Darn! I am SO retarded!!! NEVER EVER EVER will I agree to attend a wedding on the first weekend of June! If the Flames don't win tonight AND Thursday, I'm going to be messed up! The Stanley Cup will be won on either Saturday (wedding) or Monday (HHOF Presents class) night! Why am I so retarded?! I didn't even think about the finals when I confirmed a month or so ago!
Well, the good news is that the Saturday night dinner won't be a Chinese banquet, so it might end early enough for me to catch the last period or two. OR I could always plead ill and closet myself in my room and watch or listen to the game. OR I could smuggle in a walkman or mini tv and listen to or watch the game at the dinner (EXTREMELY LOW CLASS).
Monday night is not great, but it'd definitely be better than Saturday. At least I wouldn't feel so bad skipping class (rather than a wedding banquet) for the Final. Or who knows, maybe class would be cancelled. Funny thing is, the first question I asked at the beginning of class was what we would do if a Stanley Cup final elimination game was on a Monday night. Kevin (Mr. Shea? I'm not sure how I'm supposed to address him) never really answered my question, so...
Damn! Flames MUST win the Cup in FIVE! Forget all my superstitions about Tampa winning because I want Calgary to win. Calgary WILL win on Thursday!!!
[Edit: Dang! I couldn't even skip class if it was game seven if I wanted to anyway, because we have a quiz!! ^^;; And yes, it sounds bad that I'm more concerned about the Finals than the wedding, but you've got to remember, I've said before that I would skip my own wedding if it somehow ended up conflicting with the Finals (if you've ever read Mordecai Richler's "Barney's Version", you'll know where that came from). I AM hapy for Ken and Bettina, but the thing is, I had the option of staying home on Saturday and just attending the Sunday banquet, which would've meant no conflict!]
Well, on the bright side of things, at least game four won't be an elimination game, so I won't feel conflicted while I'm in class on Monday! =P Gotta see the good things where I can, after the way Calgary played tonight.
They looked so sloppy and dead! I really don't know what happened to them between game one and tonight! *sigh* And their power play is STILL pathetic. I swear they get more chances shorthanded (well, maybe not tonight, but then again, nothing was going their way tonight) than they do with the extra man!
Bah. And all the fighting/altercations after the whistles, especially at the end of the game, you know I was not pleased at all to see that. I think the Flames especially should be careful about that, considering that I'm sure no one's forgotten about that Calgary-Nashville thing. *shakes head* No good.
Anyway, to end on a more positive note, the response to my survey has been amazing so far! Thank you so much to everyone who's filled out the survey and/or passed it along to someone else! I've had 57 responses to the first survey, and 60 for the second! That's just amazing! ^_^ The results haven't been what I expected as well, which is probably a good thing, if a bit more difficult, in terms of how I'm going to use the data.
Oh, and I just got approval for Ron Francis and Roberto Luongo fanlistings! So Lisa, if you happen to read this before my email, would you mind...?
The links to my surveys are on the left sidebar! I'm hoping to use the results to these surveys in my HHOF Presents research paper, so your help is greatly appreciated! If you could send some friends this way to complete the survey as well, I'd be even more grateful, since the more people who fill this out, the better the results should be!
A HUGE SHOUT OUT and lots of love <3 <3 to Vancouver Canucks Op Ed for linking my survey! Thanks SO MUCH!
If you'd like to know more about my project and/or the class the project is for, please check out the website I made for it: http://www.hhof-presents.tk. Yes, I'm just about the biggest nerd I know for making a website for a summer course I'm taking! A summer course that isn't even going to give me any credits towards my degree (since it's at Seneca and I go to U of T) no less! What can I say? I love hockey, and I'm really excited about this course, and have been since I heard about it!
Woohoo! Go Flames!!! That was such an excellent game to watch! The quality and intensity of play was almost like the Canucks-Calgary series!! ^_^
I only have one gripe: STUPID VILE!!!! (No, that's NOT a typo!) I lost 3 points in the Kia pool because of his stupid penalty which resulted in the Tampa goal! True, I got the point from St. Louis, but the shut out would've been better! xP Grr....
And this wasn't frustrating, but silly: Saprykin's unsportsmanlike penalty! What the heck was that?! LOL. He knocked the stick out of Modin's(?) hands before the puck was even dropped! The call was funny too, I mean, delay of game I would've understood, but unsportsmanlike? A bit odd.
Nonetheless, it was a great game by the Flames. Their forechecking and PK were simply amazing. ^_^ It makes me think, by gosh, they could really win the Cup!
