Whew! What an action-packed game! Both Hodson and Centomo were excellent, although I think the Leafs gave Centomo more work than Hodson with lots of giveaways, penalties, and other scary moments in the third. =P
Kaberle (whose name I'm practicing pronouncing as "kah-bear-luh", which is the closer to proper way) wasn't even playing tonight, which was disappointing, but at least I got to see Kondratiev at work. Colaiacovo, Hedin, and Pushor were okay, Marchment wasn't what I expected him to be (in the good sense, since all I heard was how he's the most hated player in the NHL), and Berg was scary as usual, but Kondratiev, well, if he keeps up this level of play (and hopefully even improves on it), I think he'll have a very good chance at cracking the line-up. As one of the commentators mentioned, tonight he proved that he can play on the smaller ice surface just as well as on the larger one. ^_^
Of course you realize that I'm extremely biased in Kondratiev's favour thanks to Saturday's article in the Star, comparing him to Kaberle. ^_~ It also talked about how Kaberle has been kind of taking Kondratiev under his wing, the way older Leaf players did for him when he started out. That just made me like Kaberle even more.
But here's an interesting fact: Kondratiev's birthday is January 20th, 1983, so he's the same age as me! Heh, but too bad he likes to bowl in his spare time; I'm not a big bowling fan. ;) Just kidding! A puck bunny I am not.
Ah...I'm so glad I got all my homework done so I could take the night off to watch hockey! I've been feeling seriously stressed, so tonight was a good break for me.
Oh yeah! How could I forget? I got my Avs home (now away, aka white) jersey, size adult small today! It's my outdoor, colder weather jersey, since it still feels really huge! I love my youth L/XL jerseys, even though the sleeves are kind of short. =P
And and, about the Friday just past, I got my Avs keychain (from renewing my Hockey News subscription) and my Ultimate Leaf Fan raffle ticket. The ticket was only $20, and it's in benefit of St. Michael's Hospital Foundation, so even though I don't hold much hope of winning two gold season tickets for the Leafs this season (plus an autographed hockey stick), I figured that all good since it's for St. Mike's. ^_^
Ah, another hockey thing that's been going on with me is that I've been trying to figure out a way to get a copy of "Magic Boy" by Hasse Andersson. It's a biography of Forsberg--in Swedish. I've found quite a few online Swedish bookstores, but unfortunately none of them will ship outside of Sweden. =( I really really want that book, even though I won't be able to read it!
Anyway, since I'm on this book hunt thing, my newest goal is to learn Swedish! Unfortunately they don't offer it here at U of T, but they do offer it at UBC, so that's something to think about...Along the same lines, Sweden has now jumped up out of the blue to become the place I would most want to visit, after Japan. Preferably I'd go there during the hockey season, and find a way to a MoDo game. ^_~ I'm crazy, huh?
Actually, I'm thinking that Steph (the friend who's going to the Avs game with me) might consider going with me as a graduation thing. I mean, c'mon, she's from Vancouver and a Canucks fan, so she of all people would appreciate my desire to see some Swedish hockey live. =D Heh heh...
One thing at a time, though. I still haven't heard back from the Avs' organization about practice times and such yet. *sigh* I wish they would hurry! I want to book our hotel asap!
Woohoo! Steph was faster, so she got the tickets (on my account though) for the game!!! Woohoo!!!! Section 126, row 4, seats 1 and 2!!!!!!!!! We're right behind the penalty box!!!! I'm so EXCITED!!!!!
I've already emailed the (Avs) organization to inquire about practice times and such, so hopefully (crosses fingers) they will answer back fairly soon with the info so we can plan our schedule and book our hotel!!!!! I am SO DETERMINED to meet Joe Sakic! I WILL. I MUST. (^O^)
Please excuse the excess of caps and exclamation marks, as you tell, I'm very excited and totally pumped!!! It may be a once in a lifetime trip (although I hope not), and it's definitely a first in a lifetime experience, so we're going to enjoy it to the fullest! We're even making signs!! Heh. What a contrast we'll make, the Canucks fan (in a bright yellow skate jersey) and the Avs fan (in a Sakic jersey), holding signs for our respective teams!!! It's going to be GREAT!!! I can't wait until Februrary 16th!!
