A Funny Hockey Story

My seven year old grandson is a hockey fan. He plays house league and select hockey, knows the names of all the NHL teams and many of the players by name and number.

I call him a hockey-slut, not to his face because, well, he’s seven. But the family joke is he has wavering allegiance to a number of teams. Personally I think he does this on purpose because the men in the family are die-hard fans of specific teams, namely the Maple Leafs, the Habs and the Chicago Blackhawks. He has hats and/or jerseys for a multitude of teams.

So, what do you give a kid like this for a gift but something hockey related?

Last spring, for his birthday, I made him an art project. I had a 16x20 frame, plain black with a very wide mat, and an 8x10 inch opening. I printed and framed his photo from his first year of hockey. It’s taken from behind, shows him sitting on the bench, looking over his right shoulder.

Then I searched the internet and found silhouettes of hockey players, sized it to fit and cut it out in solid black paper. Artistically speaking, it looked better to have the silhouette facing the photo, the feet along the bottom of the frame, the back against the right side. I have to describe it because, as frequently happens, I forgot to take a photo of the completed work.

The silhouette filled the lower right corner of the mat, just slightly overlapping the photo.

Everyone loved it, my daughter in particular as it was her favorite photo. I thought my grandson loved it too and he did, love the photo, the theme and such. But...he informed me, with great seriousness, that he shoots left, and the silhouette is playing right handed. Oops.

I would have done it the same regardless, because it was more visually appealing and I’m an artist. I wasn’t sure he’d understand, or care, so I simply apologized, plead ignorance and promised I wouldn’t make that mistake again. Who would’ve thought? What a kid.

I was reminded of this watching his game, and thought, oh look, he’s playing left handed. Not that I ever doubted him for a minute, he’s too knowlegable.