Back into it

I drifted away from sports fandom in the past 12 months. For starters there was nothing really happening in women's sports, just one cancellation after another. And the pandemic has simultaneously left us with nothing to do, and yet also made us so busy what with the inefficiencies of working, parenting, and helping a child with school at the same time. 

It's funny, when I leave something for a while, I forget how much I love it. To return to the sport, even as a fan, is to be reminded of how much I enjoy it. 

The NW bubble was announced, and I thought yes I'll watch that, stream it on Twitch and put it on the tv. The game I watched was the Toronto Minnesota one, Saturday night. It felt like I was watching Hockey Night in Canada in a way. Lindsay Eastwood, who I used to watch on Syracuse and who had victimized my Lakers too many times was especially fun to watch. Her and Grant-Mentis were great together on the PP, leading to Grant-Mentis' first goal of the night. Every time Toronto scored, Minnesota would answer. Toronto would then grab the lead back and so on. I thought for sure the game was headed to OT, but Grant-Mentis scored again to win it with about thirty seconds left. She came up with a puck just inside the offensive blue line, walked around one defender and when the whole building was thinking pass, Grant-Mentis was thinking, let's just end this, and shot. What a game.

The game ended, Grant-Mentis a hero, the Toronto Six looking like potential future Isobel Cup winners. I turned the tv off, abandoned the mess of wrestling action figures my son had dug out while we played during the game and put him to bed. I sat down at my computer and started to work, (I feel like I should explain working on a Saturday night, but you probably get it, it's the pandemic lifestyle basically) And while I worked, for the first time in a year, I turned on a hockey podcast, a Canadian one, a big budget one with kickass music at the end that gets you pumped, or keeps you pumped, if you already are. Women's hockey is back, and so am I.

Here's Lindsay Eastwood scoring the Six's first ever goal. The season's on pause, naturally, but the Six are full of promise and the NW is planning on finishing the season, so who knows where this might lead.

https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/video/lindsay-eastwood-scores-first-goal-toronto-six-history/