Continued from WORLD WIDE HOCKEY TOUR – SAINT PAUL (PART A) in July, 2016.]
During the game day walk-through, Mekkar anticipated two
potential problems due to this particular feature. One that he never
encountered before. Mekkar would eventually play hockey in some weird
environments around the globe on this journey. One issue he considered was that
if the fans in the first rows wore dark colored pants, shoes, and socks in some
combination the clear boards might create slight visual issues. Potential depth
perception problems in conjunction with a dark color puck. Especially if Mekkar
was across the ice and moving toward it.
Added to the fact that Mekkar had inherited partial color
blindness from his father Henrik. His papa was completely color blind. Mekkar
only had trouble distinguishing between black and dark navy blue or something
close with very dark aspects as part of the color spectrum. The slight shades
in differences reflected in clothing are the most difficult for him.
Fortunately, his mama Sirga was a model and was extremely fashion conscious.
Mekkar was surprised that she didn’t play pranks on either
him or Henrik regarding this. But she was not the mischievous
type; she was too straight forward for that. Mekkar did try to hide this flaw
from his own teammates, but Lasse & Alf knew better. So, Mekkar bribed both
of them to not make light of his somewhat color blindness. Mekkar feared that
it might cut into his playing time determined by the coaches for matches. This was
especially true in the case of tonight in a rink of clear glass.
Then, Mekkar remembered the World Hockey Association’s
innovation in the use of a blue colored puck. [whahockey.com] He was hoping for
this night’s game they would insert it because it would help the vision problem
and make it easier to deal with. The youngster still felt this whole issue
would be difficult to deal with during the game.
The second potential problem that
Mekkar noticed was the clear boards could give the perception to players on his
team that the ice surface was smaller than it really was. He felt it appeared
smaller than the normal standard in North America
which was already dimension-wise more cramped than rinks back home. The common
international ice surface, and also used in the Olympic Games, was about 20
feet wider. Mekkar had distinguished the positioning required for each set of
circumstances.
To double-check his perception
Mekkar spoke to a couple of the arena maintenance employees. He asked if the rink
was actual regulation size for the continent and each responded that it was.
However, he was not convinced and
his suspicious nature wasn’t buying it. This questioning everything aspect of
his personality would continue to grow more prevalent as he got older. Now he
trusts his own instincts and gut feeling over anyone’s claims, opinions, and so
called expertise regarding just about everything. It is even more skeptical
when he is familiar with a particular subject or issue. There are very few examples
where his opinions can be greatly changed by another person; But, only unless
he knew that individual very well and trusted them, which is a rare thing for
him. Mekkar’s attitude in the current day is I am wrong when I change my mind.
[John Maynard Keynes, 1945; Paul Samuelson, 1970]
Since Mekkar has seen and
participated in quote a lot of hockey so far in his young life, he was sticking
with his initial instinct that had served him well up to this point. A couple
of things contributed to this contrary perception by Mekkar about this rink. Today,
the St. Paul Civic Center
Anyway, Mekkar noticed the odd
seating arrangement for improved fan viewership and enjoyment of the game. It
is well to note that Mekkar already had some experience in club and facility
management while at the same time as a player. This would expand in related
enterprises in the future. So, he had a slight insight advantages regarding
hockey and sports variances as he called it.
He was hopeful about the upcoming
game in one area. The home side might act like this game was just an exhibition.
However, the club struggled financially just like their counterparts across the
Mississippi River in the south of the Twin
Cities. Based on recent past experience with Birmingham , other drawbacks were possible. Mekkar
thought that were was a much higher potential for increased goonery to draw in
and please the paying customers. [whahockey.com; Wikipedia; Local media sources]
Mekkar was optimistic that this
matchup wouldn’t turn into the debacle that occurred in Birmingham , but realism got the best of him.
He was aware that many teams are formed and built talent-wise to be ideally
suited for their home arena and fan base. Mekkar would learn that like the
Bulls, these fans didn’t really care as much about wins as much as being
entertained by the fights. Yet, the Saints usually had a winning record.
[whahockey.com]
The Native from the True Far North
was wishing that the home team was drawing fewer fans to their homes games,
especially this one. To Mekkar it equated to a less fan based rowdiness and
abuse of the visiting squad to deal with. He figured the less boisterous the
fans, the less chance of becoming a pugilistic affair on the ice. Mekkar was
wrong about this however because the crowd that did show up was the most
hardcore of them. Added to fact that this matchup was a novelty game which
usually meant that more patrons pass through the turnstiles. Larger attendance
draws are normally recorded when tilts against international squads are on the
docket.
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