A New Record

   Here's a story that needs to be read over and over again to those people who have been sitting around the table in the NHL talks. They need to be given personal copies so they can study them, and maybe even sleep with them under their pillows. It might not hurt to shred one copy each of the story and sprinkle the little bits over their morning bowl of cereal! Those people have entirely missed the point of the game they supposedly love. They have forgotten that it is a game, after all, and meant to be played for the sheer joie de vivre of making your way down the ice, stick handling that puck toward the net. It is meant to be entertainment for those on the sidelines - memories for those who used to participate, whether on or around the back yard rink, or an NHL arena. It is meant to be a source of national pride, not a source of inexcusable greed. The players are meant to lust after the thrill of the game, not after the dollar bill.
   The team that just skated off the ice yesterday had it all right, every little detail of it, right from the beginning. Brent Saik, the team's man-on-a-mission, was injured before the first puck was dropped. The top of his middle finger was sacrificed to the Zamboni. Not to be deterred, Saik got it stitched up and immediately hit the ice. He and his teammates skated for the love of the game, for the thrill of victory, and for a higher purpose. These players took to the ice on February 11th, on a rink in front of Brent Saik's home, in Sherwood Park, east of Edmonton. On Saturday, they passed the previous 203-hour hockey game record set by a group from Ontario, and decided to keep their skates laced up a little longer to safeguard their new record. Just after noon on Monday, they had logged 240 hours, and that was when they finally called it.
   Their love of the game was obvious, and they certainly achieved their victory, but what was their higher purpose? Saik, the man who initiated the marathon, had lost both his father and his wife to cancer, and he was hoping to turn this marathon to more than one use; conquering the Guinness Book of Records, and helping to conquer the disease. He and his teammates have done both. They raised over $50,000.00 for cancer research. They helped to take away a little of the bitter dregs that the owners and players have been dumping in the Stanley Cup. They are the spirit of Canada's game, and the NHL should study their story, and heed their example.