Post by Jim H. on Apr 25, 2021 20:26:59 GMT -5
Week 8, the last week of the season, was played but overshadowed by the loss of Chris DePace to COVID earlier in the week. The news was a blow and the club, through e-mails, shared its profound sadness and deep respect for Chris as a friend and hockey player. We knew Chris from years of Old Bucks. In him both the milk of human kindness and the beer of hockey camaraderie flowed in equal measure. In him was blended both hockey player and hockey dad. If you were a hockey dad too there wasn’t a tournament town you could mention—be it Rochester, Lake Placid, or Boston—and he would have a story of being there with his son, too. He also had a team away from Old Bucks, the Hitmen, and his years there are now the domain of legend. But it was Old Bucks, his adopted club, where his outgoing personality made its mark. As we read all the emails from the club remembering Chris one stood out, from Dave Boggs, describing how Chris encouraged Owen on the bench: “You’re doing fine, youngster!” That word youngster which no one has used since the 1950s was vintage Chris: a testament to an innocent kindness so rare it’s almost obsolete. It gives perspective to another rarity: Chris giving out gifts after the Old Bucks golf outing last October. It occurred on the 19th hole with everyone sitting around drinking beer. Chris stood up and with his face wreathed in Rich Devlin cigar smoke thanked everyone for letting him play. He then handed out framed photographs of the club to every player. And each foursome got a prize, first through fourth place, with the fourth place prize being a little plastic football and goalpost because those players “need a new sport”. Chris’s last skate with Old Bucks was March 14 at the Cure Arena. In hindsight the large vaulted roof strikes us as reminiscent of the towering ceilings of the great cathedrals that were meant to draw the thoughts of the faithful up toward Heaven, which is where our thoughts go now. Requiescat in pace.