Chapters/Coles/Indigo is having a boxing week sale with all hardcovers 30% off, and select books discounted up to 50% off. They've got the "Lord Stanley's Cup" coffee table book by Andrew Podnieks available for 50% off, as well as "Baptism by Ice" by Paul D. Grant. If you've got a membership card, you get an additional 10% off, so it's really quite a deal!
Today I picked up "Baptism by Ice," which I've actually been eyeing for about a month or so--since I noticed it in the window of the BCE Place Coles. Its subtitle, "How Hockey Taught An American To Love Canada" initially caught my interest, and the blurb on the back cover increased it:
"I sought to save my Canadianness, to be able again to say 'please' and 'thank you' without shame, to apologize for things that aren't my fault, to be indifferent if someone becomes prime minister without ever being elected. Homesick, I longed to see Vancouver's seaside mountains, to walk for kilometres through downtown Calgary without stepping outside, to verify that Toronto really is the centre of the universe, to wait forever in a Montreal restaurant before being served. I wanted to be unabashedly Canadian, not disguise the way I pronounced 'out' or 'pasta.' I wanted to drink skunky Canadian beer and laugh that it was still superior to fresh American brew. I wanted to see again the cultural wallpaper Canadians take for granted every day. I wanted to play hockey and not be the best player. I wanted to hear people make fun of themselves and not others. I wanted to rediscover home. Mosaic over melting pot. Familiar over unknown. Maple Leaf over Stars and Stripes. Home over away."
Now, if you're wondering how exactly saving "Canadianness" and teaching an American to love Canada work together, well, the basic premise is that the author goes on a ten-day trip through the six Canadian hockey cities with an American friend "who believes in all the stereotypes" abour Canada.
I know I'm not a particularly good salesperson, but if any of the descriptions/blurbs I've posted here interest you, I'd highly recommend that you go out and buy this book while it's on sale! I'm only on page 29 and I'm loving it! It's funny and insightful and rings so totally true. ^_^ Go out and buy now!! If you've got a Chapters/Coles/Indigo membership, it's only $15.41 total, and it's a hardcover, so that's an excellent price!!!
Woohoo! One down, five more to go!! Basically I'm re-making all of my layouts in the style of the Giguere layout Lisa made for me since it seems to be compatible with Netscape and 800x600, and it's attractive and simple. ^_^ Check out the screenshot below, or visit the actual site at http://rhf.obliviousmind.net/avs!
Well, the Juniors are off to a good start this year, defeating Slovakia 7-3. ^_^ I've heard commentators saying that this year's team might be the best chance in seven years to win the gold! Let's all hope they're right!! The World Junior title seems to be the only thing in international hockey that's eluded Canadians in the past couple of years. We're greedy when it comes to hockey--we want all the titles!! =P
Anyway, this is just a quick post. Below is the new image for my Mogilny fanlisting--it's very similar to the Avs and Kaberle ones, but I don't think that's a bad thing. So yes, click for an enlargement!
I received an email a while ago telling me that most of my fanlistings weren't compatible with Netscape and 800x600 resolutions. Unfortunately it was during my crunch time, so I didn't have time to do anything about it. Now that I'm on Christmas vacation, however, I've started working on new layouts (hopefully compatible with both Netscape and IE browsers, and 800x600 and 1024x768 resolutions). ^_^
Here're samples from the two I've started working on so far--the Avs and Kaberle fanlistings (as always, click for larger images):
I think they're going to be pretty decent layouts. ^_^ The thing I'm most pleased about with these is that I've only used original photos--taken by me!--for them. =D Very exciting!! Usually I find making layouts a pain, but I'm having fun with these!
Well, I went to the Hershey Centre for the taping of the last episode of Making the Cut, and it was pretty fun. Best of all, I got to meet Jello!! She's just as cool and nice in person as online! ^_^ (Apologies for my lack of conversational skills! =P)
Anyway, the skills competition was really quite short, with only four events: accuracy, hardest shot, fastest skater, and ambush. The ambush exercise was quite interesting. Skaters had five pucks which were alive during the entire time period. The first shot had to be a breakaway, but after that everything was fair game, so they could go for rebounds, etc. Pretty tough on the goalies!! Mole got burned by not clearing a rebound early on, but then he learned and started clearing the pucks to both prevent rebound goals and to make the skaters spend more time retrieving pucks (and therefore shooting on net less).
Oh yeah, I was a total idiot, and I forgot my camera!! I had it in my hand in my room, but then I put it down to get change from my piggy bank (always good to have a bit of cash on hand!) and didn't pick it back up! The worst part is that my brother even asked if I had my camera, and I said "yes" without checking!! ARGH! Ah well, it's not like there were a lot of great shots to take anyway. =P Besides, when I've got a camera in hand I tend to focus so much on taking pictures that I'm distracted from the action, so I guess it was good that I could just concentrate on enjoying the experience.
Yeah, I really don't know what to say. It was fun. I wish the audience had been a little louder though. Oh, and "Lou" (Dickensen) is really a rather unfortunate name in terms of cheering, because people kept calling "Lou", but it sounded like "boo" so it just sounded bad. ^^;;
Oh, and of course Toronto had the last pick! =P Nate and I were talking and we agreed that either Toronto or Vancouver would get the last pick, just because. It was actually kind of nice that the Original Six teams went last--Montreal, then Toronto. I was really happy that Mole got picked, but I was sad that Jacob didn't. Those were the two I was really rooting for. =( Ah well, good for the six!! Really, any of the eighteen would've made a good choice, so I can't really complain.
Heh, there's a Making the Cut 3-disc DVD boxset coming out on March 22 that's available for pre-order right now. I wonder if I should order it, or wait a little bit and see if Leafs Insiders will get a deal? =P Really I just want to watch the fitness test episode again--some of those tests looked crazy!
Well, looks like that's about it for me and hockey this year! *sigh* Although, after seeing Michael Mole get picked by the Sens, I really want to go watch a Mississauga Ice Dogs game now! ^_~
Woohoo!!! The Kladno online store (http://www.sportkontakt.cz/) is finally open!!! I've attempted to place an order, but who knows if I'll be successful. =P Seems like they're not set up to take international orders, considering that they only ask for your name, email, phone number, street address, city and postal code--not your country and/or province/state! *sigh* We'll see if they email me back.
At any rate, I got to flex my Czech "skills" by adding a note saying "Jsem Kana?anka"--I am Canadian (female). D'oh. Come to think of it, maybe I should've written something along the lines of, "I don't speak much Czech. Do you speak English?" Ah well. I suppose I can always enlist Daria to help translate if they do reply to me in Czech.
How very exciting!! I hope I can get my Kaberle Kladno jersey!
This may make me a nerd, but I just bought two tickets to be part of the live TV audience for the Dec. 14th Bell Making the Cut show! =P I think there's something funny going on with Ticketmaster.ca though, since 10 minutes after I bought my tickets, I checked again and there were 2 tickets in the same section but in a better row, i.e. closer to the front, than mine!! I'm going to check again tomorrow or Thursday and try calling Ticketmaster if there are still better seats available.
Thank goodness for Steph!! I almost gave into temporary insanity and bought tickets to the Binghampton Senators @ St. John Maple Leafs game on this Wed. Dec 1st! Not that attending the game itself is a bad thing, but unfortunately it would be a very stupid thing for me to do at this time. *sigh*
Sadly I have neither the time nor the funds to go (even though it's really cheap--only $70 for section 109!!). Next week is going to be death week for me:
Mon. Dec. 6st:
- Native North American Literature term test
- Chaucer paper
Wed. Dec. 8th:
- Native North American Literature final assignment
- Chaucer term test
- 18th Century Literature in-class test
- History of Modern China term test
@_@ So yes, I really need to be studying like mad this week, and therefore don't have time to go watch a hockey game--as fun as it would be. Besides, I just paid off a mega Visa bill (remember all the MoDo stuff?), and I don't want to fall back into the big credit card bill trap again.
Anyway, if anyone's interested in going, I can forward you the Leafs' Insider special offer, so just email me.
It wasn't until I watched the St. John's Maple Leafs @ Manitoba Moose game last night that I realized just how much I miss hockey, NHL hockey. I mean, it was great to be watching the Baby Leafs and all (go Tellqvist!) but I guess I've been spoiled by NHL and international calibre level play, because, apart from a few bright spots, the game looked pretty messy to me.
Again, I enjoyed watching it and it was a good game, but even the relatively high number of goals (the final score was 5-3, Baby Leafs) couldn't fully satisfy my desire to see a really well-played game. *sigh* I've always said I would be happy with a 0-0 tie so long as there were lots of chances and good plays on both sides, and I guess this supports that idea.
Anyway, what I really appreciated about the game, though, was the instant icing and the wider blue lines. I saw quite a number of turnovers at the blueline that wouldn't have been possible with thinner lines (of course some of them wouldn't have happened with NHL players anyway).
So basically what I've discovered is that AHL hockey is fun to watch, but I still want the NHL!
