James Duthie, The Ottawa Citizen          
Published: Saturday, October 13, 2007

As you read this, I'm probably in a rink.

Doesn't matter when you are reading it: In your jammies Saturday morning, over lunch, before dinner. I'm probably in a rink.

Heck, I'm writing this in a rink. I'm at Thursday hockey practice (which follows Tuesday speed skating, Wednesday game and proceeds a Friday, Saturday, Sunday tournament).

For this year, I have joined the cult known as "Rep Hockey Parent." Do not fear me. I mean you no harm.

After two years of house league, my seven-year-old boy is playing his first year of minor novice rep. And he's having a ball.

So I'm thrilled for him.

And terrified for me.

I love hockey, but this is nuts.

House league was Club Med. One little weeknight practice, one relaxed Saturday morning game, and the rest of the weekend was all ours. We'd go to movies, take the kids to the park, do yard work. OK, I never did yard work.

Now? My weekends are like an episode of The Amazing Race.

"To complete this task, you must get your son to the rink by 8, your girls to gymnastics by 9:30, grab the Timbit that will be your only meal of the day, get the groceries, pick up all three kids, drop the girls at learn-to-skate and get your boy to his second game by noon. The last parent to arrive will be eliminated."

My wife and I have to book our dates six months in advance now. We're going to a movie in March. Might even go for a drink after. We're crazy like that.

And apparently we're getting off easy! Our coach is relaxed and ... sane. He never says boo if we have to miss a practice or game.

The next-door neighbour's boy is a 10-year-old AA player. He's on the ice five or six times a week and has nine tournaments before Christmas. All mandatory. Nine!?! That's nine Fridays off school. Nine entire weekends gone ... poooofff! Like some David Blaine trick.

And you parents with two or three kids in rep? I have no comprehension of how you do it. Can you freeze time like that guy on Heroes? Have you mastered teleportation? Did you clone yourselves?

Look, I enjoy going to the rink as much as anyone. There is nothing like watching your kid finally turn his patented "flick" into an actual wrist shot. (I think there are a couple of Leafs who still haven't done that.)

But I'm already wondering how much is too much. So I called a couple of other dads I know to ask their opinion.

"Two to three times a week on the ice is plenty," says Martin, a father of two young boys.

"And never ever more than four a week, even in rep," adds Marty, who has two girls. "Let them do other things."

Oh, by the way, the last names of those two dads? St. Louis and Turco.

Yup. Two of the best players in the NHL never played as much kids hockey as our little ones do today. In fact, almost every player I talk to says the same thing. Our kids are on the ice waaaay too often.

"Summer hockey especially bothers me," says Turco. "Take the ice out. I never played in the summer. I played everything else. Sure, I missed hockey, but I also never came to hate it because I'd played too much."

The goalie is right. We've all seen those little glassy-eyed year-round hockey robots, who have had all passion for the game sucked out of them by 10. Of course, there are some who you could put out on the ice four hours a day and it still wouldn't be enough.

So we'll watch our boy closely to see which way he leans. If the fun of rep starts to fade, we'll happily go back to Club Med.

But for now, the Race continues.

And we're surviving. It doesn't consume our entire life.

In fact, tonight, we have no hockey! We're going out ... to a team fund-raiser.

Wanna buy a raffle ticket?

JAMES DUTHIE is the host of the NHL on TSN. Watch him Tuesday night as the Montreal Canadiens host the Florida Panthers.
© The Ottawa Citizen 2007