Hockeys St. Patrick’s

Hockeys St. Patrick’s

Official St. Patrick’s Day is tomorrow, and no matter where you come from, or what your heritage is, you are just a bit Irish for the day. Ironically enough, the patron saint of Ireland, wasn’t Irish himself either! We here at Elite Amateur Sports will be celebrating the weekend of St. Patrick’s Day hosting the Green Ice Classic in Kalamazoo. It is always an amazing weekend to host a youth hockey tournament in Michigan.

Since we are letting you all do the celebrating for us, we want to celebrate the many outstanding Patrick’s that have helped grow our game. For anyone born in the 80’s and before, maybe the most prominent Patrick was minding the net for Montreal and Colorado. Patrick Roy was an exuberant goaltender that was just as crazy as he was good. This was personified during his short coaching career as well.

Ladies may think of Patrick Sharp as their favorite Patrick. He was silky smooth on the ice during his long tenure in Chicago and his short stops in Philly and Dallas. Kid’s outside of our viewing region will turn to Sharpie’s old teammate and current Blackhawk, Patrick Kane as their idol that has been bestowed this saintly name. If you are a fan of an ironman that’s not named Tony Stark, Patrick Marleau is the only one who has surpassed Redwing legend Gordie Howe’s NHL games played mark at 1,779 games.

Each of these Patrick’s brought different variety and greatness to the game. Many future hockey stars may have even been given the name Patrick due to their parent’s fandom of these players. Regardless of if you are a fan of these players, or of the holiday, we just ask that everyone celebrates responsibly as we hope to see you at the rink for Green Ice, or for Hockey Fights Cancer in late May. For any updates to this weekend’s tournament, or any of our upcoming events, please be sure to follow us on Facebook!