books I want to tackle that are sitting on my bookshelves. These are stories from across the hockey world as well as I have Hayley Wickenheiser's story to read, Mike Eruzione's tale to take in, and a few others that piqued my interest when I saw the book. My goal is to start this weekend with it being a long weekend as I put a significant dent into that stack of books begging to be read.

I do have one book that I've been dying to read since I received it, and I want to thank Peter, a reader of HBIC, for sending me this book. I have very little reference points for the Kansas City Scouts because they had come and gone from that market long before I was born, but Steve Currier's book, When the NHL Invaded Japan, has me very curious about this jump across the ocean where the Scouts and Washington Capitals played for the Coca-Cola Bottlers' Cup in 1975-76. To be very honest, I had never even heard about Coca-Cola Bottlers' Cup or any tournament where NHL teams competed for it, so this topic is one I want to explore in greater detail. Thank you, Peter for this great book, and expect a review shortly on it as Teebz's Book Club goes into summer reading mode for the next few months!

Some of the other stuff I'll be doing this summer is watching more movies, so there will be some additional movie reviews here on HBIC. I'm excited for a few that I haven't seen plus a few coming up this summer. I do have to watch If with Ryan Reynolds, and Inside Out 2 will get seen because the first one was so good. Reynolds will get a second review this summer with Deadpool & Wolverine debuting this summer, and I'm sure I'll discover a few more than get added. I don't follow TV series very closely, but Season four of The Boys is currently running and I'm loving every second of it, and I just discovered WondLa through AppleTV which has been excellent. When the sun goes down, I know I'll have a few things to watch and review.

Finally, there may be a few late nights on the weekend where I stay up and watch the AIHL and NZIHL as their season winds down and gets into the postseason. I'm still hoping the Melbourne Mustangs can turn their season around with some consistent play, but the race for first-overall in the AIHL between the Sydney Bears and the Melbourne Ice may come down to the final game of the season for the Bears on August 10 when they host the Ice. As it stands, the Bears play the Ice this weekend with first-place on the line as both teams are tied in the standings, but the Bears could be as many as six points up by the time the weekend's over.

I haven't watched as many New Zealand Ice Hockey League games, but the Botany Swarm and Skycity Stampede appear to be the front-runners for the top spot in the NZIHL regular season. Two teams - the Canterbury Red Devils and Phoenix Thunder - have yet to record a win in seven games, but the Red Devils have lost in overtime to sit one point ahead of the Thunder. The team in third-place of the five teams is the West Auckland Admirals, and they've only beaten the Red Devils this season so far. Just for the record, the NZIHL is more like watching North American junior hockey than professional hockey, but it's fun summer hockey nonetheless.

It's still going to be a busy summer as I'm scoring professional baseball, playing slo-pitch, reading about hockey, getting caught up on movies and TV shows, and watching some hockey from the Land Down Under, but I guess I'm saying that this blog won't be exclusively devoted to hockey this summer. Yes, the hockey stories will continue, but there will be more variety in what you find on HBIC.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!