If I help out at the Induction again next year, I'm definitely going to have to invest in a good pair of dressy black FLAT shoes!!! The only good black shoes I had were the black heels I usually wear to (teach) school, and even though I'm usually okay wearing them for a couple of hours, I quickly discovered that it's quite masochistic to plan on wearing them for fours straight hours of standing and walking around. @_@
Anyway, in spite of my feet, and the fact that my face felt frozen from trying to smile all the time, I really enjoyed helping out at the Induction. I was pretty lucky in that I got to do a variety of things. For the first three hours or so I was a "runner." As runners we got to escort guests with tickets to the Great Hall and Molson Theatre (the VIPs, basically). Oh, and it was funny because Val was also a runner, and she's the one who recognizes me from my frequent visits to the store! =P
Unfortunately I wasn't in the right spot in the lines to escort Scotty Bowman, Lanny McDonald, Gerry Cheevers, Brian Burke or Borje Salming, but I did get to escort Jim Kelley (the Elmer Ferguson Memorial Award recipient for this year), and Peter Stastny!!! That was VERY cool, even though I didn't really talk to them, apart from saying "have a good evening" when I handed them off to the guys at the Hall and Theatre entrances. Oh, and I was there when Gary Bettman arrived too, but I didn't really mind that I missed out on escorting him. =P
Running back and forth, of course I got to see quite a few other people, like Pierre McGuire, Walter Gretzky and Gino Reda.
Oh, and how could I forget? Kevin introduced me to Bill Hay, and I was really dumb and didn't realize who exactly he was until much later, when I was watching the Induction ceremony stuff on the tv. He's the chairman and CEO of the HHOF!!! I shook his hand and I didn't even realize who he was!!! *dies*
So yeah, after the running, I went to join the human chain that blocked off a pathway for the people from the Great Hall to go to the Molson Theatre. That was cool, since I got to see Ray Bourque and everyone follow a bagpiper down the stairs and go into the Theatre. I was like 3 feet away!!! *dies again, but in a good way* Oh, and Pat Quinn, whom I didn't see enter, passed by, through the path too, and that was pretty neat. ^_^
Then I went and helped out in the coatcheck--mostly just organizing the gift bags and bringing them from the back to the front so the people in charge of the coatcheck could hand them out. Man, I was SO envious!!! I think those gift bags also had the prints!!! But anyway, I got another shirt from the night and a bunch of good memories, and that was more than enough.
Here's a pic of the shirt (originally I had a picture of me wearing the shirt, but I looked really awful, so I decided to post the photo of just the shirt):
And closeups of the detailing on the right sleeve and breast logo:
Had to skip church to volunteer at the Hall, but I enjoyed it, so it was worth it!! The only sad thing was that I learned that the first 500 paid full price admissions received prints signed by the Inductees!!! Ahhhhh!!! I was SO envious of all those people!!! Of course, I wouldn't have known about it, and I probably wouldn't have skipped church just to come down for that anyway, so it's not like it was a loss or anything.
We spent quite a bit of time in the staff lounge, getting introduced and organized. Actually, it was kind of funny/sad/horrifying, but when Dave asked one of the other girls there if she could name one of the Inductees (without looking at the paper he'd given us, or the Toronto Star article on the table in front of her), she couldn't name a single one! *gasp* =P
So yes, I also found out that most of the other Induction weekend volunteers are from Durham...College(?), and that they're part of some sort of sports...management(?) program or something. There was, however, one other guy named Howie who, like me, wasn't from Durham. Apparently he's helped out with a lot of NHL events, like the Awards ceremonies, the draft, the All-Star game, etc. Pretty cool.
Anyway, I spent the first part of the day shadowing this guy named Andrew. At first he was in the Great Hall, so I was there too. Quite a few people were lined up to take pictures with the Cup, so I tried to make myself useful by answering questions like whether or not they could use their own cameras for the picture (yes, you can), if you have to pay first (no, you take it down to the store to pay for and pick up the picture), and once I even got asked where Wayne Gretzky's was (99 Blue Jay Way--thank goodness I remembered the address from when I saw it on my way to watch Hairspray!!!). ^_^ Plus I directed quite a few people to the vault to see the original bowl presented by Lord Stanley. So even though I wasn't taking the pictures or anything, hopefully I was somewhat useful.
Oh, and I learned something new too!! I either didn't know, or forgot that there were some names inscribed inside the bowl--the 1906 winners, I believe. Also I got one of the things I'd heard about how you can tell the traveling Cup apart from the Hall Cup. See, on the original cup, one of the players from the 1983-84 Oilers managed to sneak his father's name onto the real (traveling) Cup, so when they figured it out, they x'd it out. On the Hall Cup, the name was simply omitted. Oh, and by the way, the real Cup is currently on display in the Hall, since the Hall one is in Montreal getting engraved.
So after that I followed Andrew to do door duty, i.e. watching the doors between the store and the Hall. Basically all you have to do is check that people coming in have their hands stamped. Oh, and you're supposed to ask if they saw the Cup when they're leaving, but I think most people don't really bother with that part. =P So Andrew and I talked, and I found out that he's in his last year at Central Tech high school, which was interesting since I know someone who teaches there. Then he went on his lunch break and Simon replaced him.
Again, the door isn't usually all that busy, so I got to talk to Simon for a bit. That was neat since he's going to Japan to teach English--something I've considered doing. He just graduated from the kinesiology program in Western, and he wanted to take a break from school and do some traveling--so Japan. Pretty cool.
Then we went to the Rink Zone to do crowd control in the fan forum. That was a pretty relaxing job, since the crowd didn't really need any controlling, and we got to listen to the fan forum. Bourque, Coffey, Murray and Fletcher were all really good speakers. They answered questions very well, and often in a witty/humourous manner. Also, they managed to adroitly talk around those sticky lockout questions.
When they finished, all the volunteers made a sort of human wall and tried to prevent/hinder fans from rushing after them (the Inductees) as they left. And that was basically my day. It probably sounds boring, but I found it quite fun. I especially enjoyed being able to answer guests' questions and to provide information and suggestions. Man, I really should be working there!! =P
Anyway, here's a pic of me in my snazzy HHOF t-shirt (*gasp* NOT tucked in for this photo--that was a big thing, tucking in our shirts! ^_~):
Woohoo! Induction weekend is off to a very good start with the Legends Game! It was quite a lot more entertaining than I thought it would be. Sure, it wasn't exactly edge-of-your-seat hockey, but it was pretty fun. One of the refs doubled as the emcee, and he was basically all jokes. I mean, he gave Napier 2 minutes for "being old", and would've given him another 2 minutes later on, except that Napier said "I promise I won't do it again", so he let him off! =P
Legends
Bourque!!
Kalan Porter (woo hoo) was there during the first intermission, singing "Awake in a Dream", with a whole crew of figure skaters as a sort of accompaniment. Steph and I were having a ball. Everytime they announced that he would be performing during the first break, we'd be like "woo hoo! That's what I'm here for!" and just crack up.
Porter Performing
Porter and Lanny McDonald
The coolest part was that after the game, Steph and I got to attend the autograph session in the Air Canada Club section!! My friend Karvin works for Upper Deck (he used to run the place where I buy my comics, but now he's left it all to his parents), and he had some extra tickets to the session, so we got to go!! It was extremely nice of him to think of me, and I'm definitely going to have to bake him some cookies or something as a thank you!!
Anyway, they were only supposed to be autographing the Legends jerseys, but we managed to catch some of them before they sat down for the formal signing stuff: Doug Gilmour and Darryl Sittler. We almost got Lanny McDonald too, but before he could get to us, he had to go for the signing stuff. Then just as we were about to leave, Steph noticed Grant Fuhr was just kind of standing around, so we got his autograph and pictures with him!!
Gilmour, Sittler
McDonald, Fuhr
Oh, and we also saw John Liu doing some taping in the lower bowl while we just sitting around waiting:
All in all, it was a most excellent experience, and I can't wait until tomorrow when I get to actually help out!!
Okay, with the Induction this weekend, I thought it'd be cool to make some baked goods in honour of the inductees, Ray Bourque, Paul Coffey, and Larry Murphy. Since I always make cupcakes, I wanted to try something different this time, and settled on sugar cookies.
So I decorated a third of the cookies with the Bruins' logo (for Bourque), another third with the Oilers' logo (for Coffey), and left the final third plain so I could use my decorating pen for the Red Wings' logo (for Murphy).
Now, usually the icing remains wet, but according to the instructions on the back of the gel, if you decorate before baking, it should "bake to a shiny finish and dry when completely cool." I figured this would be a good thing since (theoretically) this dry, shiny finish would also make the cookies, unlike the cupcakes, stackable.
Anyway, from the title of my post, I'm sure you can figure out what happened. Yup, I learned the hard way that the cookies actually weren't stackable! =P The worst part is that I actually tested one of cookies first, and it seemed okay! I took one of the plain ones and put it on top of the most demented looking Oilers cookie--I even pressed it down pretty hard--and when I pulled the plain one off, the logo was fine. So a bit later I figured I'd put the coookies away in a container, and of course, it was only AFTER I'd stacked them all up that I discovered my initial test had provided a false-positive result--they were all stuck together!! ^^;;
Well, not all, actually. Even though most of the cookies turned out badly, and therefore I wouldn't be able to give them to the HHOF staff, I had thought that I might be able to at least give Kevin and Phil one of each of the different cookies. According I put aside two sets of the cookies on styrofoam plates. Since I had to leave for small group, I asked my brother to just cover the plates with plastic wrap, and that turned out to be a bad idea. The plastic sagged while he was wrapping the plates, and--you guessed it!--got stuck to the icing, totally messing up the Boston logo on one of the plates!!
