Midnight Roller Hockey

There was a time back in the 70s when driving over to North Vancouver to play hockey on roller skates in the earliest minutes of the morning (just after midnight) in a big rented rink in the middle of winter sounded quite appealing. Roller skating at 2AM when most regular folk are at home in bed sleeping seemed like a big hoot n'holler for us youngish Blazer types for some strange reason.

I don't remember exactly how many times we arranged these 'graveyard shift' games back in our heyday (every two weeks comes to mind) but each episode was an adventure. I recall how Don simply HAD to catch the end of a late night TV show (The Onedin Line?) before finally heading out for the rink; leaving us to worry that he'd be late for the 12:30AM kick off. (You certainly couldn't get from 35th Avenue in Vancouver to Stardust in North Van in less than 30 minutes THESE days!)

Either Laine or George provided some of the camerawork for this hockey video. I don't think either of them actually suited up with stick and skates, but they'd occasionally come along to watch - and then join us for a post game meal somewhere (Copper Kettle?) around 3AM.

In the 1980s, when VHS tape was in fashion, I managed to record a few midnight roller hockey games out in Richmond against brudder in law Mike and his co-horts. And while the Blazers always won those '80s games, they never had quite the same thrill and romance that the '70s games did. Why's that I wonder? Novelty worn off? Old age kicking in? When I get around to transferring the remaining 200 feet of roller hockey action, we'll return again to this subject for further analysis. So keep your ticket stub.