My main doubt is actually slightly superstitious. See, last year, my second choice match-up (once the Avs and Leafs were knocked out) was for Anaheim-New Jersey, and that's exactly what happened! But then, my choice for the Cup was the Ducks, and of course, the Devils won. ^^;; So if history repeats itself, my second choice match-up (Calgary-Tampa) will be (well, is) correct, but my Cup choice will be wrong. ^^;; Let's hope this doesn't happen!
In other hockey related news, my All-Star jerseys arrived from River City Sports today! =D They're so pretty!!!! Now all I need to do is save up for the customizations! @_@ I think I'm going to give that until December, considering that I want to get both the 2002 and 2004 All-Star jerseys, AND the Team Sweden and Team Czech jerseys customized. That'll probably cost as much as, if not more than the jerseys themselves! ^^;;
Oh, and my HHOF Presents website is coming along nicely! I think I've decided that it's going to go live tomorrow, whether I'm completely finished or not! That means I'm going to post the link to my survey as well, so if everyone could take the survey, and ask your friends to drop by to take it as well, it'd be much appreciated! I really want to do well in this course!
Ah! Last bit of good hockey news is that the World Cup of Hockey Czech team was named today, and (no surprise) both my Kaberle's made it! So yes, Team Czech had better go far so I can get a chance to get tickets to see my Kaberle's play! And if that happens, well, I'm going to have to get my Team Czech customized before anything else. =P Actually, speaking of Kaberle, I got four more Kaberle cards, bringing my collection up to 98 cards!!! ^_^ My goal, of course, is to get the most complete Kaberle card collection I can, but it's pretty tough! Beckett online has got about 220 cards listed for Kaberle, and I'm sure they're missing a couple, like some of the Czech ones, or the funny ones, like the Cheez Whiz one I got off eBay. It's going to be tough, but I'm determined!!
Yes, I really meant to post today, but I got caught up with making my HHOF Presents webpage! ^^;; I'll try to comment tomorrow (technically, later today).
I got the assignment yesterday, and I've already spent two nights researching for my HHOF Presents paper!! ^_^ It's so exciting! My topic is: "Through the years, various National Hockey League teams have undergone a series of metamorphoses with their sweaters, logo and/or colours. Select a team that has undergone such a visual facelift, trace the changes, and assess the impact of these changes on the team, its city and the NHL."
Surely you can all guess which team I'm doing? =P (The Canucks, just so you can be certain!) So far I've gone through two e-indexes, come up with 19 articles, Google'd my way to a couple of webpages, and have enlisted Steph to skim through some books available at the UBC library for me. ^_^ I'm also planning on contacting the (Canucks') Authentix store to see if I can get some sales figures for the various jersey/logo merchandise sales--heritage and current. And I'm trying to put together a survey (well, two short ones, actually) too, but I haven't had the chance to sit down and really think about it yet.
So anyway, the point of my subject line is that I really feel that this course, and hence hockey, is revitalizing my passion for learning! In first year I was so excited to go to class, to listen to lectures and to learn, but since then I've been growing more and more indifferent to my studies. This year, more than anything else, I just tried to "get through", which is not what I want from my university experience! Even though it's a lot of extra effort/hassle on my part, and on the part of my family (my dad's picking me up from class every week), I think it's worth it to feel this happy about learning again! And I've NEVER EVER started a project this immediately before, so that tells you something too!
And I'm such a nerd, I've been thinking about starting a Yahoo group and/or website for the class, just because! *shakes head* How much nerdier can you get? If I actually through with it (and I probably will), I just hope the instructors don't think I'm trying to suck up or anything--I really am that excited about the class.
Oh, and Calgary and Tampa are both up (3-2) in their respective series again! Hooray! Let's hope they both close out their opponents next game! No suspense/dramatics, please!! =P
Best wishes and good luck to Ken Dryden in his run for Liberal candidate in the federal election for the York Centre riding. If I was in that riding, I would vote for him! Not just because of his hockey tie, but because I greatly respect his intelligence and character.
And if you read his "Letter to All Leafs Fans", you probably could see this coming from me, but I like him even more after reading this (in his letter): "We have had some crushing moments these last seven years; we've had some great moments. [...] We've had the chance to watch Tomas Kaberle...emerge out of nowhere..." =P You all know how much I "love" people who appreciate Kaberle! ^_~
Anyway, I'm dead tired--from work and class and not getting enough sleep Sunday night--so I'm off! Calgary's currently up 2-0 against the Sharks, so they'd better not blow it!
Oh, and speaking of my class, I might be able to buy tickets to a World Cup Team Czech game from one of my classmates!! Score!