So yeah, basically this experiment was quite the disaster. Oh well. At least I got pictures of the best looking cookies before they got messed up!
Woohoo!! It was exactly one week from the time my credit card was charged to the arrival of my stuff from Sweden (Modo gear)!!!! I'm very impressed with Swedish shipping/efficiency! Even stuff from within Canada doesn't get here much faster than that!
The cap actually looks a lot better in reality than it did in the photo, and the scarf is great! I can't wait until it's cold enough to start wearing it!! The Forsberg t-shirt is officially my new favourite!! It's beautiful, and (the material is) oh so soft! If the length was just a bit shorter, it'd be a perfect fit too!
Unfortunately they sent me the wrong jersey (I ordered the Forsberg customized one, but I received a plain one), but since it's their mistake, I don't have to pay for the shipping, so it's not that bad. The worst part of it is that the return/claim form they included with the waybill was in Swedish, so I couldn't read it; plus the guy who handles the online store emails is on vacation until Nov. 8th, so it's going to be a while before I can get this straightened out. >_<
Ah well. Did I mention how the packaged the stuff? Pretty shady! They just put it in (what I'm presuming is) their regular Modo thick paper bag, stapled the sides and the opening up, folded it over and taped it! Definitely not the most secure packaging! At any rate, it got to me all in one piece, so I guess I can't complain. Anyway, I'll post pics of my new gear once I find out where my dad put the memory card for my digicam! =P
Yes, I'm sure you've seen the things before--those little stuffed hamsters that "sing and dance" when you squeeze their foot--and, well, I am now the owner of one that wears a Team Canada jersey, has a helmet and stick, and sings "Oh, Canada". LOL
It's quite the most ridiculous piece of hockey related paraphernalia I've ever purchased (okay, technically my mom bought it for me)! What can I say? It was too cheap and too silly to pass up! =P
Anyway, I just realized that I totally forgot to write anything about Kevin's book (Barilko Without a Trace)launch. It was at the HHOF on Monday from 12-2pm, and there were quite a lot more people than I expected. The coolest part of the launch was that they announced that a deal had made to purchase movie rights to the book! Very exciting! Apparently Kevin didn't even know that the deal was a done thing until that day.
Apart from that, well, it was an odd experience for me. I recognized a lot of people--the HHOF staff and many guests from the HHOF Presents class were there--but socializing has never really been one of my skills, so most of the time I was just standing around on my own, waiting for Kevin to be free so I could congratulate him and take a proper leave (which didn't happen until about 2:20pm). *sigh*
Not that I regret skipping two classes (one of which was an in-class test--thank goodness the prof was kind enough to give me permission to write it later!), but I wish I'd managed to make more of an experience out of it, rather than just standing around feeling completely awkward for two hours.
So anyway, that was that. Next weekend, of course, is Induction weekend!! I'll be down at the Legends game with Stephanie on Saturday, and volunteering on the Sunday and Monday! ^_^ Very exciting! Unfortunately I haven't a clue as to what I'm supposed to do yet. ^^;; Ah well, Jackie said she'd email me with more details, and if she doesn't, I'll be sure to email her mid-week with questions! I hope I do a good job volunteering!
Well, no NHL hockey pools this year (d'uh!) but Sportsnet is running a Weekly Euro Challenge, so if anyone's interested in joining my "RamblingHockeyFangirl" group, just email me and I'll send you the group password!!
If you're one of the MCBC usual suspects or Blogging Hockey Chicks, check your inbox (or possibly your spam filter) and you should have an email from me already. Please let me know if I somehow managed to forget you and you'd like to join!!
Oh, to play is pretty simple. All you do is pick 12 players, 2 each from a "Super Group" (Forsberg, Jagr, Nash, Thornton, etc.), Sweden, Russia and the Czech Republic, and 1 from each of Finland, Slovakia, Switzerland and Germany. It's weekly, so you can change your picks each week if you so desire. Basically all you're looking for is points, so it's really quite simple. ^_^
Actually, speaking of European hockey, I've ordered a Forsberg Modo jersey and t-shirt, plus a Modo scarf and baseball cap. ^^;; It was pretty expensive (just under $200 US), but considering that shipping was $30 US, I figured I'd better buy all the Modo stuff I'd ever want in one shot, because it would be dumb to pay that much shipping more than once. The Modo site is pretty impressive, actually. Some of the pages are mirrored in English, including the shop!! I wonder if this is something they added for this year, or if they've always had an English mirror? So yes, you can check out the Modo site at http://www.modohockey.se.
If only Kladno had an English mirror!! I'm not learning Czech anywhere near fast enough to suit my desire for hockey news! =P
What happens with no hockey? I come home from school around 9pm and Steph, Nathan and I all sit around the tv watching BASEBALL. *gasp*
Okay, so it's not that shocking for Steph since she watches playoffs of all sports, but my brother and I? I've always thought baseball to be one of the most boring sports you could possibly watch on tv (live is another matter, though), and Nathan is not a sports watcher period. (Pre-lockout, however, he did start watching hockey thanks largely to my influence.)
So yes, it was an extremely strange way to spend a Wednesday night. I believe I just caught Johnny Damon's grand slam, and we stuck around for another one and half innings after that, so we saw him get another homerun as well. It was funny because Steph was saying how she kind of "liked" Damon, or "Neanderthal man" as we called him, and although we thought it funny, with the way he played, he ended up vindicating her admiration.
Anyway, I think three paragraphs on baseball is quite enough!! =P
In actual hockey news, I quite appreciate Andrew Ference's honesty in describing the whole lock-out/CBA situation as: "it's asinine and it's both sides." I heartily agree!!
What wasn't so impressive, however, was that he went on to say: "Even if you're not going to talk to the other guy, why not put forward some ideas you have so the public can see them and can say, 'These guys are putting forward an effort.'" Just putting forward an effort for the public is NOT going to cut it. Why do you think we're in the current situation? As I said before, I believe it's largely because both the Leauge and NHLPA spent so much time making an effor so the public could see them that they didn't put any serious effort into working together to get a new deal done. Now I know I'm repeating myself a lot, but frankly, I--and I suspect a lot of people share this feeling--don't care about them "putting forward and effort", what I want to see is results.
Well, I went to the Great Canadian Hockey Call To Arms with my friend Anna. Thank goodness for her, otherwise it would've been really sad!! We were the only two who showed up--and we were five minutes late, to boot! So yeah, we stood outside the ACC and booed for about five seconds (and definitely not at the top of our lungs! =P) and then went to dinner!
LOL
It was kind of fun, actually, but like I said, thank goodness for Anna or it would've been really dry--not to mention a complete waste of tokens! At any rate, we had a good time just talking and having dinner, so even though the GCHCTA was a bust, at least my trip downtown wasn't wasted.
Chris Chelios' recent comments on Bettman, the lockout and the League can be found on the Detroit Free Press website.
Although I agree with some of his comments, especially those regarding contraction and the US market for hockey, I think his opinion is too unilateral in assigning blame to Bettman to be wholly credited.
As much as I believe that Bettman made some serious errors in the expansion of the League and in other areas, I also believe that a great many other factors and sources contributed to the League's current problems.
I won't go into my particular opinions too much here since they probably aren't as fully informed and/or researched as they should be, but suffice to say that I neither fully absolve nor fully condemn either side in this entire mess. That is to say, I believe that neither the League nor the NHLPA are as honestly concerned about the welfare of the NHL as each side professes to be.
The great amount of effort both sides have put into pointless PR battles--effort that would be much better served and appreciated had it been channeled into getting a new CBA worked out--is disgusting. There are umpteen different possible and reasonable solutions that have been proposed by analysts and professors and all sorts of people that I'm sure could easily be mixed and matched or otherwise adapted to suit both sides if they weren't both so professedly fixed on "salary caps" and "free markets."
Anyway, I really hate to ramble on about the lockout and CBA &etc. because the stupidity of it all just drives me nuts, so I'll end here. However, I would like to recommend Bruce Dowbiggin's book Money Players, as it greatly informed my current opinions on the NHLPA and League. I read it over the summer and found it both interesting and insightful. Check your local library for a copy! I borrowed it from the UTM (University of Toronto Mississauga) library, of all places!
I know I said that my tact for dealing with the lockout was going to be apathy, but hey, without hockey I haven't had any excuse to yell/scream, and besides, it sounds fun. =P So yeah, I'm actually thinking about doing this. They may think I'm crazy, but I'm going to email my usual HNIC crew and see if anyone's interested in coming with me as well.
So yes, if you're interested in reading more about this event, check out the webpage:
Well, I'll start off with a direct quote from the comment section of a Kaberle fanlisting join form: "Tomas and I are getting married when Ilona hooks up with Jager. Yep. <3333 him"
ROFL
I know, it's awful, but even though I told myself I shouldn't laugh at applicants for my fanlistings, I just about died when I read that. It's funny but the only really funny/strange comments I get are from the Kaberle fanlisting, and they're always in a similar vein. Now don't get me wrong, most of the comments are very normal, like "Go Leafs go!" or "Kaberle is cool," but there are some that make me laugh and/or raise an eyebrow and shake my head...
