For a hockey fan, it’s one of the most iconic moments in sports: the moment the captain of the Stanley Cup Champions hoists that beautiful trophy over his head. After a grueling 82-game season and two months of the most intense hockey you’ll ever see, they’ve made it. This is the moment they’ve worked for their entire lives. It’s no wonder there are often just as many tears among the Stanley Cup Champions as there are among the runners-up.
While I’ve watched my beloved Edmonton Oilers play in a pair of thrilling Stanley Cup Finals the past two years, they’ve been unable to finish either series with a win. It just goes to show how hard it is to be the best of the best in any sport. But here we are at the start of a new season, and I have hope again. Maybe this is our year. Just as elite athletes give their whole lives to perfecting their sport, being a dad similarly demands our whole focus and attention. Here are 5 dad lessons the Stanley Cup Finals taught me.
Don’t go to battle alone.
Playoff teams know it takes many players all doing their part to win. That’s why these teams celebrate timely goals, a key defensive play, or a stunning save with equal enthusiasm. Being a dad, likewise, is a challenge we weren’t meant to face alone. This is why we need to work with wives (or ex-wives), mentors, friends, and extended family. We need to lean on others who have different skills and experiences to make sure that we (and our kids) have all the supports we need in order to thrive.
Always be ready for action.
Stanley Cup Champions always have players who excel after stepping in to replace an injured player, sometimes even in the Finals themselves. The best extra or backup players always keep themselves ready for action, because they never know when an injury will thrust them onto the biggest stage. As dads, we, too, always need to be ready for action. Our kids have many needs, and the call for us to step up can come at any time of day or night.
Know your opponent.
Part of the preparation for every hockey game, including the Stanley Cup Finals, is understanding everything you can about your opponent. While our opponents aren’t as obvious, there are people and things in this world that are actively working against us and our kids, like screen addictions, the pornography industry, and online predators. Some of these are learned habits while others come from the world around us. We need to know our opponents and practice virtues like patience, kindness, and self-control to overcome them.
Anything worth doing is going to be hard.
To prevent the opponent from scoring, players will often use their body to block an opponent’s slapshot, which can often be clocked at 80 to 100 miles per hour. They know it’s going to hurt, but the chance to win championship is worth all the pain. Becoming a dad, too, comes with moments that are going to be hard. We need to embrace the hard moments that come with being a dad, like the caring for a newborn at all hours of the night or the difficult conversations we often need to have with a teenager. In doing so, we teach our kids to persevere in the struggles they are bound to face.
You won’t always win.
It’s often said that failure is a part of the road to victory, but there are great teams and star athletes who never get to call themselves champions. Part of playing any sport is learning to deal with the agony of defeat. For us and for our kids, there are going to be days when it’ll feel like the sky is falling. We need to learn for ourselves how to face and overcome failure, because failure is certain to come. Then we need to teach the same thing to our kids.
Sound off: What are other dad lessons we can learn from sports?
Huddle up with your kids and ask, “What’s the best sport to watch, and what’s the best sport to play?”