I've been at it again! Ordered the 2002 NHL All-Star World and the 2004 NHL All-Star Western Conference jerseys, both size Youth L/XL from River City Sports. ^^;; In my own defense, the 2002 jersey was on sale for $34.99, and I have been planning on getting the 2004 one for a while now! Maybe not this early, but I was afraid that the 2002 jerseys would be sold out if I didn't act fast, and I didn't want to pay shipping to River City Sports twice, so... And I do have the money in hand--$100 in my PC account currently, $17 in assorted rolled coins, and almost $50 in toonies, to bring me almost exactly upto the $163.28 I paid...
*sigh* Yeah, I realize that if I feel the need to spend this much time explaining myself, it's probably because I feel kind of guilty. But I don't regret the decision. I found out that the 2002 jersey was on sale yesterday, so I did wait a full 24hr. before making the decision to buy. I would've kicked myself if I missed out.
Anyway, that isn't exactly the end of it. I also made an impulse purchase today at Untouchables. At first I was just planning on picking up a pack or two, but then I saw that they had a couple of boxes of 1999-2000 UD Gold Reserve for only $34.99 and I decided to get one. Again, I don't regret it, but I think I might when the time to pay my Visa bill rolls around. ^^;; Not that I paid for it on credit (I used my debit card), but when the end of the month comes and I have to pay my bill for April, I'm probably going to wish I had that almost $40 to spare. Oh why oh why am I so spendthrifty?
In other news, darn San Jose beat Calgary! I don't know who to be mad at, the Sharks for winning, or the Flames for losing!! Dang! Both conference finals are split 2-2, so it's not looking so great for my second choice match-up (Calgary-Tampa). xP Stupid Sharks. Stupid Flyers.
Everytime I go off to the States I am reminded of one major reason I love Canada so much: hockey coverage. If you're in a state that doesn't have an NHL team, chances are you get little to no hockey coverage anywhere--tv, newspapers, radio, etc. Even in hockey cities, coverage is spotty at best. (When I went to Denver, ESPN had maybe 30s of hockey throughout the entire half hour segment, while basketball, golf, Nascar, etc. got at least 5min each, and baseball took up the rest of the time. It certaintly didn't help that the A-Rod trade happened while we there, so we didn't hear the end of it).
So yeah, the entire four days I was in Pennsylvannia I had no idea what was going on with the playoffs! The bookstore I went into didn't have a single hockey book in the sports section either! But they had tons of books on baseball, stock car racing, golf, and even hunting/gun stuff!!
It was SUCH a relief to come home to my NHL network! Not just that, but I'm pretty sure it's only in Canada that you could open up the sports section and see hockey on the front page, and have the first two inside pages all about hockey when the local team has already been eliminated from the playoffs. It's so great! I'd definitely die in the US if I had to rely soley on the internet for my hockey fix--I need hockey to be everywhere and in everything!
Anyway, Hockey Canada announced its roster for the World Cup of Hockey today. Unfortunately I was teaching at 11am when it was being broadcast on TSN, but at any rate, I don't suppose it could have been that exciting. =P So here's the list, in alpha order by position:
Goalies:
Ed Belfour
Martin Brodeur
Roberto Luongo
Defence:
Rob Blake
Eric Brewer
Adam Foote
Ed Jovanovski
Scott Niedermayer
Christ Pronger
Wade Redden
Robyn Regehr
Forwards:
Shane Doan
Kris Draper
Simon Gagne
Dany Heatley
Jarome Iginla
Mario Lemieux
Kirk Malty
Patrick Marleau
Brendan Morrow
Brad Richards
Martin St. Louis
Joe Sakic
Ryan Smyth
Joe Thornton
Steve Yzerman
The biggest surprises to me are Belfour and Gagne. I mean, I thought that they'd go for Theodore. Maybe they just wanted to have more experience on the roster? I mean, Belfour's age and wonky bench probably won't be much of a problem as I expect him to be the healthy scratch out of the goalies. And he must've proved himself a wiling and reliable third goalie in Salt Lake, whereas Theodore, being young, might reasonably expect to be dressed? *shrug*
Gagne also seems a weird pick to me because he hasn't exactly been excellent in seasons following Salt Lake, as far as I can recall. I had him in the hockey pool last year, and up to and even after I traded him, he never really produced up to expectations. I would've thought Tanguay to be a more likley choice... But hey, who am I to argue with Wayne Gretzky? =P
It's too bad they decided not to save a spot for Bertuzzi, but it's perfectly understandable that they wouldn't want to deal with all the fuss naming him to the Team would cause. All in all though, I've got to say that we've got an amazing group of guys to represent us in the World Cup. ^_^ It's going to be great!