The "I can't believe people actually wrote this" list...
"Tomas and I are getting married when Ilona hooks up with
Jager. Yep. <3333 him"
"Tomáš is the hottest guy I've ever met!!!"
"omg he is soooo hot"
"Kaberle is damn sexy!!"
"I am also a FRANTISEK Fan! Hot brothers m'kay"
"I LOVE KABERLE SO MUCH, I WANNA BONE HIM!"
"engaged to tomas"
Remember, these are exact quotes!!! The first one and the second last ones are definitely the best (or is that worst?) of the lot. =P I sincerely hope there never was or will be a time when I would actually think something like that, much less write it down and email it to someone!!
But enough of that.
In other fanlisting related comments, I really desperately want to change my Avs' fanlisting layout to get rid of Kariya and Selanne, but the problem is I love the way it looks right now! When I made the layout I knew they'd likely only be around for one season, but I figured I could always keep the background and text and everything and just replace the layer with the players' collage. Unfortunately, my .psd (Photoshop) file got wiped out when my computer died last summer, so now the only file of the layout I have is the jpg. *sigh* Ah well, maybe one of these days I'll stop being so lazy and just make an entirely new layout.
Dang! I missed "Making the Cut" yesterday because I was writing a position paper (due today, of course). *Sigh* It's unbelievable how much time I spent on the stupid thing considering how little it's actually worth! The measly little 3-5 page position paper (double-spaced, 12pt. font) is worth only 10% of my mark for this term, and I spent a good 8 hours on it!! Argh!
Anyway, some good/exciting hockey-related things are coming up for me! I just received today an invitation to the launch of Kevin's book Barilko Without a Trace! Even though it means I'll be skipping at least one, possibly two classes, I'm definitely going!! ^_^ My very first book launch--so cool!!
Then on Nov. 8th I'm going to be helping out at the Hockey Hall of Fame induction!!!! Again, I'm going to have to miss class, but I already mentioned it to my Czech prof, and she's cool with it (she knows how much I love hockey!). There's a good chance that I'll be helping out over the weekend as well, so it's going to be a very fun and exciting weekend for me!! The greatest part, of course, is that RAY BOURQUE is going to be inducted this year!!! Woo hoo!! I have no idea what I'm going to be doing, but hopefully whatever it is, I'll be able to get a good view of him. ^_^ Yay!!! Taking the HHOF class was probably one of the best things I ever decided to do!!
Leafs' upper management is stupid, just plain stupid. *sigh* If you got the Toronto Star today and read the Sports section, you'd have seen an excerpt from Damian Cox and Gord Stellick's book '67: The Maple Leafs. Their Sensational Victory and the End of an Empire which talks about how GM Cliff Fletcher tried to get the ownership to sign Gretzky, but failed. *sigh* It was before I was even born, but it's still depressing to read!
Here's a quote (of a quote) from the Great One himself:
"We were talking about something between $2 million and $3 million a season...And you know, the ridiculous part is Vancouver was offering me $8 million a season. But I wanted to be a Leaf in the worst way. I told Cliff, 'I'll do whatever it takes to make it work. You can defer my salary for 25 years if you have to. Whatever it takes to get the deal done.' But he couldn't get the deal done."
>_< BAKANA BAKA!!!! (Stupid idiots)
Anyway, if you're interested in ordering an autographed copy of the book for $34.99 (GST + handling incl.), you can call Starphone at 416-350-3000 category 5239--I'm going to!
A message from Leafs Insider today advertised: "Own a slice of World Cup ice." Yes, it's exactly what it sounds like. World Cup ice (water?) preserved in a puck. Available only for three weeks, buy it now for only $50!
The scary part is I'm actually considering it. ^^;; Maybe I'm feeling more hockey deprived than I thought? That (being hockey deprived) would actually be quite a strange thing since NHL hockey doesn't start until October normally anyway, so it's not like I'm really missing out on anything yet.
But yes, what are your opinions? Should I be silly and pay $65 (incl. taxes and shipping) for a puck with World Cup ice?
Making the Cut is probably the one and only reality tv I will ever watch. I really enjoyed the show today--even though I didn't expect it to be 2 hours long! @_@ (Stupid me, I probably should've guessed it when Ontario, 1/6 cities took half an hour!) What I appreciated was the fact that they approached the people they profiled for the first episode not just as individuals, but as part of families, and I think that was just a really good message.
Not just that, but also the attitudes of all the people they profiled was that they wanted to go in and do their best, and that they were glad they had tried regardless of whether or not they made it. Again, I think the show is great for promoting perseverance and determination, and especially the courage to go for your dreams.
Looking forward to next week's show, for sure! ^_^
Now, something I couldn't be bothered to watch was The National's feature or interview or whatever with Gary Bettman. You'll notice I haven't really bothered to talk about the lockout or anything here, and that's because I'm just sick and tired of it. Neither side carries much credibility with me (the players' salaries are way too high AND a heck load of owners are simply idiots) so I'm basically taking the stance that until something gets done, it's all just hot air and useless rhetoric.
Maclean's this week had an article about "8 ways to save hockey" or something along those lines, and I believe one of the suggestions was that fans need to be loud and in the face of the NHL, the NHLPA, etc. Well, I can understand the logic (drawing from the MLB example) but I also think that silence and apathy can also be effective. I remember listening to something on the Fan590 and they were saying that the biggest sign of trouble for the Jays was that when trade talks and stuff were going on, nobody cared one way or the other. When I heard that, I just thought, that's so true.
As long as people are still talking about the lack of NHL hockey and making a fuss about it, the owners and the players will know that fans still care (despite any threats to stop caring), and they can still hope to regain the fans' support. Me? I'm attempting to use my "Intro to Czech" class to help me decipher the hokej.cz website, watching "Making the Cut" and planning on attending some Mississauge Ice Dogs and/or Original Stars league games.
Sure, I'd say I'm still as madly passionate about hockey as ever, but NHL hockey isn't the only hockey, and it's not going to be the end of the world for me if there isn't any this year, or even the next. In fact, it'll save me a heckload of money, and probably improve my grades for this all-important fourth year.
Argh! I still haven't finished uploading all of the WCH pics! ^^;; At any rate, you can see the pics from the quarter final and semi-final games at http://www.imagestation.com/members/presea.
Yes, it's official, Forsberg will be playing with Modo all season, regardless of whether or not the lockout ends. Got to say we all saw it coming--although I'm still hopefully that he might decide to return to the NHL after his "one more year" with Modo.
Dang. This really would've been the perfect year for my European hockey tour!!! But as usual, my timing is off!! Flat broke (thanks to the WCH) and finishing my very important last year of university, there's absolutely no way I could do it. *sigh*
Anyway, I've still got homework to do, so more later!
Oh, and I've almost finished uploading my World Cup pics! I've finished the quarter and semi finals, so all I have left is the Final.
Team Canada World Cup Championship celebratory cupcakes! Posted by Hello
Ah, just to let you know, about the photos I've been posting recently (i.e. the Team Canada victory photo, the World Cup tickets photo, and this photo, of course), you can click on them to see a larger version. ^_^
Anyway, Thursday night was the first night I had free to bake since the World Cup final, so I made the cupcakes for the staff at the Hockey Hall of Fame and brought them in this morning. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that the office would be closed until Monday. Luckily my former suitemates are still living in residence downtown, so I woke Anna up this morning to drop them off. ^_^ I was happy to have been able to give them to people who would appreciate them properly, and besides I had promised Anna I'd make her some cupcakes at some point, so it was good that I was able to do that.
That's it from me for now. I'll be posting more of course, eventually, but right now I'm just trying to get all of my World Cup photos uploaded.
Sorry, I know I said I was going to talk more about the quarter final game, but I was out shopping for clothes that would make me look older than 14 on Thursday, then I had class and fellowship on Friday, and Saturday.... I was at the semi-final!!!! It was so amazing!!
I eBayed the ticket of course, and it was totally worthwhile! My seat (it was a single ticket, which is why I was able to "buy it now") was in row 3 of section 314--the blues behind the visitor side!! The view was great, and of course the game was SO exciting!!! I've always wanted to see an OT game, although at the time I was wishing that it hadn't gone to OT and Team Canada had managed to maintain a one or two goal lead. But yeah, totally awesome game!!
The most memorable parts for me were probably the second Czech goal (Kaberle assisted, so when it was announced, even though everyone else was booing, in my head I was like "yeah Kaberle!") and the stickless save Luongo made!! The entire time he was without his stick it was just so tense, you could feel the anxiety of everyone in the crowd, even as they were cheering. So when Luongo made the save, we all just erupted, and a bunch of people stood up too. Speaking of cheering, that was also pretty cool. After Draper's goal we were all on our feet cheering like mad. Before we had even sat down, though, Elias scored and you could just feel the crowd deflating. But the cool part was that we bounced right back and started yelling "Go Canada Go!" and "Let's Go Canada!" even louder than we'd been cheering before, and it was just a tremendous thing to be part of that crowd.
