This post marks the official start of “Skate Saturday”. Every Saturday, I will be sharing stories, tips and advice about the on-ice side of the game. I am kicking off this weekly feature by sharing my own story with you.

Last season, I lost my passion for playing the game. I went from wanting to push myself to become the best I could be day in and day out, to going through the motions. I didn’t want to be at practice half the time, my motivation to train off the ice was the lowest it had ever been and I didn’t even enjoy the road trips with the team. “Fun” has been missing from my game for the last year or so.

But last night, I finally got some of it back.

Last night, I played my first game of the season with my new team. And for the first time in a long time, I had FUN.

My new team is made up of girls that I played with 15 years ago - when hockey really was nothing but fun. And throughout the entire game last night, I was having flashbacks to our “glory days”.

I could picture us winning a tournament championship late on a Sunday night after going into 5 overtimes! We went from playing 5 on 5, to 4 on 4, to 3 on 3 and all the way down to 1 on 1 - full ice! Eventually we scored the winner at 1am. I remember barely being able to keep my eyes open the next day at school - but boy, was I happy.

I could see us practicing in our old rink, remembering how you absolutely had to hang your jacket up in the dressing room because the heaters underneath the bench were broken and would sometimes light things on fire.

I remember how our old coach used to get thrown out of games all the time because of his habit of closing the door to the bench a little too loudly after the ref made a bad call.

Back then, no scouts were watching us play, we weren’t worried about our stats and all we really cared about was hanging out with our friends.

It was great to see all of the girls again last night and re-live those great moments. We don’t play again for another two weeks and I am already excited to step on the ice again.

There are going to be times when your passion for the game is tested and you feel like the game is no fun.

Just remember - you can always get that passion back.

Coach Kim