For former NHL player and pro shop owner, the goal now is retirement

As in most things hockey, it's all about the timing. 

Norm Beaudin helps customers in the pro shop recently.
He's retiring, but he will stay on for about a month
to sharpen skates and help with the transition.

So it should come as no surprise that former National Hockey League player Norm Beaudin knows the time is right to retire as the owner of Beaudin's Hockey Zone, located inside the Tampa Bay Skating Academy in Oldsmar. 

After 12 years as president of the hockey and figure skating retail store, and a lifetime of hockey, Norm, 71, officially handed over the pro shop earlier this week. He will stay on for about a month to help with the transition.

He passes it off to Nick Flaskay, the rink's managing partner. The pro shop is called the Tampa Bay Skate Shop.

"I've known Norm for 14 years," Flaskay says. "I got him into the pro shop business by working with him to establish a business that he developed quite successfully."

In fact, Flaskay says, Norm's ability to take a shot at success goes beyond hockey.

"Norm loves all sports, including golf," Flaskay says. "He's quite adept at hitting a golf slap shot that looks just like a hockey slap shot - he was, after all, an NHL player." 

The former pro hockey player has earned his spot in hockey history. To read more about his career, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norm_Beaudin

Norm's retirement marks the end of an era at TBSA. So we sat down with him to find out, among other things, what's next for him and his wife, Linda.

Q: What prompted the decision to retire?

Norm: Naturally, we're getting older...and we weren't feeling well so we decided to leave the business. I'll be 72 in November. It's time to retire. 

Q: What are you going to do now?

Norm:  I'm going to feel my way around active retirement. (He laughs.) In about a month, we're visiting my daughter in Canada and celebrating our 50th anniversary on August 3 in Vancouver. (They hope all four of their kids, David, Nadine, Gregory and Carrie Lynn, will be there to celebrate with them.) It's good timing because I can relax and not wonder how the store is doing. I also want to get back in better shape than I am so being retired maybe I'll have more time to do that.

Q: What led you to move into the pro shop business?

Norm: I was the hockey director at TBSA in 2001. I went on vacation but got sick and ended up staying home. Nick called and asked, "How would you like to run the pro shop?" It was a little shock to me because I'd never been in retail, only in hockey. But then we expanded to Ellenton and CIA (Clearwater Ice Arena) and at one time I had three shops going. (His son, David, also helped run the shops.)

Q: What's your hockey background?

Norm played right wing.
 His playing career ran
from 1967 to 1976.

Norm: I played for 15 years professionally. I played in the minor leagues, the National Hockey League, the World Hockey Association, for the Winnipeg Jets. I also played for the Minnesota North Stars and the St. Louis Blues. I played in the American Hockey League. And I went to Switzerland for three years as a player and coach where I had to learn German.

Q: Have you met any great hockey players?

Norm: I played with Bobby Hull. As far as I'm concerned, he's the greatest player to play the game. Having the chance to play with Bobby was a dream and an honor. 

Q: How did you end up in hockey?

Norm: I was born on a farm in Montmartre, Saskatchewan in Canada. Before you could walk you had skates on. Our first instinct is to go on the pond and go skating. There were 13 kids in my family so we had a hockey team. But I'm the only one who pursued a career in hockey.

Q: Are you going to stay connected to the sport?

Norm: Oh yeah. I'll continue to play in the '50's and over' league.

Q: Anything you'd like to say before you retire?

Norm: Linda and I would like to thank all the customers who supported us through hockey. We've tried to give good service because service is the key. I know this will continue. 

Women hockey players face challenges even before faceoff

At a Florida Women's Hockey League Tournament, just showing up can be what separates the men from the, well, ladies.

"We deal with some things the boys don't, like pregnancies and sick kids," Jenny Sumner says.

 In the "C" division, the Ms Conduct, in white, play the
Sea Gals, in blue, in the women's hockey league
tournament held at Tampa Bay Skating Academy.

In fact, if it wasn't for Sumner filling in for a player who recently gave birth and couldn't make it, Corinne Deckard's team might not have been able to play in the tournament, which was held February 15 -17 at Tampa Bay Skating Academy in Oldsmar, FL.

Deckard's team, the Ms Conduct, went on to place second in the "C" division, which is for advanced players. The Sea Gals placed first.

Although women's hockey is one of the fastest growing women's sports - making its Olympic debut in Nagano, Japan in 1998 - it faces some unique challenges.

"The women who are the age to compete are the child-bearing age so participation ebbs and flows," says Deckard, the team captain.

In the "C" division, the Sea Gals took first place at the
Florida Women's Hockey League Tournament.

Other than that, games contain forechecking, backchecking, crashing the crease and more, and are played with the same fast-paced intensity and desire to win as the men's games. In the women's sport, though, body checking - using the hip or body to knock an opponent against the boards - is not allowed, and a full-face mask is required.

"We definitely play a very physical game," says Sumner, who is a professor at the University of Central Florida. "But women play with a little more strategy rather than brute force."

In the "Rec" division, which is for novice players, the Sea Gals novice team placed first, and the Lady Everglades placed second.

In the "Rec" division, the Sea Gals novice team
won first place. 

Now in its 10th season, the Florida Women's Hockey League, which sponsored the tournament, is the only league of its kind in the state, says Sumner, league president.

As many as 13 teams from all over the state, including the Everglades, Fort Myers and Jacksonville, come together to play in five tournaments a season, or about one per month. The season runs from October through February.

"It's a unique situation," Deckard, 34, says. "My husband is jealous because he doesn't get to play like this."

Corinne Deckard, captain
of the Ms Conduct team.

Men hockey players don't have a league set up like the women's hockey league where they can travel to different statewide venues and compete in tournaments against other men teams.

"The men play in rink or house leagues, which are fun and more social," Sumner says. "And many of us still play in those leagues, too. But we set our league up because we're passionate about our hockey and we want to see women playing women in a more competitive environment."

Jenny Sumner, president
of the Florida Women's Hockey
League.

Normally, Sumner wouldn't have been able to fill in because she is on another league team, the Tampa Elite, but the team wasn't able to compete in this tournament, which freed up Sumner to help out.

The tournament at Tampa Bay Skating Academy was the league's last tournament of the season. League board members will meet in May to decide where they're going to play next season's five tournaments.

"We try to play all over the state of Florida so the same teams don't have to do all the traveling," Sumner, 35, says. "We've played here (at Tampa Bay Skating Academy) before. They're very supportive of our league and women's hockey."

As for exactly who will be playing next season that can be hard to tell, of course. Because what happens off the ice in women's hockey can be just as much of a factor in the game as what happens on the ice.