Of course I brought my camera and took pictures, but I'm not the photographer that Steph is. Besides, I was basically tracking Kaberle around all night, so the photos aren't that interesting to anyone who isn't a Kaberle fan. Oh, and the guy in the same seat number as me in row 1 had his head in the way a lot of the time so I couldn't get really good shots of the near net.
I'm going to upload all of my WCH pictures to Imagestation eventually, but I figured I might as well wait until after tomorrow. That's right, tomorrow, because I'm going to the Championship game!!!!! I think I was watching over a dozen auctions at one point, and I lost at least two or three before I managed to win one for a pair of tickets in section 312, row 11--greens!!! It was really good luck because we actually won them for just under $10 over face value!! Of course I had to wake up extra early this morning to make a trip out to Eglinton and Leslie to pick up the tickets from the seller's hotel (he was leaving around 12pm today, which is why he was selling the tickets), but it was well worth the effort!! Plus he included the blue WCH lanyard in the auction, and I really wanted one, so that was pretty cool!!!
So yes, I'm totally broke right now, but extremely happy!!
Oh, and for now I wanted to post these two pictures from the games:
Team Slovakia before the start of the game!
Team Czech before the game!
Aren't the teams cute? I wonder if that's a European thing, the pregame team huddle? I've never seen Team Canada do it, that's for sure!!
Okay, it's already really late, so I'm going to talk about the post-game events here first, and I'll try to write something about the actual game soon! First I should warn you though, this is a rather long story, so please bear with me!!
My friend Matthias went to the Slovakia-Russia game on Sunday, so when he called me on Monday, he was bragging about how he saw Chara, Bondra, Demitra, Vishnovsky, etc. in a restaurant after the game and got their autographs!! Later that night I won the quarter final tickets off eBay.
So when I had a softall meeting with Matthias and everyone else on Tuesday night, I thought I'd just ask Matthias where he saw the Slovakian players, just in case. He told me it was at the Casey's right next to Union after the game.
Keeping this info in mind, Steph, myself, and Steph's brother (who wanted to meet up with us) decided to go to the Casey's after the game. We never actually thought we'd see the players there! In fact, we already had our bill and had paid when they all walked in.
Steph noticed them and said, jokingly, "Hey, maybe that's them. They're all fit enough to be hockey players. That bald guy could be Demitra, and that guy kind of looks like Hossa." Even though at first we didn't really think it could be them, we kind of kept looking at them (I tried to pretend I was looking at the tv above and behind their table), and the more we looked, the more we thought it might really be them!
So Steph offered to walk past them to the bathroom to listen for their accents! She went to the bathroom, washed her hands, came back and told us she was certain it WAS them. Then we spent at least 10 minutes sitting at the table trying to decided whether or not we should approach them for autographs or to take a picture. Even though we felt really guilty and embarrassed about it (since we were wearing Team Canada stuff, and they hadn't exactly lost well), we decided we'd regret it forever if we passed up the chance, so we decided to go for it.
The trouble was, both of us are really shy/timid when it comes to these things!! So we stood like two meters away from their table, half obscured by a column, and tried to muster up the courage to approach them. Of course we kept peeking around the pole/column to look at them, so we were pretty obvious, and I'm sure they (and the staff at Casey's) probably thought we were nuts.
After another ten minutes we worked up the courage to approach their table, and since Steph said she absolutely couldn't do it, I ended up asking them. I was SO nervous! My voice was trembling and I stuttered like crazy when I asked "I'm really sorry, but would you mind if....we took a picture with you. Sorry. I mean, if you don't feel like it...that's fine, we understand...." I think it took me like a minute to get that all out!!
Demitra (since he was the only one on that end I really recognized, I kind of directed my question towards him) was really nice about it though, considering the situation, and after only a brief hesitation, he was like, "sure, okay." So we got Steph's brother to take the picture for us and then we rushed off with a few parting "sorry, thank you"s.
(The arrow for Hossa is actually pointing to the just visible ball cap. Steph was quite disappointed that we didn't actually get Hossa in the picture.)
Then we saw Zednik outside talking on his cellphone, and Steph really likes him (as a player), so we kind of loitered around the outside of Casey's talking, hoping that he would finish with his conversation so we could approach. That was at least another five minutes. When it became clear that he wasn't going to be finished anytime soon, I convinced Steph to pretend to take a picture of me pointing to the Casey's sign so she could get a picture of him. She just couldn't do it though, so she ended up really taking a picture of me, but with Zednik in the corner of the pic! She took the other pic when his back was turned! We felt like stalkers/paparazzi!! =P
So that was our exciting--if nerve-wracking--experience!! And that was on top of the game, which was great!! ^_^ It was so exciting to be there to watch the game live!!
Woohoo!!!! I just "won" tickets from eBay for the quarter final game between Team Canada and Slovakia on Wednesday at the ACC!!!!!!! They're in the 300-level, and the pair "only" cost me $156.56!!!! That was my maximum bid exactly, and let me tell you, thost last minutes before the auction ending were SO incredibly suspenseful/stressful!!!
I think that in the last two or three minutes before the close of the auction, two or three people tried to outbid me, since at first my winning bid was around $130, then it went up to $140, and finally the final price. *phew* That was very nerve-racking--I was refreshing the page every 2 seconds!! Even when there were only 4 seconds left I still refreshed the page because I was worried someone would outbid me in the final seconds!!! But they didn't, so now I'm going to the game!!!!!
Well, I'm going to the game assuming nothing goes wrong and this seller is on the up-and-up. =P But since I've yet to have a really bad experience with a seller, I'm going to assume that everything will be fine, and I WILL be going to the game!!! Dang! I really want to buy a white Team Canada Sakic jersey now, but I'm sure my mom would KILL me if I did. Plus I don't exactly have ready cash for it, so I'd have to pay with credit card, and I told myself that I wouldn't use my credit card anymore for a while (now that I've finally got absolutely nothing owing). The dilemma! Ah well, I guess my Sakic Team Canada tee should be enough to show my support!
Well, Brodeur was most definitely MVP of the game (despite losing the shutout on a bad goal practically from the blueline with no traffic and no redirection ^^;;)! He made a bunch of totally amazing saves, and was just solid once again.
On the Russian side, Sokolov was amazing. He made a lot of "how did that not go in?!?" saves. Well, he did help his team win the Russian elite league tournament (or whatever it's called), so I guess I shouldn't be that surprised.
Anyway, at first I was really worried because the Team Canada looked pretty sluggish in the first (too much TO smog?!) but they really picked things up in the second, and of course were rewarded for their efforts with those two goals. In the third they ran into some trouble (more than a couple of times they were really scrambling in the defensive zone) but they still played very well.
Overall, a very good game! Not quite as exciting as the SWE-FIN game, but fairly close! And of course I was ecstatic that Sakic scored again!!! That's my guy!!!
Oh yeah, and I don't know how I forgot to mention this earlier, but in the SWE-FIN game, the commentators mentioned those bloody benches in Germany AGAIN!!! It was about halfway through the first period, and one of them was likee: "You know, the benches here in Finland are closer to NHL length, unlike those benches in Germany, which went almost from the hash (sp?) marks to the hash (sp?) marks. With the shorter glass it was causing all kinds of trouble and lots of stoppages of play." ARGH!!!!!!!!! I'm telling you, GET OVER IT!!!! =P
Argh!!! Sweden is facing the Czech Republic in the quarters, which means that at least one of them is going to get eliminated! =*( Not only that, but I'm pretty sure that the SWE-CAN or CZE-CAN matchup will come in the semifinal, and not the final, so I'm extra unhappy! Darn Finland for tying them (Sweden) today!!! Booo!!!! Okay, so it's kind of spiteful, but I hope that Germany manages to pull off an amazing upset and somehow defeats Finland!!
Anyway, it was an extraordinary effort on the part of Sweden to come back to tie Finland (after giving up two-goal leads twice in the first period). That first period was totally action packed, and overall, the game was definitely the best I've seen so far this tournament. Kudos to the Swedish coach for pulling Tellqvist so often and so early! That smart move gave them the tie (even though it ended up being meaningless), and lots of good chances in the OT period.
On the other hand, the Finnish coach made a rather bad move calling a timeout late in the third period (or the OT period?) because it gave the Swedes a chance to catch their breathes, and the big line had been out on the ice for quite a while, so that wasn't the best move. Obviously it didn't end up costing them anything, but still, not a particularly good idea!
At any rate, although I wasn't pleased with the outcome, it was an excellent game, and I'm glad I decided to tape it (even though I was already watching it) it's a keeper! Still haven't had a chance to watch the Czechs' 7-2 romp over Germany, or the sad 4-0 loss to Finland yet, though. In the latter case, that's because I don't yet have the tape!
When I went into the HHOF store on Tuesday or Wednesday I saw thek sorting through toques, so after waiting a couple of days to let them get them out on the shelves, I went in today to check them out. They had the Canucks rink-stick logo one again, so I got another one for Steph. (I got her one last winter, but she lost it!!) Anyway, the person who rung up my sale was a woman I usually see behind the counter or somewhere in the store when I'm there, so when I went up to pay, she was like: "Wow, you must like this store a lot (smile)". How embarrassing! All I could say was, "yeah" and I was probably blushing too! =P
In other news, today's games were okay (FIN-GER, RUS-USA), but I didn't exactly have any emotional involvement. I figured the Germans would lose, but it was still kind of sad to see, nonetheless. As for the USA, well, my apologies to any American readers, but I'm glad that they lost! Tkachuk cross-checked Gonchar not once, but TWICE in third period, and that's not cool.