What's going on with Nolan? Does he or does he not have a hairline fracture in his vertebrae and a bulging disc? It's pretty ridiculous to say that you've got this problem and then turn around and say that you were joking, and are 100% healthy--seems especially ludicrous considering how tight-lipped the Leafs are about injuries, they always underplay them, they don't panic first and retract later! If you're wondering what I'm talking about, see this TSN article.
*sigh* And yeah, I wonder why it is that Leafs are always so injured? Roberts pulled a groin muscle or something (I've heard it referred to as "pulled a groin"...how many groins does a guy have?!) during during the...second period? And then McCabe and Colaiacovo were injured before the preseaon even began. ^^;;
Ah well, the good that came from yesterday was that Immonen looked really good, and so did Nieuwendyk, and even Jackman! ^_^
How do I know? I watched part of the 7:30pm replay, because we got Leafs TV!! Hooray! As soon as the season starts, we're switching that to the NHL channel. =P How very exciting! Of course, I don't know if I'm even going to have time to watch...@_@ It's only the second week and I'm already feeling overwhelmed with school! Anyway, bed time! Class tomorrow and I haven't done all the readings yet. ^^;;
Apparently hockey has so deeply penetrated my brain that even when I'm doing something as simple as the Gender Genie test, the only phrases I can come up with are hockey related. The Gender Genie, by the by, is a site where you can type or paste in some phrases/sentences and see whether or not the algorithm can correctly predict the gender of the author. "Go Leafs go" and "I love hockey" are apparently more feminine phrases, while "shoot the damn puck" (excuse my language) is male--according to the Genie.
I think it works better with longer passages, but then again, a selection from Rosie DiManno's article of Bryan McCabe (the butt one, from the start of last season) was identified as male, and that was a fairly lengthy passage. Anyway, it was pretty amusing.
Yet another year when I was unable to secure tickets to the Colorado @ Toronto game. BOOO!!!!
I realized from the whole online/phone experience, however, that I actually prefer the wristband method. As much of a hassle as it is, at least you develop a sense of community from the whole thing, rather than just feeling frustrated and unlucky. =P Thank goodness I'm going to Colorado, or it'd be really depressing. Maybe I can still "stalk" the Avs when they come to town anyway. ^_~
At least my friend managed to get three tickets to the Canucks @ Leafs game, even if the seats aren't all that great.
I checked my email this afternoon and found out that Leafs tickets are going on sale TOMORROW, at 10am! @_@ I can't believe they give out such last minute notice! What if I had missed it? ^^;; So I pushed back my student's time to 10:30am, in the hopes that it'll give me enough time to buy the tickets! Everyone cross your fingers for me and hope that I get the Avs and Canucks games that I want!!
You'll also notice that I did some minor changes to the template. I added links to my blog buddies--you guys are the best!--and moved the Tagboard down to the bottom. I figured if you want to say something to me, it shouldn't be a problem to scroll down the page to do so, right? =P Anyway, gotta eat and go to fellowship! I'm late!
Lately there've been a lot of good and bad things for me, hockeywise. I guess I'll start with the bad, so I can end with the good. ^_^
BAD #1:
LOOOOOOOOOOOONG off-season! Okay, so this isn't exactly recent, but it feels like Oct. 11th is taking forever! Heck, even Sept. 16th is taking it's sweet time coming! >_< And Leaf news like re-signing McCabe and getting JF Jr. as GM isn't exactly exciting either. =/
BAD #2:
No time to read The Hockey News!! I haven't done more than skim the past four or five issues! Argh! One came when I was preparing for Grenada, so I didn't have time to sit down with it. Another came while I was IN Grenada, so I couldn't read it then, and when I came back I had softball and everything to deal with. Two more have come in the past month, but I've been busy with the end of softball, work/tutoring, going out with friends before school starts, and etc. so again I haven't had time to read them! =*(
BAD #3:
Didn't find the McFarlane Roy (in Canadiens jersey) figure!! *sniff sniff* I think I should still be able to find Sakic (in Nordiques jersey) easily enough, but with Roy having retired and all.... =(
Anyway, it's only three bads, so I guess that's pretty good! Onto the goods!
