Jeff Caplan’s Minute of News: A little lesson about hockey
Apr 18, 2024, 5:00 AM
If Utah gets a National Hockey League team, the existing Utah Grizzlies won't be going anywhere. (Canva)
(Canva)
Editor’s note: This is an editorial piece. An editorial, like a news article, is based on fact but also shares opinions. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and are not associated with our newsroom.
SALT LAKE CITY — Maybe you’re not as excited as Ryan Smith about a hockey team, which he’ll buy for about a billion dollars. He might want to build a new arena, or there’s talk he’ll renovate the Delta Center.
But you know how the upper deck is so steep? There are rumors he wants to make the incline more gradual upstairs for better hockey site lines. And it’s important if you have kids and want to go to a game.
Because downstairs, up close, a solid rubber puck can come flying straight at you at 80 miles per hour. In the old days, if you got hit, an usher would hand a towel to the person at the end of the row. It’d be passed down so you could sop up the blood without missing any action.
But it happened just a few days ago at a minor league Cleveland Monsters game, when a puck came flying out of nowhere heading for a young child, but was blocked by a stranger.
Asia Davis was so grateful for the quick reflexes of the guy who was sitting next to her 4-year-old son. But she had no idea who he was.
So she asked TikTok, and users found the young guy with the quick reflexes… Andrew Podolak.
“My first instinct was to just jump in front of it,” Podolak told NBC. “I was lucky enough just to reach my hand over at the right time.”
And this is hockey, the Cleveland Monsters scrambled to get the little boy, mom and their hero out on the ice for a ceremonial opening face-off.
So Ryan Smith, fix the upper bowl at the Delta Center. And folks, if you have young kids, sit upstairs for the game.
Jeff Caplan is the host of Jeff Caplan’s Afternoon News on KSL NewsRadio. Follow him on Facebook and X.