Oh, but going back to the Finnish team, you know, I never realized that Saku Koivu had a younger brother, or that he was also playing on the team! Their dad is also an assistant coach, which is pretty cool! There seem to be quite a few family connections in the World Cup this year, the Ruutus, Koivus, Sedins, and of course, the Kaberles! I wouldn't be surprised if there were more that I haven't clued into yet as well. ^_^ How great that must be, getting to represent your country with your family!
Ah, last thing! If I hear a CBC commentator talk about the length of a European bench again, I'm going to scream!!! I was watching the FIN-GER game on my mini-tv at work today, and I swear I heard them mention the fact that the European benches are longer than NHL benches ("the NHL benches start at the blueline") and that the glass in European rinks is shorter at least three times in the same period!! ARGH!!! So that means that players, especially defensemen have to adjust a little when shooting the puck off the glass (with the longer benches and shorter glass, it tends to end up in the benches, resulting in a stop of play), big whoop. GET OVER IT GUYS!!! Seriously.
So I decided to wear my Czech jersey today because 1) I wore the Sweden one yesterday; 2) Kaberle is my second favourite player; 3) I kind of wanted the Czech team to win, since they lost rather badly to the Finns in their first game. Of course I took it off while I was in the office (as pretty as it is, it's hardly professional attire), or at least, I did for most of the day.
See, I went out for lunch at 1:00 with Kevin and Phil, and that was when the game started, so I wore my jersey to lunch. When I got back from lunch, I completely forgot to take it back off!! =P I didn't even notice that I was wearing it until I looked in the mirror in the washroom right before going home!! ^^;; How embarrassing! And people had even commented on the jersey while I was wearing it!!
Anyway, I brought a mini-tv into work with me so I could watch (well, more listen to) the game while working, so I was updating my coworkers on the score. For most of the game I was pretty dejected, and my coworkers were even teasing me about choosing the wrong jersey! One of them suggested I should've brought both jerseys so I could wear the jersey for the winning team home! =P But to get to the point, even though the Czechs lost, their play in the third period enabled me to wear my jersey with pride.
Sure they really really sucked for 2/3 of the game, but I love that they didn't just roll over and die and instead came extremely close to tying the game up. Listening to the CBC commentators, I was also glad to hear that Kaberle was creating some scoring chances and prevented Sundin from getting the empty netter. Plus, I don't recall them mentioning Kaberle in conjunction with a Czech giveaway, which is a very good thing!!
I couldn't see much on the small screen (plus I wasn't watching all the time, since I did have work to do), but I'm pretty sure they were tracking Kaberle around during a break in the play sometime during the second period, so I'm going to have to watch the tape for that! Oh yes, did I mention that I taped the game? At first I thought it was going to be a wasted effort, but with that colossal third period effort, I felt like it was worthwhile. In fact, right after the Canada-Slovakia game tonight I watched the third period. It really was as exciting as it sounded.
Speaking of the Canada-Slovakia game though...WOW. I was just so impressed with how calm and collected Team Canada was throughout the entire game. They spent a lot of time in the attacking zone with solid puck control, which is always a good thing, but the thing that impressed me most was the way that they recovered and controlled the puck in their own end. With the exception of the stuff that led to Slovakia's lone goal, Canada looked super efficient in getting the puck away from the Slovak's. Not only that, but more often than not, once they got the puck, they were able to turn around and create good chances the other way!
They also looked a lot stronger on the puck than Slovakia.
Another thing I appreciated was the way that overall this game was a lot less...chippy than the Canada-US game. Sure there were some scuffles, but not nearly as many last night.
Oh, and how could I not mention Thornton's goal? That was SO cool, the way he stole the puck from Chara and scored!!
Woohoo!! Got to watch my first real WCH game tonight (if I hadn't agreed to stay on at work after my contract ended, I would've been able to watch the CZE-FIN and GER-SWE games)!!! GO CANADA!!!
And you know how happy I am that JOE SAKIC got the game winner!!
I wasn't impressed with all the fighting going on, however. Feistiness can be good, but tonight was just a bit too much for me. And I don't like the NHL rules for this either. I don't really care too much about having the redline, but I wanted no-touch icing at the very least!
But at any rate, for the most part it was a very entertaining, exciting, and fun game! ^_^ While I was watching it, I was thinking, man, it feels like forever since I last watched hockey!! A good Canadian start!
Oh, yeah, what did people think about the vintage jerseys? I think they're ugly, but I appreciated the history. Actually, I was pretty pumped that as soon as I saw the Winnipeg Falcons patch I knew the jerseys represented Canada's first gold medal in international competition in the 1920 SUMMER Olympics at Antwerp. Well, okay, I didn't remember the Antwerp part, but the rest of it I got from my HHOF class!! ^_^ Actually, I think I even recognized the jerseys somewhat from a children's book I've seen around... Anyway, all the history makes up for the sheer ugliness of the jersey (Nashville third jersey puke-mustard) in my opinion. =P
Anyway, to back track a little, I was pretty sad that the Czechs got thwomped 4-0 by Finland. =( The only salve in that is that I didn't hear about Kaberle screwing up a lot, or see any major mistakes from him in the replays (but then again I wasn't watching the "highlights" too closely because I was too busy wincing). *sigh* Oh, and in the WCH preview pullout in the Toronto Sun yesterday, they had T. Kaberle listed as the Czechs' top D-man, which I appreciated. ^_^
Earlier today, of course, Sweden defeated Germany, as expected. I would feel bad for Germany, except that it was Sweden, and I like Sweden! I even wore my Forsberg jersey to work today, although of course I took it off while I was at work, since it isn't proper business attire.
Speaking of jerseys, though, that brings me to my "major" dilemma: which jersey should I wear tomorrow? It's Sweden versus the Czech Republic, and I'm quite torn because I like Kaberle more than Forsberg, but I like Team Sweden more than Team Czech, so... Likely I'm going to end up wearing the Kaberle just so I'm not repeating myself, but... Oh, and even though I know people don't usually tape sports, I'm going to tape the game tomorrow!!
Lots of comments pertaining to international hockey today!! First off, if you haven't already joined the FSN World Cup of Hockey Challenge, go do it now!! To all my blogging hockey chicks, check your inboxes for an invitation to yet the league! Ditto to all you MCBC'ers. Email me if I somehow overlooked you or something, and I'll send you the name and password! Basically you just choose the outcomes of each of the games (WLT), and as tiebreakers, how many shots combined and goals combined you think the teams will score for each game. Personally I'm having a hard time guessing because it's not like you see these teams playing all the time, and the exhibition games for the European pool aren't all that well covered here, so I have no idea how those teams are doing, apart from who's winning and who's losing.
Anyway, in other World Cup related news, I finally got the World Cup of Hockey 2004 soundtrack!!! I didn't really get it for the music (although I do like what I've listened to so far), but rather for the bonus dvd! =P It's not that impressive of a bonus dvd when you look at it, but you know me, I can't resist any of those marketing ploys--"bonus", "limited edition", "special edition," etc. Oh, and if you're interested, here's what's on the bonus dvd:
- 1996 WCH highlights
- NHL 2005 WCH game preview
- NHL All Stars talk music and musicians talk hockey
- 2004 Juno Cup highlights
- NHLPA Goals and Dreams
- WCH 2004 team rosters (like I can't just look it up on the internet! =P)
- WCH trivia
At any rate, it was only $12.99 +tax, so at least it was one of my cheaper hockey buys.
Oh, and speaking of hockey buys, specifically WCH buys, I finally got my Sakic Team Canada t-shirt!! Woohoo! It came into the Spirit of Hockey store on Monday (or maybe Tuesday)!! The funny thing is that I had seen it advertised in the River City Sports flyer on (last) Thursday night so I called on Friday and found out that the shirts were supposed to be coming in that day. So I went after work, but of course they didn't have them out on the shelves yet, and besides they only had like the Iginla ones come in. And I actually called again on Monday and was told that more were coming in that week, but the Sakic one wasn't there yet. So you can imagine how happy I was to see the Sakic ones in the HHOF store, especially since they had all the other ones (Iginla, Brodeur, Redden, Lemieux, Heatley, St. Louis) out for so long, I didn't even consider that more would be coming in! I'm wearing it to work tomorrow for sure! Finally people will stop bugging me about being a "traitor" for supporting Team Czech and Team Sweden but not Team Canada (in terms of apparel, that is).
Talking about buying stuff reminds me that I just found out Australia actually has a national ice hockey team! I saw the ad for their new jerseys in The Hockey News!! I know it's random, but I really want one, or both of those jerseys!!! Too bad they're almost $100US ($129 Australian currency). ^^;; I definitely don't have that kind of money right now, and if I did, I'd probably rather get the Toronto St. Pats jersey (which is finally available in size small!) or the Avs third jersey. *sigh* I have relatives in Australia though, so maybe my mom'll mention my interest in the jerseys and they'll get one for me for Christmas or something? Thinking far ahead, I know. =P Oh, if you're interested in taking a look, the site for Ice Hockey Australia is www.mightyroos.com.
