It is a fine canadian tradition — getting ready for hockey season. Making sure the skates are sharpened and all the pieces of equipment are indeed in the hockey bag and haven’t migrated to some dark part of the basement; replacing the stick that splintered at the end of last season.

It is more than tradition — it is ritual. It is something that you savour.

But even then it is only the pre-show. The big event is taking to the ice.

Last week, my daughter Kate and I shouldered our hockey bags, grabbed our sticks and headed out the door at some ungodly hour to drive across the city in rush hour. All this so we could take to the ice at 7:30 a.m. and we could drag ourselves through an hour of hockey.

This is the second year we have played pick-up hockey with a group of people that work for coffee giant Starbucks. Kate, who is finishing off her master’s thesis in military history, is a shift supervisor and barista at a downtown Starbucks. When she found out there was a hockey “league” made up of baristas, store managers and head-office types, she signed up.

It wasn’t long before she signed me up, too.

When Kate and our younger daughter, Rachel, were in high school, the three of us played hockey in a women’s summer league. I think Rachel and I had the distinction of being the youngest and the oldest players on the team, respectively. We had a great time. But as the girls went off to universities in various parts of the country and summertime travel interceded, I hung up my skates. You would be more likely to find me holding a glass of wine than a hockey stick.

Until last winter.

I don’t delude myself. Kate didn’t talk me into playing hockey because of my stick-handling prowess. The reality is she needs a ride to the rink. It is not that easy to get there by public transit humping a hockey bag.

So, there I was — becoming painfully aware of how out of shape I am and how old I have become.

This season, of course, I had great plans to get in shape. Kate and I talked about running. She even found my running shoes and placed them strategically. But life got in the way. I never made it out.

So I made my season début, puffing and panting. Fortunately, I wasn’t alone. I can only assume that a lot of other resolutions to get in shape went the same direction as mine did. Nowhere.

What I like about Monday morning hockey is the people I play with: both sexes, all ages and all positions — and everyone is equal on the ice. It also makes room for different levels of skill — which I particularly appreciate. It is a good bunch.

Starbucks refers to its employees as “partners” and it encourages its partners to build “communities.” This isn’t idle talk. Starbucks puts its money where its mouth is. It pays the greater part of the cost of Monday morning hockey. The reasoning is that by knowing the partners, employees will understand and respect their co-workers. And if people feel good about where they work, they are more likely to keep working there.

For Kate, meeting the guys from head office means she has started to see the company as a potential career. Her view of the company has migrated beyond churning out the next cup of coffee. She likes the company.

Now, I am not saying that every company needs to start a hockey team. But the idea — if employees know each other as people, they work better together — is a good one. More companies could benefit by putting that into practice.

TESSA WILMOTT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF