Surviving the NHL's Off-Season

In just a couple of weeks, the Stanley Cup will be awarded and hockey season will come to an official close. Devout hockey fans will spend the subsequent 16 weeks (give or take a week or two) wondering just what to do with our selves. Craving that fast paced, hard hitting, adrenaline fueled frenzy we experience when our team makes a break for the net and takes a shot. Those summer months, waiting for the new season to begin can be bleak, that's for certain; there are even times when out of sheer desperation a hockey fan will turn to pee wee roller hockey on the local access channel.

But it doesn't have to be this way. Rejoice hockey fans, for there are ways to get small hockey "fixes" in the off-season that can hold you over and keep you sane until training camp begins. Little things you can do that will make countdown go by a little bit quicker and less painfully.

Books - that's right, books. Now is the time to go to the bookstore and look for hockey related books in the cheap section. It's the perfect time to find things like "For the Love of Hockey" which features the personal stories of dozens of hockey greats. After hockey season ends, all of the hockey books the stores had on the shelves all season long are going to be half off (or cheaper). It's the perfect time to build a library of books on your favorite subject.

Learn something - as someone very dear to me frequently says, 'the Internet puts the greatest resources in the world literally at your fingertips.' Pick a player in the hall of fame, look him up. Spend time learning his stats, find stories about him, see if you can find his scouting report and compare it to the player that he turned out to be. Once you've learned all you think you can about him, move on to another player, perhaps one of his former teammates or rivals.