Colorado Avalanche: Jost and Compher Instruct Elementary School Kids

Colorado Avalanche forwards JT Compher and Tyson Jost hosted a community outreach event at a local elementary school, and the results were special.

At the beginning of the month, Colorado Avalanche forwards Tyson Jost and J.T. Compher hosted an activity for elementary-age children called Game On! The team does a lot of community outreach, and this is one example.

With this activity, the players showed the kids some techniques for playing hockey, in this case ball hockey. The kids obviously seemed to get a big kick out of meeting two of the team’s young stars.

By the way, that’s an emphasis on young. Jost is just 21 years old with his “older brother” Compher being 24. As you can see, they seemed to be enjoying themselves as much as the elementary students:

Players love to balance the puck on the edge of their sticks — former Av Tyson Barrie was famous for doing it in warmups all the time. JT Compher doesn’t do it so much in warmups, but he seemed to enjoy showing off his puck — or ball — skills in front of the kiddos.

As I remarked, part of the purpose of the Game On! activity was teaching the kids about hockey. Older brother JT took over the teaching responsibilities. That left Tyson for the demonstration portion.

To be honest, I think Jost is really just posing for the camera at the beginning.

But props to Compher for his instruction.

Not surprisingly, the little kids enjoyed playing with the big kids. And the Avs’ social media crew caught a really cute moment with Tyson Jost:

I’m not crying, you’re crying. No, really, I love watching how any of the players interact with kids. But it’s always kind of special when a young player, one who doesn’t have his own children, has a tender moment with a kid.

The players capped off the day by autographing things for the kids.

Tyson, who’s maybe no stranger to getting in trouble with his mom for getting his clothes dirty, worried about just that:

Hey, it looks like the kid made the right choice. And, anyway, how can Mom get too angry? It’s not every day you have the change to get your shirt signed by an Avs player.

Of course, it wouldn’t be an Avs event without are rascally mascot, Bernie.

Hey, the kids love Bernie, and Bernie loves the kids.

Avs events are always popular when the best mates do them together.

But, in the end, it’s all about community outreach and making sure the kids have fun.

Luckily the team held these outdoor activities earlier in the month before the snow had a chance to blanket the playground.

Professional hockey players don’t get a ton of time off during the season, between daily practices, workouts, games, and travel. It’s always something special when they do take some of that precious time off for reaching out to the community.

Even if it looks like the young men had about as much fun as the kiddos.