USA Hockey Adult Hockey

Las Vegas isn’t your typical hotbed for adult hockey.

There are only three sheets of ice in Sin City, but the players in Kilroy’s Hockey Club adult league always make sure they’re skating once a week at the Sobe Ice Arena. The 35-and-over league features hockey players from all over the nation — and all over North America, in fact — who are transplants to Las Vegas.

The guys on Team North Stars love playing in a league where adults are able to play and not have to worry about trying to stay young against 20-something-year-old college kids.

“Guys are kind of at a different place in their life,” said Chris Walther, who plays on Team North Stars. “They’re obviously not trying to prove anything to anybody on the ice. We’ve got a lot of players with a lot of skill, but it’s kind of a different attitude. They’re not out there to prove, ‘Oh, I’m the best guy out here. I can score 30 goals a season,’ or what have you. Now, guys take pride in making that extra pass and making that great play as opposed to scoring.”

The four-team league plays about 30 regular-season games per session, so it’s a hectic seven- to eight-month schedule. Team North Stars players enjoy a good skate every Monday night.

“I don’t think the competition aspect ever leaves you, but I’m a professional, I’ve got a kid, I’ve got work to go to in the morning,” North Stars team member Carl Ager said. “There’s no scouts in the stands and no one’s making the show at this age, so maybe there’s more of a respect factor out there than when maybe you have 18-year-old kids thinking they’re the next greatest thing.”

The league stresses no checking or slap shots, which can be a challenge for players to adapt. Walther is a defenseman who relied on his slap shot his entire life until joining Kilroy’s Hockey Club about seven years ago. Without the opportunity to use a slapper, Walther had to reinvent his game, thus improving his wrist shot and his passing ability.

Walther has a good time playing with the same teammates year in and year out. Team North Stars has a handful of players who have been in the league since its inception, and they help make it a fun team dynamic.

“I love hockey and can [play] pick up hockey and have a good time, but a lot of it has to do with the guys,” said Ager, who is 42. “I think there’s camaraderie that goes along with our locker room, and just they’re a good group of guys. From the moment we walk in the dressing room, it’s nothing but razzing each other and telling stories and having laughs.”

“You know the guys, you know their tendencies, you’ve ribbed each other, you’ve given each other nicknames, you bust each other’s chops,” said the 44-year-old Walther. “You hear about professional athletes when they retire and they miss that locker room camaraderie; it’s that camaraderie that you just don’t get any place else.”

The average age of Team North Stars is about 37, but it is guys who have played a ton of hockey in their life.

“Just a bunch of guys who grew up playing hockey and still love playing the game,” Walther said. “The nice thing about being in Las Vegas is we have hockey players from all over the United States and Canada.”

Team North Stars, which was known as Team All-Stars up until four years ago, is a great mixture of players from all around the country as well as from Toronto and Vancouver.

“I think it kind of brings a fun dynamic to the locker room in a way,” Ager said. “There’s Boston Bruins fans, I’m a Canucks fan. There’s Detroit fans, Buffalo fans, kind of all over. It kind of makes it fun talking about hockey and sports. Guys can get on each other’s butt a little bit on the good or the bad of how their team’s doing or if your team beat theirs.”

With the Vegas Golden Knights set to begin NHL play in the 2017-18 season, there’s quite a bit of buzz around hockey in the city. Walther and Ager are hoping that creates more interest and helps the Kilroy’s Hockey Club league grow.

“Coming from Canada where it’s such a natural sport, people live and breathe hockey regardless of where you are in the country. I find that in the United States it’s much more localized,” said Ager, who grew up in Vancouver. “Hopefully the grassroots that the NHL team will bring and just the development — you saw it in California.”

Said Walther: “Who knows where it’s going to go with the future of hockey.”

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.