Good #1:
I got the Kaberle fanlisting! There's probably only ever going to be one member (me) but that's okay, because it's KABERLE! ^_~ <3 I haven't had time to start working on it yet, (which could be another bad, I suppose) but that's okay. ^_^ It WILL get done!!
Good #2:
I've joined the hockey pool again this year! Again, I haven't had much time to think about who I want to draft and stuff, but joining the pool is a sign that it's that much closer to the start of the season!
Good #3:
Steph and I found a close but quite cheap ($188 CDN for two nights) place to stay in Colorado! We haven't booked it yet though, since we've got to get the tickets first.
Good #4:
It's September, which means that the picture showing on my Avs Around Town calendar is JOE SAKIC (and Mike Keane, but who cares about him =P). Woohoo!! I'd almost forgotten about that, but then fairly late on the night of Labour Day I remembered and flipped the page!!
Good #5:
Series 7 (?) of the McFarlane NHL figures will have Roy in his Avs uniform! Even if I have to overpay a bit, or kill someone, I'm going to get that figure!!!
~q(>_<)~ (burning with determination)
Good #6:
My mom was cleaning up downstairs and found my NHL Jello moulds (which I had completely forgotten about)! We're going to have some awesome hockey parties this year! Hope everyone likes Jello!
All in all, I guess things have been going pretty well on the hockey front. Anyway, just a heads up, I'm going to add links to all of you great hockey-blog-friends soon, so keep your eyes peeled!
Oh, and before I forget: this is totally unrelated to hockey, but I know that some of you guys are fellow Ontarians, so I want to urge you to make use of your voting privileges this fall! I don't care if your vote agrees with mine (down with the Tories!!) or not, I just think it's such a sad thing that such a low percentage of Canadians actually go out and exercise their voting rights, for whatever reason.
I'm actually eagerly awaiting the the things that are supposed to come in the mail to confirm people as voters. If I don't get one, you can bet that I'm going to go out and have my name added to the registry of voters (or whatever the thing is called). You might not be able to tell from the way I'm talking--"the things", "whatever the thing is called"--but last night I actually went to the Ontario elections website (don't have the link handy) and read up on the procedures to register for voting. I'm really excited about this election!
I really really really want to vote out the Tories. I know that I don't have a full understanding of their policies, but I know that I'm majorly opposed to their campaign promise/suggestion of tax cuts. I mean, look at the state of our health and education, and who knows how many other things! I mean, why is it that Toronto had to go on a weeklong energy-conservation kick for fear of blackouts (although energy conservation IS a good thing) when New York was up and running again by the Monday after the outage? Doesn't that say something about the preparation/organizational structure of Ontario power? I'd rather that my tax money go towards fixing these things than get a tax break. And not to mention, let's face it, the ones who benefit the most from tax breaks are the people in the higher tax brackets (who have more money) anyway, and that doesn't sit well with me.
And maybe it's because I went to public school and want to teach in a public school, but--if I'm understanding the Tories' stance correctly--I find the idea of taking money out of the public system to subsidize people sending their kids to private schools absolutely disgusting. I think that the privatization of education can only lead to a greater stratification of our society--giving an advantage to kids whose parents can afford to send them to private school.
The whole ant-strike legislation, well, I don't find that as bad as I initially thought it was. The key is that Eves wants to make it illegal for teachers to strike or go on work to rule or whatever if they are not in legal strike position. That little phrase certainly makes it seem far less like an attack on the fundamentals of democracy, doesn't it? Of course I'd still prefer that the government not pass such a law for the simple reason that it would only serve to increase tensions between teachers' unions and the government, and ultimately the ones who suffer from a poor relationship are the students.
Geh. I've rambled on quite a bit about non-hockey stuff, haven't I? Guess that's it for today then! G'night!
