We opened the season with the NHL Sled Classic, and now we finish with the biggest national tournament, the Disabled Hockey Festival. This is a yearly event presented by USA Hockey, and it’s so big it stretches across two weekends. The first weekend has blind, warrior, and special hockey, and the second is dedicated to sled hockey. Pittsburgh was scheduled to be the host city in 2020, but the tournament was one of the first casualties of “two weeks to flatten the curve.” Two years later, we’re finally flying to Pittsburgh to play hockey.

There are over 40 teams, divided into tiers, both youth and adult. Teams are placed based on their performance during the season and in prior tournaments. The adult tiers consist of the Championship Tier, then Tiers I through VI. Our A Team is in the Championship Tier, and my team is in Tier V. Championship Tier has only four teams instead of the usual six to eight teams, so each team is loaded with Paralympic gold medalists. Tier V has eight teams divided into to pools, and play consists of three games and a two game playoff.

Here’s a quick highlight reel of the tournament. You might recognize a certain Glib coughing up the puck at the 0:23 mark.

Wednesday

Mrs. TOK’s day job is to provide daycare for our three year old nephew. We love the kid, but Monday he showed up with a runny nose. Today I wake up with a sore throat. Hopefully this won’t last long.

Thursday

I haven’t slept much due to the sore throat and excitement for the trip, but I’m up at 4:15am.  I’ve once again enlisted a good friend to drop me off at the airport, and he arrives at 5am. A little over an hour later we arrive at Chicago Midway. The airport is smaller than O’Hare, and today it’s smooth sailing through check in at the Southwest counter. We’re finally on a flight that allows us to pick seats, so the whole team sits in the first few rows. I’ve flown a lot in the last six months, and for the first time the mask requirement has been dropped. It’s a much more pleasant experience. There is turbulence during beverage service, but I get my seltzer water just before they make the flight attendance sit back down and the rest of the plane has to remain thirsty. The flight takes less than an hour.

At the airport, I am once again a driver. For some reason Enterprise is not aware that I need a hand control, so it takes an hour to straighten things out. Finally I get into a Chevy Equinox and drive back to the terminal. The airport in Pittsburgh is small and not at all busy, so driving is easy. My roommate is one of our coaches (who will also play this weekend), and we decide we’ll put the seats down and transport all the sleds for the weekend. This turns out to be a fantastic choice.

While everyone else is squabbling over where to eat, Roommate and I grab a quick sub at Jimmy John’s, check into the hotel, and take a quick nap.

Thursday, 5:10pm, Game 1

The first game is at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex, which is a fancy new building. This is the main rink for the weekend. Our opponent is one of the Colorado Avalanche teams. Regular readers know how much I hate the Colorado teams so I’m determined to win this one. They get a very early goal, but I get the first goal and assist on the next two. We end up with a 7-3 win.

One of the traditions we have taken from the NHL Blackhawks is a championship belt. In the locker room after the game, the player who had a great game is awarded the belt. We also have a “sash of shame”, which is a pink “princess” sash that’s awarded to the player with the biggest bonehead move of the game. The winner of each of these is expected to wear them publicly and then award them to someone else after the next game. This game I’m awarded the belt.

Pro tip: Don't win the belt for the last game, otherwise you have to take it home. It's heavy.

TOK wins the belt

After our game, I get a chicken wrap at the rink. A Team plays at 8:15pm. They have a back and forth game but lose 10-3.

Next it’s time for a shower and bed.

Friday

The cold hits hard during the night, and I don’t sleep much. In addition to a sore throat, I now have nasal congestion. I’ve packed some cold meds which I’m popping like candy, and fortunately they at least allow me to breathe. We have breakfast at the hotel. Usually you want a shorter gap between games so you’re ready mentally, but today we have a long delay until our next game. I take a hot shower and a nap to help fight off the cold.

We’re at the Lemieux rink to watch A Team’s game at noon. At one point they are down 4-0, but rally to tie and win in a shootout. During the game I have my blades sharpened so they’re ready for later.

Friday, 5:00pm, Game 2

We grab some Chick-fil-A and head to our rink, which is at Robert Morris University, about 20 minutes away. Although Roommate has a setting wrong in his Waze app so it take us 40.

