Yesterday evening I received some good life perspective from none other than my favorite professional sport, hockey. I was watching the lowly LA Kings at Edmonton Oilers. This was one of those games that the Rogers Place faithful were expecting to be another celebration – perhaps complete with some more expensive hats littering the ice as one of the heroes would do another hat trick, because after all, you know, when the best team in the world (really?) plays a lesser team it’s party time, yes? No.
Third
period, with things going not quite as planned and the Oilers behind by a goal, Connor McDavid pulls an uncharacteristic boner. He nails Adrian Kempe
against the boards, with a hit ‘in the numbers’ (middle of his back) which
yielded a good rub on the boards and a bloody nose, always ticket to a 5 minute major penalty. Well, referees confer, the hit was a bit high, therefore video review. After review it is determined this infraction needed the more incriminating label – boarding! The world’s best hockey player got himself a game
misconduct! Excuse my smile as I type away here a bit. 😐
It is at this point that the game changer came on - for both teams. Not a whole lot of animosity between these teams, Kempe just skated away with a red mouthed smile on his face. He had drawn a penalty, now putting his team at advantage for a while. That's hockey. Connor McDavid, by now the gentleman and professional athlete that he is, stood at the exit gate, facing the cameras and a hushed crowd, awaiting the review. When the expected verdict is delivered the fans do their noisy beer protest, the coach gives an earful to the refs, and we see #97 walk the gangway to the dressing room. Down by one goal the Oilers seem resigned to their fate. The ending was as anticipated: Kings 5; Oilers 1.
Wanting to catch a little drama about all of this, I was eager to hear what Coach Dave Tippett might have to say at the post game RAW - the media scrum. Coach looked 'em square in the eye, and calmly spoke his assessment; the team not making quite enough effort not only this game but already last several games; some bad penalties taken, a challenge which needs to be addressed. Almost disappointed was I, and probably the reporters and a thousand or two of fans listening to the coach not even draw steam out of McDavid’s boarding call!
Very obviously here we had demonstration of the best of
professional hockey! Coach Tippet honored the media by answering their questions,
he spoke frankly and without embarrassment or fluster, no individuals blamed
or praised, simply a statement about some things they as a team needed to
address. And no reference to the
referees’ unpopular penalizing of his star player. Dave Tippett modeled something
many of us need to emulate. He spoke matter-of-factly, applicable to all
members of his hockey team, all listening fans, and even Oilers and NHL upper
management. A professional was doing his job. There is some life guidance available here.
Kudos also to McDavid the way he exited the game. No unnecessary drama, just a disappointed calm face ready for whatever the consequences, fully aware of possible implications for the team. You could feel that the whole team knew they were in this one all together. Lord knows they knew there have been many games won by the sheer brilliance and skill of this one being censored! There is some life guidance available here.
So what is gained by drama and grandstanding? There are many coaches and many players in many sports who depend on it. I wrote about that in a recent post (When Heroes Need Help, Oct 20). Sitting in front of my television last night I knew there was something to learn here. I confess this emotive adrenalin category is also my DNA. My wife (bless her longsuffering soul) often endures my dramatic critiques of inadequate choices made by family members, friends in neighborhood, church or faith community. And then I romanticize distant memories of how we used to do it the right way, etc. etc. Many of those memories now serve as sentimentalisms and regularly show up in my dreams at night. Yes, there are different ways of retiring, and many things to think about, especially amid coronavirus restrictions! Retirement thoughts not at all unrelated to this game of hockey.
I just read
a book by Darrel Heidebrecht [i], a friend of mine also recently retired. He has written about Restorative Justice, a
career path which circumstantially (providentially?) absorbed almost all of
his adult working life. Abe Janzen, former Director of Mennonite Central
Committee Alberta (another retiree also thinking many things 😏) writes about it this way in the Forward, "It’s
a life-long journey through the politics, the noble intentions, the failures,
and the learnings…” What intrigues me about Darrel’s book is that his rather visionary lifework has been a series of organizational recalibrations helping institutions to understand each other; this accomplished in what appears to be quite a professional manner. I
relate easily to his faith and his idealism which brought him endlessly among
offenders, prisoners, courthouses and church meetings. Only after reading his book now do I realize this has been a lifetime of restraint, en-process a journey of help to those he deeply cared for. I can now visualize him in many a meeting, like Dave Tippett giving good description of what's happening on the ground, and such and such changes need to be made. Ironically, if he had been bound up too tightly with any one of the organizations he related to, he would have been but a placard waving social activist, showing up at protests and demonstrations here there and everywhere. There are many environments that require professionalism.
So here I am today, quite impressed by a couple of sport professionals doing their jobs par excellence, and also by a friend having worked with professional restraint, not within one institution, but collaborating among many! Within this packet there is need for grace, and a timely reminder of our need for God's grace. 😏 Very impressive to me are these illustrations of restraint and professionalism, illustrating also a need for this grace so easily accessed by any with faith. Ephesians 2:8-10 comes to mind, especially 9 not the result of works, so that no one may boast. In professionalism there is also a winsome nudge towards humility. At end of this day I am encouraged to say there are still some very good and creative ways to git 'er done.
Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 1 Corinthians 12:15-17.
Today this retiree still thinking about many things is happy for a little guidance from the kingpins of a very good hockey club, and from a good friend who has created a little more peace in this world.
[i] A Little more Peace in the World (Calgary: self published, www.littlerockprinting.com, 2021)
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