But back to the World Cup, I really wish I could be watching the European exhibition games!!! >_< The results of the exhibition games so far, btw, for those who haven't been following them are as follows (in chronological order):
- SWE @ SLO, SWE wins 2-0 (Tellqvist gets a shut-out, woohoo!)
- RUS @ GER, Tie 3-3
- FIN @ CZE, Tie 1-1
- CAN @ USA, USA wins 3-1 (my poor Louie!)
- CZE @ GER, CZE wins 7-4
- FIN @ SWE, SWE wins 2-1 OT (Naslund's goal)
- USA @ CAN, CAN wins 3-1 (returning the favour!)
Phew! This is a pretty long post, so I'll stop here!
My alternate title for this post would've been: "Why I should work for the Hockey Hall of Fame, Spirit of Hockey store." =P
I'm sure by now you all know how much I'd love to work there, if only my schedule permitted it, but apart from my desire, I've actually got a couple of reasons as to why I'd be an excellent employee!
1) I'm a walking advertisement for the store! This past month alone I think I've brought in at least $300 in sales for the Hall--and that's from other people buying stuff, not me! After I showed off my Team Czech and Team Sweden t-shirts at work, my co-worker went and bought Team Slovakia and Team Canada shirts for her family here, and for her parents to bring with them on their trip to Slovakia (they left just this past Friday). Then when I wore my Kaberle Team Czech jersey to work a couple of weeks ago, one of the mail guys whom I usually talk hockey with saw it and mentioned that he'd like to get a Jagr Team Czech jersey. Well, I checked out the Hall and saw that they had a couple of pre-customized Jagr Czech jerseys, and after I told him that today, he asked me to pick one up for him (which I did before the end of the day).
Then there's all the gifts for other people that I've bought from the Hall, which is also good advertising. Let's see, I've bought: an Avs' third jersey; an Avs Christmas stocking; a Canucks' home jersey, a Canucks toque; a Team Canada Heatley t-shirt; the Trevor Linden and Markus Naslund player prints; a Sens Christmas stocking; a Sens flag; and a Sens bear. I'm pretty sure I always tell people that I got it from the HHOF too.
And of course, we can't forget all the stuff I have personall purchased there. ^^;; The Sweden jersey; the Kaberle Czech and Forsberg Sweden customizations; the Nordiques, Sakic, Team Czech and Team Sweden t-shirts; the Avs and Leafs bears; the Sakic, Avs, and Nordiques caps; the Leafs stuffed zamboni, the Sakic, Forsberg and Giguere player prints; and most recently (i.e., today) Team Sweden and Team Czech caps. @_@ They wouldn't even really be paying me--the money would just go right back into the store!!
2) I probably know the stock better than the staff, at times! When I found out that the mail guy, Frank, wanted the Jagr Czech jersey, the first thing I did was call the store to see if they still had any Jagr jerseys. It was kind of a matter of form for me, though, since I had seen a bunch of the jerseys there just the past week and I didn't think they would be sold out already. Anyway, I called, and the girl who answered phone said she'd check, and when she got back to me, she said they didn't have any!! Well, luckily I wasn't feeling very trusting, so I went down to the store myself to check about five minutes after I called, and guess what? Lots of Jagr jerseys! *shakes head* I guess since the customized international jerseys were further in than the plain ones, it's an easy to understand mistake, but still...
Other than that, I'm in the store browsing so often I can practically list off the names and sizes of jerseys and t-shirts--at least of the teams that interest me. Not to mention, I know pretty quickly when something new has come in. The international hats, for example, I'm guessing came in either today or just a couple of days ago, since the Team Czech and Belarus hats weren't even out on the shelves yet, but were still behind the cashiers' counter! They also got in some new NHL team sweatshirts sometime within the past week, which have replaced the Team Canada player t-shirts that used to be on the back table (the t-shirts are now hanging in the front). The sweatshirts, by the way, are very thick and soft feeling, but they're pretty expensive--$59.99!!! I found an adult size small Canucks one which I would've bought for Steph had it been a more reasonable price, but they didn't have anything out smaller than a large for the Avs. Ah well, I'm pretty spendthrifty when it comes to hockey, but even I wouldn't pay that much for just a simple sweatshirt!!
3) Whenever I'm there I'm constantly rearranging the shelves and putting things back in their place anyway!! Have I mentioned this before? There was one day when I was waiting for my parents so I went into the Hall to look around. My mom called me, so I thought she was ready and headed out of the Hall. Well, it turned out she was calling to tell me she'd be late, so I spent that extra time in the store. I browsed a bit, but I spent most of my time arranging the player prints by the different styles of prints (signature and regular) and by teams, and making sure each print could be easily seen and wasn't too obscured by others. Then I fixed up the dvds/tapes/book shelf and put everything back in their proper places. I moved onto the Legends photos and made sure that the players weren't mixed up on the spinning rack thing. Finally, I found one of those mini Leafs jerseys just sitting around in the front, so I brought it back to its proper place in the back. ^^;; Can you say anal retentive? Too bad I'm not nearly as meticulous about my own room!!! =P
4) I shop there enough to have developed some ideas about minor ways the store could make some changes that would make things easier for shoppers. For example, they could offer a "pick-up" option for shipping in the online store. That way someone who lives or works around Toronto can get what they want when it isn't in stock without having to pay shipping, and without having to wait for regular business hours to place the order. Another thing is that when they're taking customization orders, they should have a set pick-up/delivery date. It could be ready before that date, but it definitely wouldn't come in any later than that date. (You know how much experience I've had with this particular issue). Now that I think of it, the store could also do with some signage--like for men's clothing, children's clothing, jerseys, golf stuff, etc. etc.
5) It makes me happy to help people find the things, especially hockey things, that they want. A lot of times when I'm on the ground floor of the BCE place, especially around the elevator to the Hall's offices and resource centre, I see people walking around looking slightly lost, and I know that they're looking for the Hall. Usually I'm not the type to even approach strangers, but when it comes to this, I almost always ask "Are you looking for the Hockey Hall of Fame" and then give them directions when they answer in the affirmative. When people are looking to buy particular hockey things too, I love to help them out. I used to be that way with anime as well. When I was on the Anime Nation forums, more often than not I would look for the threads where people were asking where they could buy stuff so I could do a quick internet search and give them some suggestions. I guess it's because I appreciate shopping when it means getting exactly what you want, so I like to be able to help others find that same satisfaction.
*phew* So there was my extremely detailed list of reasons as to why I should be working in the Spirit of Hockey store!! Too bad no one hiring for the store is ever likely to read this!
Well, single seats went on sale for the World Cup of Hockey (at the ACC) today, and I was thinking about buying some, but no. See, I realized that the only way I'd get to see Team Czech or Team Sweden play would be if I went to the semi-final or final game (that's assuming they make it that far), and when I checked out the ticket prices through ticketmaster... @_@
See, the tickets went on sale at 10am today, and I set my phone alarm for five minutes before 10 just so I wouldn't miss it. At 10 on the dot I was logging onto the site, checking ticket prices. There weren't any tickets available for the final, so I checked the semi-final prices for two tickets, and the only thing available was the 100-level seats, which were about $300 each. @_@ Then I thought, why don't I try for a single seat? And that was even worse! The only option I had was the $400 platinum/club/whatever seat!!! INSANE!!!
So yes, unless I find a friend who wants to sell his/her semi-final tickets, I will be watching the WCH purely from the comfort of my own living room. On the plus side, Rogers really screwed up (our digital box was broken, so we called in, and they tried to transfer us, but left my mom waiting on the line for 2 hours!!) so they gave us basically all of the channels for free for this month! That means we get Leaf tv, which will be carrying the exhibition games! Score!! ^__^
[Edit: Oh yes, thanks for all the comments about the cupcakes!! ^_^ They're really a labour of love for me, but it's nice to know that people think they're nice! I'm going to make another batch for Hall staffers when the World Cup starts, I think--I still have icing leftover I need to finish! Oh, and seriously, if anyone wants some hockey-themed cupcakes, and happens to be in the GTA area, let me know! I'd love to make you some--seriously!!]
I don't know if you noticed the link that someone posted on my tagboard a little while back for the Hockey Photo Project, but it's a pretty neat site that got started not to long ago! So check it out, and join and add you own pictures!
Click here, and here to see pictures of my hockey-themed cupcakes! ^_^
I made them yesterday since I took the day off work. (My dad was sick so I was supposed to take the Go Train, but then my Go Train got cancelled, and I was tired anyway so I decided to just call in sick). ^_^ Actually, I've made them before but I didn't want to say anything about them until the class was over.
See, I make them for the staff at the Hockey Hall of Fame, which of course includes Kevin and Phil, my teachers, so I didn't want people to think that I was trying to bribe them or soften them up or anything. Of course I guess people could still think that way now that I've spilled the beans, but I didn't want other people's opinions to bother me while I was in the course. I mean, I knew that my work stood for itself and didn't require any personal goodwill to merit the marks that it got.
And I guess I'm more willign to say it now too because I was talking to Kevin today, and apparently he read off portions of my essay answers from the exam to Melanie Reubens, the course academic coach (she gave Phil and Kevin some tips about how to run a course since they aren't trained teachers) and she could tell that I was a university student, so I took that as sufficient support for the quality of my work.