The rink is small and dark and dirty, not as nice as the Lemieux center. Our opponent is the Knoxville Sled Bears, who we defeated to win the championship three years ago. They get a very early fluke goal, but despite outplaying them the rest of the game, we score no goals and they win 2-0. It was a frustrating game. That team wasn’t great, but they had a good goalie and disrupted the flow of the game by having one or two players hanging out at center ice waiting for a breakaway pass. I hate that. I also hate that I took a big hit against the boards and I have some lingering shoulder pain from it.

We have a nice meal at the Firebird Wood Fire Grill, then get to bed by 11:00pm. Tomorrow is an early game. We need to win in order to make the playoffs.

Saturday

Ugh. I’m up at 6am with a sore trap muscle from yesterday’s hit. Roommate and I stop at Dunkin for coffee on the way to the Alpha rink, our third of the weekend.

Saturday, 8:45am, Game 3

In the final regular game, we play the Indy Steel. This team is in our league, and we’ve played them a lot this season. They’re mostly young and not good. However, they have brought a few players from the Central Illinois Thunder, another team in our league. But  his time our whole team clicks. After a scoreless first period, we win 4-1 and only because Indy scored a very late goal off a faceoff. I get one goal and one assist. Roommate and I decide it was due to the Dunkin coffee, and vow to get a cup before every game from now on. As a bonus, my cold seems to be easing up quite a bit. Tonight we’ll play in a semifinal game.

Meanwhile, A Team has lost their game 4-2, and will play for third place later tonight.

We’ve got some time, so we take another shower at the hotel, get some fancy treats at a place called “Peace, Love, and Little Donuts”, take a nap, eat again at Chipotle, and then go back to the Lemieux rink. But not before we stop at Dunkin for another coffee.

Peace, Love, and a stomach ache if you eat more than three

The fancy little donuts

Saturday, 6:45pm, Game 4

This time we play a team from the east coast called the Spauld-Bos Shamrocks. We play pretty well, but they have a very fast double amp, and one other skater, who have all of their goals so far. We’re down 5-3 with a few minutes left, and score one off a faceoff. But we can’t pull the trigger on that last goal and lose 5-4.

A Team plays part of a great game against Philadelphia. They’re down 4-0, tie it up, and then…. give up five goals in the third period to lose 9-4.

After the game we drown our sorrows in pizza and pinot noir in the hotel lobby. A few of the Paralympic guys from other teams show up to hang out. We have no more games this weekend so we make it a late night.

Sunday

With no games to play, most of A Team has scheduled earlier flights and left. Our team captain is from Pittsburgh and plans a day of sightseeing. We  visit the Duquesne Incline to check out the view. Then we have lunch at the Church Brew Works, a brew pub that’s in an old Catholic church. Finally we head to a fun center and try out the driving range. Pro tip: It’s not easy to hit a golf ball from a wheel chair.

The view from the top of Duquesne Incline

A Catholic church, but with beer instead of wine

One of our coaches is the dad of one of the A Team players who left early. He’s been carrying his son’s Paralympic medals, and he takes them out at lunch. We all get to pick them up and even our waiter got to try them on.

The Sochi medal has bits of a Russian meteorite in those little windows

Paralympic gold from Beijing, Sochi, and Seoul

We’re close to that really nice airport, and it’s easy to drop off the car and get to the terminal. In Chicago, a teammate drives me half way home, and Mrs. TOK picks me up.

Non-disabled people: "Oh shit we're going to be LATE"

I think some other people from the tournament were on my flight

Season Wrap Up

We started with a vaccine mandate, masks on the ice, people not coming back, Paralympic players leaving for a few months, tournaments cancelled…  It’s been a wild ride of a season. But I did get to play a lot of games, both A and B, and I progressed. On Saturday, I talked to one of our A Team guys who has two gold medals, and played with us all through the COVID shutdowns. I thanked him for all of his help. But he cut me off. He said he saw me play, and I’m looking way better. I’m skating with the puck, looking around, and making good decisions. All the things he helped me work on. I could not have received a better compliment, nor a better incentive to work harder this off season.

And then this Happened

There is one more chapter left in this season. In June, there’s an annual tournament in Minnesota. This is outside our season, so Chicago won’t play. But for the second year in a row, I’ve been asked by the team from Alaska to join them, and I’m bringing three of my favorite teammates with me.