Why it is fun to play driveway hockey with a 4 year old

He makes up his own rules.

Barley the Golden Retriever is the coach.

He is Rick Nash (big surprise) and he says I am Nickolai Zherdev.

He is better than me.

He changes where the goal is, then deducts points from my score if I hit it too far away.

He gets to call a “rest period” whenever he wants- I can’t.

He decides when it is time to change players, tells me to be Pascal Leclaire. Oh but he is still Rick Nash. Rick Nash doesn’t change. (side note here is how amazed I am at how clearly he spits out his favorite hockey players names yet his preschool teachers have trouble understanding his normal words…)

Even though I am now a goalie I also have to play regular hockey.

Time to switch players again- now I am Jared Boll. He is still Rick Nash.

All of a sudden he throws his stick down and yells, “FIGHT!”

We pretend to fight, he says I need to fall down on the “ice”. I said no.  I tell him that Nash doesn’t fight, he says Rick Nash does “ev-wee-thing”
We play more.

He yells “FIGHT” again. This time backs up for a running start, says he is going to take me down. I pull his shirt over his head (classic hockey move).

We both crack up.

Game Over.