My Final Away Game

Yesterday kicked off the official competition for our team and for the Games. We played our first game against Team Israel. They were an interesting squad comprised of mostly Russians and Canadians. Supposedly, their team captain is an orthodox rabbi from Toronto. Regardless, he was one of the best players on the ice! We fell…

Here’s the link that hockey games were live-streamed on today. It is a YouTube channel so I think you just click on the link at 11 AM Israeli time which is unfortunately 4 AM EST! I don’t think there are broadcasters but the video quality was pretty good for the US Women’s game I watched…

Just got back to the hotel from our first practice. It was pretty awesome meandering through the hills of Jerusalem with a hockey arena as the end destination. Really, it is the home of Jerusalem’s professional basketball team which is made obvious by the height of the shower heads in the locker room. It was…

Spent the last 24 hours getting acclimated in Tel Aviv. What a beautiful city by the sea. I was as surprised by the size of the surfing community as the hotel staff was surprised by our team’s hockey gear. Had dinner last night at a restaurant on the beach with some teammates and my cousin…

Well, made it to Logan with gear in tow. Fortunately, Abby dropped me off 5 min before a Birthright Israel trip of about 100 20-something’s showed up at check-in! I never got to take advantage of a Birthright experience when I was younger but in many ways this Maccabi Games experience is my Birthright, just…

Had my last on ice session this morning States side. 6 months of dedicated goalie training has come to a head. I depart Sunday and have practice on Wednesday. And then the games… Game 1: Thu July 14 at 11 AM Israel time vs Israel Game 2: Sun July 17 at 10 AM Israel time…

Had an on ice session with the 6 Boston area players from the team in Dedham last night. Final tune-up will be Friday morning with some of the same guys in a fast paced weekly game in Reading. Feeling like a kid again with a helmet sticker. Proper goalie masks never felt comfortable to me…

Going to be interesting playing on an international surface (much larger than what we all play on back home) with all of the humidity outside filtering in to the arena. Pretty sure all of those seats won’t be filled for the masters division! The open division (college kids) drew a decent sized crowd in 2017.

One week from today, I will be boarding an El Al flight to Tel Aviv from Boston. It will be my first trip to Israel. Never did I imagine that my first time to my “homeland” would be with my hockey goalie gear in tow, let alone in a bag that read “Team USA”. I…