Dropping the Puck on a New Year

One of my resolutions for the coming year is to write more on this platform and grow the audience of Don't Give A Puck. I've been slacking off lately, mostly because I haven't been in a great place mentally. I still haven’t found a job after being laid off nine months ago. I’ve been doing what I can to help my wife with her marketing business, which has been doing fantastic. Quite frankly, it’s what’s keeping us afloat right now.

And while I am passionate about what her business does, it’s still her business. It doesn’t quite feel like our business yet. I’ve never run a business, and I know nothing about marketing, so it’s been hard to find ways to make meaningful contributions. I’d like the business to grow into something that we both can pour our energy into full-time and truly make it ours, but it’s not quite there yet. Until then, I’d like to find something to do with my time where I can contribute financially to our family again—something that I find fulfilling. I haven’t found it yet, and the longer I go without finding it, the worse I’ve felt mentally.

Lately, even hockey hasn’t been able to lift my spirits. My team, the 3rd Line Dads, has hit a losing streak, and we’re currently sitting outside the playoff bubble with only a handful of games left in the season. While I’m always grateful to just be able to go out there and play, losing does suck. Plus, we’ve been on a break for the holidays, so I haven’t even been out on the ice much in the past few weeks.

I finally decided to do something about it. Sick of just sitting around stuffing my face with Christmas cookies, I organized a group of guys to rent some ice. My original plan was to get the team together for an organized practice since we desperately needed it. But I couldn’t pull enough guys together to make it cost-effective. So, I reached out to some other players I’ve skated with before, along with the captain of another team in our league, to see if we could get a casual scrimmage going.

I’m really happy it worked out this way. We ended up with twenty skaters and two goalies for a relaxed, pick-up-style game. It was a blast. No referees, no stoppages—just a bunch of guys playing hockey like kids at recess. And unlike kids at recess, when time was up, we got to knock back a couple of beers together. I really needed that. It got my head back into a better place.

It reminded me why I started this blog. I want to share that feeling with others. That’s why I want to grow whatever this thing is that I’ve created. I feel like it could be so much more than just a blog—I just don’t know what that looks like yet.

So, be on the lookout for new, more frequent content. Happy New Year!