The life and times of bubble hockey

An ice rink is a special place. It’s where young kids develop dreams of eventually playing in front of thousands while adults relive their youth long after everyone else has gone to bed.

Parents line the glass with their warm drink of choice at six in the morning — wishing their child played basketball.

The Zamboni driver yells at coaches for having pucks on the ice and the skate sharpener is a local hero.

Tucked in the corner of most rinks and most likely surrounded by kids, you’ll find a piece of hockey history. Some call it bubble hockey while others call it dome hockey. Either way, it’s as important to a barn as the ice itself. How else are you going to settle arguments now that the known physical effects of “helmets and gloves” have taken it off the table?

What else are the adults kids, going to do while they wait for ice time?

“I will always remember being undefeated against the Canadians during the Pee-Wee International Tournament of Québec,” Doug Mellon thought to himself. “At least we could claim the rank of bubble hockey champions.”

I’m sure many of you are wondering... “why am I reading this article about bubble hockey?” Better yet, “why is he writing an article about bubble hockey?” The answer to that can be found here at the Seattle Sin Bin.

It recently came to my attention that only one of our writers knew about the glorious game.

Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

Now that an NHL team is finally making its way to the region, we can also expect an influx of youth and adult participation in the sport. With that comes the expansion of bubble hockey participation (it probably wont thanks to the iDevice but who is keeping score?).

So without further ado, I present to you the 2012 Labatt Blue Bubble Hockey Tournament Finals.

I’ll leave you with this. If someone were to host a bubble hockey championship.. I would not be disappointed.

I’m looking at you NHL Seattle.