Overheard at The Bean: Hockey

• Every small town has two important buildings. The church and the rink. One saves your soul. The other tests it.

• The rink is the only place in town where the coffee is worse than the church basement’s and nobody complains.

• You haven’t really lived in Saskatchewan until you’ve sat through a minor hockey game in a rink so cold you could see your breath, your coffee steam, and your regrets.

• The rink board meeting takes longer than the game. Always has, always will.

• The loudest person in any rink is a parent who never played the game.

• You can tell a hockey mom by the coffee in one hand, the Tim’s cup from yesterday in the cup holder, and the schedule memorized to the minute.

• Hockey parents don’t have weekends. They have tournaments.

• I’ve driven three hours to watch my grandson play forty-five minutes of hockey, and I’d do it again tomorrow. That’s just how it works.

• The drive home after a loss is the quietest place on earth.