October 18, 2002

Yitzhak-ey Night at Lynah Rink

Print More

My high school hockey coach, a Jewish guy who hailed from Manitoba, used to tell a joke. Actually, he told a lot of jokes, but most either make no sense or are unprintable. The one I’m thinking of, though, went like this:

Knock, knock.

Who’s there?

Yitzhak.

Yitzhak who?

Yitzhak-ey night in Canada!

Okay, so unless you’re Kings defenseman Mathieu Schneider or Capitals center Jeff Halpern, the only Jewish players in the NHL, you probably didn’t find that joke as funny as I always did.

Anyway, the reason I was thinking about that joke is because tonight is hockey night in Ithaca — or more precisely, hockey night at Lynah Rink.

That’s right, tonight is the men’s hockey team’s annual Red-White scrimmage, the first time head coach Mike Schafer ’86 gives us a look at this year’s edition of the legendary Cornell hockey program.

This is Midnight Madness for Cornellians as far as I’m concerned. So if you fancy yourself a fan of the Red icers, you better be there. Never mind that this game doesn’t count for anything. Never mind that the tickets for this game don’t come on the season ticket sheet. Never mind that the opponent is, well, Cornell.

I’m talking about the anticipation of bone-crushing Doug Murray hits. I’m talking about tic-tac-toe passing by senior Sam Paolini and junior Ryan Vesce. I’m talking about wondering if junior Greg Hornby is going to go ballistic and whoop up on a helpless opponent. I’m talking about seeing one of the McRaes on campus and wondering if it’s the one who scored the winning goal, or the one who assisted on it. I’m talking Big Red hockey, baby!

If this doesn’t get your heart pounding, you either don’t care about sports at all or you’re sharing freezer space with Ted Williams.

If you can wait in line for several days, you can come to the scrimmage. Cough up the two-dollar admission fee and get the lungs and vocal cords warmed up for the regular season.

Sing senior captain Stephen B