Carl Wiens - Ice This

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Ice This

posted:February 1, 2010

I thought I would post this one for the benefit of all those Toronto lovers, like Doug out there. I did this piece for the Toronto tourist guide. Normally you don't picture the Stanley Cup and the Maple Leafs together, but the city does host the cup at the Hockey Hall of Fame and many in Leafs Nation claim the city to be the center of the hockey universe.

Everybody around here was buzzing with excitement about the big trade yesterday, with Toronto shipping out six roster players in exchange for the hulking defenseman Dion Phanuef and J. S. Giguere. Nothing like cleaning house on a mediocre and disappointing team. Go Leafs, there's always next year!

Closer to home, I took advantage of the deep freeze this weekend to flood the backyard rink. My son Lucas is off school today and is banging the puck in the net and working on his moves. He's got this between his skates dangle spin backhand to the top shelf thing almost down. Hockey dreams live. Not much else survives in the dead of winter.