Surrey, B.C. – Sahvan Khaira didn’t want anything to do with hockey. It was a game that had left him in tears and he surely wasn’t going to skate back to it.
It was the mid 2000s in Surrey, B.C., and there were lots of things an elementary-school kid could do with his time. Soccer was particularly popular, but somehow Sahvan found himself back at the rink.
Excellent Ice is tucked away amid industrial complexes and offices just off Highway 10 in the southern part of the Metro Vancouver city known for its large Punjabi diaspora. Sahvan’s older brother, Jujhar, was receiving one-on-one lessons, so their mother would bring Sahvan along. The instructor took note and let Sahvan skate on the other side of the ice while Jujhar was going through drills.