But anyway, I'm going to stop defending myself against insinuations that I haven't even heard yet, and get on with my cupcake story! So yes, this batch was the third batch of hockey cupcakes I've made. The first batch was Habs and Leafs, and the second was Team Canada. Originally I wanted to do the HHOF logo on these cupcakes, but I tried one and it was pretty much impossible, so I decided to just put together all the different types I'd ever made.
It's actually a lot of fun, and very satisfying. Making the cupcakes didn't take much time, but icing them took about two or three hours! Putting on the icing and making the outlines with icing gel wasn't too time consuming, but putting on the sprinkles took quite a bit of time since I had to be so precise in where I dropped them! It was worth the effort though! I took pictures of every batch I made, and I'm really proud of them! Plus I'm glad I was able to give the people at the Hall a treat, since they were all so nice to me. ^_^
Kaberle finally got signed! Funny thing is, my dad is the one who told me! =P He was watching the news and it scrolled across the bottom of the screen! Figures they would sign him the one day I wasn't checking the internet like every half hour!!
Reports have suggested that the deal is somewhere around $5.9M over two years. I'm happy about that because: a) I don't have to go through all of this stress after next season (whenever it may be); b) it's a fairly modest increase (he made $2.75M last season, and the new deal works out to $2.95M per year) so I can rest assured that Kaberle wasn't just being greedy after all! ^____^
Man, I just can't stop smiling!! ^_^ Heh, and the first thing I did after doublechecking the news online was email Kevin. I'm sure he already knows, but I just had to share my joy with a fellow Kaberle fan!
First of all, major big shoutout to Jello for actually reading through my crazy long rambling entry!! You're the best! ^_^
Anyway, I didn't want to say anything earlier, even though Steph and I have been planning this since Saturday, but assuming there is a hockey season, we will be going to FIVE games in Buffalo! Well, we'll be going to five games together, but I've got a sixth that's up for grabs since she'll probably be home in Vancouver for that one.
So yes, Buffalo tickets are so amazingly cheap!!! This is what we got:
Wed. Dec. 22nd vs MONTREAL @ 7:30pm - 2 300 Lvl III @ $18 = $36
Sat. Jan 1st vs VANCOUVER @ 7:30pm - 2 200 Club Lvl @ $78 = $156
Sun. Feb. 20th vs ATLANTA @ 5:00pm - 2 300 Lvl III @ $17 = $34
Fri. Feb. 25th vs TAMPA BAY @ 8:00pm - 2 300 Lvl III @ $22 = $44
Tues. Mar. 15th vs COLORADO @7:00pm - 2 200 Club Lvl @ $70 = $140
Sun. Mar. 27th vs CALGARY @ 5:00pm - 2 300 Lvl III @ $22 = $44
GRAND TOTAL= $454 US
BUT I only had to pay a $50 deposit first! =P How exciting! Now I'm really hoping there's going to be a season, because we've got everything all worked out!
Oh, and the game I've got a ticket free for is the December game versus Montreal. Anyone interested? Benson?
SO EXCITING!
And yes, I prefer to think about this than my HHOF Presents exam, which was truly horrendous. @_@ I don't know what's wrong with me, but I totally couldn't write today. I was just rambling on and on, and I'm not even sure I fully answered the essay questions! ARGH! Thankfully Kevin and Phil are easy markers, so I won't die too badly, but still, I'm very disappointed in myself for finishing off that way. *sigh* Ah well, I'm still really happy about the class overall! If I could, I'd keep taking it! ^_^
Rather late, but the first "tale of anticipation" is my Kaberle jersey story! (It really isn't that exciting, so I'll apologize in advance.) So the day the Stanley Cup Odyssey premiered, I brought my Team Czech jersey into the HHOF to get it customized with Kaberle. The guy told me it would be two to three weeks, and since I was picking it up, he asked for a phone number to call me when it was ready. Not thinking too much about it, I gave my home number, which was really dumb because I'm at work all day! So yeah, once it hit the two week mark, I kept calling home to see if the HHOF had left any messages for me! My poor brother (who sleeps late and wakes up late in the afternoon) had to try to ignore my 10am phone calls all the time! =P
So once it hit exactly three weeks, I started to get impatient and called the Hall to doublecheck how long it was supposed to take. The guy I spoke to was like: "It takes three weeks." I didn't say anything, but in my head I was thinking: "It has been three weeks (dang it)!"
Throughout the following week I called home to check the messages even more frequently, but still nothing. After three weeks and six days, I called to ask specifically about the status of my jersey. The guy who answered talked to the manager and told me it would come in tomorrow (precisely four weeks after after I dropped it off.)
I was really excited about it, of course, and was waiting anxiously for the phonecall all day. I checked home around 10am, and was excited to hear that there was one new message--but it was for my mom! Around 11am I got really impatient and called the store to see if they had a time when it was supposed to come in, and I was told: "It depends on the delivery person. It could come in anytime from now to 6pm." This is when I started to get upset. It's hard to explain just how excited and anxious I was for my jersey to arrive, and then to be told that it might not come in until 6pm, when I'd already be home in Missisauga?!
Really not impressive. I mean, I didn't let it get to me earlier, but it's a pretty shoddy way of doing business to not be able to give your customers a specific date of completion. I mean, it really sucks to be waiting by the phone to find out when your jersey's finished, wondering whether they accidentally lost it or something!
But back to my story. Another reason I was really antsy about getting my jersey on Wednesday before going home was because I had planned to drop by the Hall to give Kevin/Phil hard and soft copies of my Canucks paper that day, so it would be perfect timing if I had the jersey with me to show to Kevin (another Kaberle fan, if you recall).
By the time I finished work at 3:30, however, the Hall hadn't yet called, so I was really disappointed. Usually I'm not one to complain, but because I was so upset, I actually ended up telling Kevin how I had been expecting the jersey and how it had already been four weeks since I dropped it off. I felt kind of bad for telling him, though, because he does work for the Hall, and it was sort of like complaining to the management (even though his job isn't related to the store directly). What made that worse was that he mentioned to Phil that my jersey took four weeks for customization, and Phil's the VP! ^^;;
Anyway, I'm not still upset about the whole thing because my brother called me just before 4 o'clock to let me know that the store had called and my jersey was in. I was still talking with Kevin at the time, so he came down with me to pick up my jersey and to check it out. When I got my jersey, I discovered that it wasn't just the Kaberle jersey, but the Forsberg as well! So that basically got rid of most of my frustration--since the Forsberg was a week early, and the Kaberle a week late, I figured it kind of balanced out. =P
So that was my Kaberle jersey story. Sorry, as I said before, it's not that interesting. My other "tale of anticipation" is also Kaberle related. As you probably all know, McCabe and Antropov got re-signed on Thursday. Well, my coworker was checking out the hockey news on the internet and told me about McCabe signing around lunchtime, so I knew about that pretty early. But then in the car on the way home, they mentioned in their preview of upcoming news items that the Leafs had re-signed two players so I got all excited. I was like, is it Kaberle? is it Kaberle? This was around 4:43pm, and the sports updates are at 4:45pm, so I was all eager and excited for those two minutes to pass. I even pulled out my cell and brought up Kevin's number so I could call him as soon as I heard the news.
Finally at 4:45pm the sports updates started, but they began with baseball! XP I was all frustrated and impatient, thinking: "c'mon, who cares about baseball?!?" (Sorry, Nicole! =P) Finally they got to hockey and I heard "McCabe and Antropov..." and was just so totally deflated! Then on Friday, it was like the Leafs were rubbing it in when I was online at work in the afternoon and I saw that they had re-signed Tellqvist and Wilm as well, but still no Kaberle!!! Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that they got Tellqvist under contract, but I don't know enough about Wilm to really care about him! And even Antropov, I'm not really convinced he's worth what the Leafs paid him. I like him and all, but he's just so darned fragile--always injured! A lot of teams were after Antropov before (I don't know if he's really in demand so much anymore), so I rather wish they had just traded while his stock was still high and he hadn't developed so much of a reputation for being injury-prone.
But I digress. My point is, I'm really frustrated with the fact that Kaberle still hasn't gotten a deal done with the Leafs! I really really don't want him to go through arbitration--especially since the Leafs don't have anyone else left going into arbitration, so it'd be that much easier for them to decide to walk away from the ruling if they were so inclined! Man! I really hope it's just an issue of the length of the contract, and not the amount, because after the way he played this season, I don't think he should really be asking for too much! In fact, I still can't understand why he didn't or doesn't just accept a lower salary for this year and then work his butt off and improve his pay so that he can ask for a raise or at any rate make a better case for himself for next season! I love him as a player, but I'm not too happy about this contract quibbling, to be honest.
Woohoo! I finally got my customized Team Czech and Team Sweden jerseys in! There's a pretty long story behind all of that, but I'll have to get to that later, since it's 1am and I have to wake up for work tomorrow!
Anyway, just wanted to show off some photos!
Yes, I am wearing a skirt with the jerseys--work clothes! =P
Oh, and this is pure Steph! The caption that goes along with it is: "Czech out my butt." ^_~ (Steph, Queen of Bad Puns, although I thought that one was pretty good.)
