Brett,

This year was((played my last game of the season today) my 40th year of hockey, I started skating when I was 4. I played some real serious stuff when I was in my late teens and early 20's, there is no such thing as usless equipment when it comes to hockey. The game is way too fast and way too unpredictable, with pucks moving at 100+ mph and players moving at 30 mph you don't (as you know) always have time to move out of the way or protect yourself. Good quality equipment is the way to go and it doesn't do you any good if you leave it in your hockey bag or in the basement. Earlier this year a team mate of mine nearly lost an eye in a fluke accident with a deflected puck, he'll never regain full vision, I am now wearing a visor. There are a lot of things I want to do in my lifetime and many of them require sight.

With respect to your shoulder injury...my father played 21 years of pro hockey and tore his shoulder up quite badly near the end of his career, he had the shoulder re-operated on 2 years ago, his doc said with luck he'd be golfing in 3 months he did all the excercises his doc recomended without fail, he was golfing in 6 weeks. Arthur is right DO YOUR EXCERCISES!!

I'll get off my soapbox and get back to building my boat now.

Wipe your skates off so their not rusty when you lace 'em up next fall, get well.

Ken

: arthur,
: yep, a big farm boy from north dakota. geesh, i'll be seeing his stupid
: "fighting souix" jersey in my nightmares. over the years you
: become either complacent, or overconfident in one's abilities. i've played
: long enough to know my limitations and, regretfully i crossed them. you
: see i play a no check league, and after a while you shed the useless
: equipment, hip pads, shoulder pads, elbow pads. its just less stuff to lug
: around, and stink up your basement after play. my shoulder would be fine
: right now if i had that stuff in place. oh well.
: ironically, the guy that ran me is a friend and we both were just screwing
: around. that is, untill i didn't get up.
: i've got to go see the ortho dr. in two weeks, i'll ask him about an mri
: then. just typeing this out is sending my shoulder into spazams. each with
: its own audiable clicking/cruch sounds.
: i'll stand by doc's description 'FLOATING' is what he said.
: well, it was a car wreck, tom ( the fore mentioned farm boy) a resepectable
: 6'3" 240.
: By the way I have wondered if you
: well, you're right about the hitman thing. far from a tribute, just people
: remember you if they can associate it w/ someone famous. i don't know if
: you ever have seen the movie maverick. staring mel gibson as brett
: maverick. but though out the entire movie he gets call "brad",
: "brent" etc. etc. well same thing w/ me. so i automatically
: associate it w/ another more famous brett's of history. ie brett favre,
: brett mavrick and last but not least brett the hitman hart.
: next week we'll work on the pronunciation of my last name;)
: btw, thank you for your concern and extensive posts.
: brett the hitman hart