THE STORY OF THE GAME THE TIME OF A SEASON
/photo jfd
"Wait until I remember," said ti-poil aka René Levesque ex Quebec prime minister.. Well this is the exercise that I give myself at the end of each season to share stories of people, facts and events that marked the last regular season spent together. By "last season" I mean that of 2018-2019 as our summer seasons pass in a flash and are rarely as eventful except some championship games (including the last one) which that were very exciting to say the least.
The question I always ask myself is "what's left of all this time spent together?" great games, goals, and saves are one thing, but it's often the time spent together off the ice that stands the test of time. Added to this are the adventures of each and every one of us outside the arena, which are then shared while drinking a pop or two. If everyone took the time to write a few lines on his last season, we would have hundreds of different versions of the same story.
That said, there are stories that stay unwritten and just like in Vegas are confined to the four corners of the locker rooms. There are also the background stories of which very few people are aware but which concern everyone. This is probably one of those stories that for me was the most significant of the 2018-2019 season. While everyone was busy with his little Saturday routine coming to play at the arena in the good old days when we were eight teams in the central division, a big story was brewing in the administration of La Ligue Fédérale des As who was facing a non-renewal of his contract for the following year. Indeed, the LFA was notified at the end of January that the college no longer wanted to rent ice time to make room for minor hockey even if the Hockey Brotherhood Association (precursor of the LFA) had rented the facilities for a dozen years. Without going into details for legal and political reasons, the reason behind this non-renewal was to get rid of us as we seem to be the only organization renting ice that complained to the arena administration of the poor quality of the facilities because we care about the well-being and safety of our players. It took several months and the help of legal advisers, lawyers and the involvement of key members of our league to recover ice time and continue our operations. the reality is that ice time in the greater metropolitan area remains a rare commodity for commercial hockey in our time when "man" has less and less space in society, but that's another story ....
photo Manli Que
So in the end the biggest story of the year will not have happened on the ice but well behind closed doors far from the eyes of our supporters and our members whose future in the LFA was compromised by this litigation. We hope that this story of the game away from the ice will have a brighter follow-up and that we will find our usual hours next year and especially that we will have more teams for the good of all and the survival of the LFA
This past season was very memorable in its own way, first with the deaths of two of our members, a game against ex-pros from the Czech Republic, the creation of a new trophy, records, achievements and fantasies obtained as well as group outings and the LFA’s first participation (with success) in a tournament to name just that.
You'll find the best photos of the 2018-2019 season in a special folder here
I invite those interested to know more about the 2018-2019 season to consult the LFA Journal archives where you will find about twenty articles dedicated to that season,. Also if you are interested in the stories of the past, you will find other summaries of our seasons under the ARCHIVES tab in which you currently are.
Play to play
JFD
