TAMPA -- Here is what hockey can do. It can make Mondays seem like Fridays and make a boy lament the coming of Christmas break because it means two weeks without hockey.
For kids who might never have otherwise picked up a stick or put on a pair of skates, the game can be a conduit to better grades, improved behavior, more focus and increased sociability.
As Tampa Bay Lightning forward J.T. Brown and his wife, Lexi LaFleur Brown, as well as the Lightning staff who volunteer as mentors every Monday during the school year, have learned, in the right hands, the game is something magical.
We're not talking NHL dreams -- though there are, no doubt, lots of those floating into the heads of the 35 middle schoolers from the Guide the Thunder program who make the Xtra Ice Hockey ice their own every Monday night -- but rather, visions of college and jobs.
J.T. and Lexi Brown are both hockey lifers. They met via Twitter while J.T. was playing for the Syracuse Crunch, the Lightning's AHL affiliate. Lexi was a longtime hockey player, specifically a goaltender, and was getting ready to head to the University of Syracuse. The two shared some conversation via social media, met, dated and eventually married.
Sometime in late June, the Browns will welcome their first child, a daughter. "I want a picture of that baby in the Cup," Lexi suggests to her husband after lacing up her goalie skates before the couple hit the ice with their charges on a recent Monday.
Former Lightning defenseman Jassen Cullimore is helping on the ice too. He produces a picture of his young daughter. It was taken the night the Lightning won their only Cup in June 2004.
"No pressure," Brown, 26, says with a smile.
Lexi grew up just outside North Bay, Ontario. She got used to people telling her she couldn't play the game because she was a girl. Now she's in a classroom and then on the ice every Monday night, showing middle schoolers that the silly notion simply isn't true.
J.T.'s father, Ted, was a running back for North Carolina State University and was taken in the first round of the NFL draft by the Minnesota Vikings, for whom he played eight seasons.
His son became infatuated with hockey while growing up in Burnsville, Minnesota, and was often the only African-American at tryouts or on his travel teams. As a result, J.T. understands how important it is for the young people who tottered onto the ice at the start of the school year for their first brush with hockey to see someone who looks like them.
"It's a good thing to have somebody of color out there and let them relate to it," he said. "Growing up, you didn't have very many African-Americans playing. I was usually one of the only ones on the team, if not the only one, so it's definitely good to be able to show those kids that they can play hockey.
"They can go, 'Oh, J.T. looks like me. I can do this.'"
In the media room of Webb Middle School, mentors -- including the Browns -- gather with their student players. The pre-ice portion of the afternoon includes updates on grades and homework. If you don't do the work, you don't get on the ice. If you don't act appropriately, you don't get on the ice. It's pretty straightforward.
If the students have homework, that is done first. If they don't have any, there's time for a game of checkers or Monopoly or Uno and a snack before everyone boards the bus to the Xtra Ice complex.
Kristen Bowness wasn't sure what to expect when she helped design the program for the Lightning, with funding from the Industry Growth Fund, which was born out of the last collective bargaining agreement in an effort to grow the sport in NHL cities. But what Bowness, the daughter of Lightning associate coach Rick Bowness, has found in the program's first year is that the 35 or so kids involved are more engaged, are more diligent about school work and long for their weekly trips to the rink. In fact, one young boy happily grabbed Bowness in the media room to show her his collection of C grades -- a marked improvement over his previous Ds and Fs.
"It's been a 180-degree turnaround for him," Bowness said.
Many of the parents of the kids involved in Guide the Thunder are so happy with the program that they've asked if it can expand to more nights during the week.
Many of the children in these two Hillsborough County middle schools -- part of the eighth-largest school district in the United States -- come from single-parent families. They are economically disadvantaged and often emotionally challenged. Many of their parents do shift work or work two jobs to make ends meet, so the one-on-one mentoring time during the pre-hockey part of the program is particularly important, said Josh Leventhal, a sixth-grade math teacher at Webb Middle School.
"That there's a role model who's not a parent or a teacher, it's a really neat experience for them," Leventhal said.
Months of work were required to make the Guide the Thunder program work with school officials. It wasn't simply about putting a stick and a plastic ball in a kid's hand and setting him or her free on a piece of asphalt. The Lightning provide knapsacks and a couple sets of clothing and sneakers for the off-ice portion of the program. The potential participants each undergo a physical exam. There are two professional tutors at each school. The program provides buses to and from the rink, as well as snacks and food -- and, of course, all the gear and on-ice instructors.
"We want to use hockey as a means to teach life lessons to kids who otherwise wouldn't have those kinds of opportunities," said Jay Feaster, the former Lightning GM who has returned to Tampa to lead the team's wide-ranging community outreach programs.
The goal for Guide the Thunder is to have as many as 100 kids enrolled by year three of the program. Being part of the endeavor and wearing the team-provided clothing "is seen as a badge of honor," Bowness said.
At first, there was friction between the two middle schools, which are rivals in other activities. But soon, kids from different schools were helping each other put their gear on and helping each other on the ice.
"It's been very, very rewarding to watch and gratifying," Bowness said.
On the Monday before the Christmas holiday, one mentor asked his student if he were looking forward to the break. The kid quickly responded that he was not; it meant two weeks without hockey.
Blue hockey bags bearing the kids' names are piled in the hallway outside the dressing rooms at Xtra Ice. As they jostle past, someone knocks down the line of sticks outside the dressing rooms. It happens at rinks all over the world.
Jeremy French is here pretty much every Monday. He's a single dad who works the graveyard shift at a local Walmart so he can be with his two boys, 12 and 13, after school. He hands his boys off to their mother when he goes to work and reconnects with them the next afternoon.
French decided that Guide the Thunder would be a good thing for his older son, Silas, to do after school -- and the experience has been a revelation. Silas never had any interest in the game before, but the day he got his first stick was a pretty special moment, his dad said.
"His grades are better," French added. "Because he knows if he can't make his grades, he can't get on the ice. He's more attentive, more focused."
Andre Brown is headed out the door for off-ice and then back to school. The 12-year-old admits that putting on the gear for the first time was a bit more challenging than he imagined.
"I had to take off my stuff multiple times," he said.
Then there was the challenge of keeping the hoop earrings that used to hang from his left ear lobe from getting caught in his helmet. He loves being on the ice -- he said he thought learning to skate would be harder than it was -- and he said he has benefited from working with his mentor on homework assignments.
"It's helped me be more focused in school," Brown said.
It has certainly changed his view of Mondays.
"They've made it a real fun day," he said with a smile. "I can't wait for it. They make it feel like Friday."
In the end, maybe that's as good a compliment for a game as there can be.