28 Degrees, 48 beers, 70 days of Pure Gongshow
Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Posted by kpar

With NHL Entry Draft now complete we all know what time it is. Some off-season diehards would say the buyout and negotiation period and next Tuesday at noon we enter into the Free Agency period. Well that is all fun and dandy, many more of us also know this time of year as summer. Heading out on roadies to Montreal, or whatever cottage country you happen to be near. Fishing, drinking some brews, and for a vast majority cracking a new tin.

This period only comes for two months a year, and then you get whipped back into reality. But, since it is here take the time to kick back and make it a gongshow. That one word is part of a lot of people’s vocab now. Not just hockey players and it just goes to show how a core bunch of players managed to set a lifestyle and make it so that anyone can live it. My friend James calls me up and says that “the monotony needs to be broken. We need to get up to Muskoka for a bit and just fucking give’r” for the weekend.

My summer is full of squatting until you puke, deadlifting ‘til you drop, shitty keg beer, wild parties, and road trips. Some people have the corporate jobs now and can’t be at the party, but deep down you know they would give it all up to once again live this lifestyle. I am still young, I am allowed to pass out on the lawn; I am allowed to still be a mess.

Having a solid gagger in was never my style, but it is now more prevalent than ever. I went fishing the other night, and you can tell the cool, calm swagger some of these boys have when packin’ a fatty. It calms you right out. We can all walk the earth thinking we are king shit, because we know we are hockey players. These boys command attention, and everyone looks at us walking into some sketchy bar, or some native watering hole in Northern Ontario.

During the summer months you can wheel those cougars, and pound back so much you don’t remember anything after 10:30 at night. You find yourself sleeping it off in someones boat, or in a ditch. You are missing your phone, one shoe, and that awesome lid you sport. You spend your day trying to find your hat because it has some beauty memories, and then getting sloshed and sunburnt to do it all again that night. What more would you want in the summer. Sadly, it can officially come to an end, when you are forced into pre-season camps, heading back to university, or actually trying to find a job. Through all of that, you know you get to bring the gongshow wherever you go, make your two months count, and then make the other ten the same, just in a new location.

Everyone will remember those parties that were so butter, the ones with 300 people, 5 kegs and so much tail you don't know what you can do with it all. Make that your summer, just live it. You will never forget these times, so when someone says hey can you come north for the weekend. You blow off whatever trivial shit you got on and go live. You have one life, don't waste it

*As always lets be real boys, I hate those public service announcements, but you know it must be done. If you can, walk home, or call a cab. We have all read stories on here about hockey players with potential losing their lives do to being drunk and driving or getting hit by one. Do the right thing, make it real, and just stay safe.