Woohoo! This HHOF Presents class feels like it's going to be a lot of fun! Our co-instructors are Kevin Shea (who co-wrote Ron Ellis' bio, "Over the Boards" along with several other books), and Phil Pritchard, the HHOF Vice-President, Hockey Operations and Curator, who also starred in the Mastercard Stanley Cup commercial! =P They're pretty fun! Plus we get guest speakers and video clips every week! Oh, and our last week of class we have a trip to the HHOF--nothing new to me, but it's still fun!
So yes, I'm really excited about this course, and I'm glad I took it! Even though I absolutely HATED the driving! The traffic was horrible! I left my house around 5:20pm and arrived at Seneca around 6:35pm. @_@ Coming home it only took me about 35min! Anyway, I suppose objectively it isn't that bad of a drive, but I really hate driving--it stresses me out! I started the class with a major headache thanks to the drive up, and I got home with another major headache thanks to the ride back. ^^;; On the bright side, I didn't get lost. Anyway, I'm really grateful that my dad is going to pick me up from class from now on, so I can just take the transit down instead! It'll take a bit longer to get there by transit, but it'll be a lot less stressful!
Anyway, I'm off to Pennsylvania until Friday (family trip) so you probably won't hear from me until Sat.! ^_^ I'm so excited about the class, I'm even bringing books to prepare for next week's topic--the formation of the NHL, etc.--even though it's not necessary to read up beforehand! ^_^ SO exciting! Learning is fun once again!
[Edit: How is it possible that Philly scored SIX goals and neither Zhamnov nor Johnsson got any points?!? Man, I SUCK at picking players for pools!]
Happy Mother's Day, especially to the moms of the Team Canada players! That's right, our boys have done it again! Bringing home the gold medals in an exctiing 5-3 game against Sweden! ^_^ It was really exciting to watch! When Sweden was up 2-0, I was a little worried, but I knew they'd pull through and come back to tie! Actually, I was half expecting an exact repeat of last year, with the Canucks winning in OT, but thankfully they didn't make it that dramatic, and were sitting on comfortable 2-goal lead for half of the last period.
But yes, major congrats to Dany Heatley! Tournament MVP, and Best Forward! After everything he's gone through this past year, everything must seem so much the sweeter. Yay for Louie for keeping the team alive when they were down 2-0! Twenty-eight saves out of 31 shots is no small accomplishment, especially considering the calibre of the Swedish team! And yay for the Niedermayers! Isn't it great that the two brothers were able to play together and win gold together? Their mother must feel like this is the best Mother's Day ever!! ^_^
So once again, congrats to our boys! ^_^ Yay Canada! I can't wait for the World Cup!
Good food, friendly service, and excellent taste in hockey players!!! My new favourite restaurant!
I'm such a nerd! This was in those little stand things on the tables, and I actually asked the waitress if I could take it (the insert, not the entire stand) home! She probably thought I was insane! But definitely, next year I'm going at least once to the Muddy Duck during the playoffs!! ^_^ With my Kaberle jersey, of course.
So anyway, David Nonis is the new Canucks GM, with Tambellini as his right-hand man. *shrug* I don't know anything about Nonis, so I guess I'll reserve judgement until I see him in action. Still, I rather thought Tambellini would've been a good choice, considering his experience with Team Canada. *shrug* But again, I don't know the players involved well enough to comment.
Quinn will be back coaching the Leafs next year, which I think is smart. He's a good coach, and I like him. So yay for that.
And yay for Dany Heatley with the OT winner for Canada in the World Championships! I can't believe Canada had to come back so many times!! They really know how to make things hard on themselves, huh? But anyway, we did beat Finland, so now it's onto Slovakia!! They're not going to be a walk in the park either, with big names like Chara, Gaborik, Satan, Demitra, Hossa and recognizables like Stumpel, Petrovicky, and Orszagh. Oh, and cool! Their GM is Peter Stastny, and Robert Svehla is an assistant coach! But I have faith in our men!! Go Team Canada!! I really hope they end up facing Sweden in the finals! That'd be great! ^_^
Ah, and it's cool that the IIHF was flexible enough to allow Forsberg to take number 21, even though Jorgen Jonsson was originally wearing it, and "IIHF regulations prohibit players from finishing the World Championship with numbers other than they started with" (from the IHWC.net site).
For the second year in a row, the Leafs and Avs were eliminated on the very same night. *SIGH* It wasn't quite as depressing this year though, because even though I was trying to be optimistic, I was fairly prepared for both of them to lose--although I DID think the Leafs would manage to push it to game seven.
What to say? Well, sadly I can say that I rather predicted how things would work out. In the first period when I saw the Leafs start off so strong without getting any goals, I said something along the lines of "I have a bad feeling about this. This is going to be like Ottawa. The Leafs dominate in the first half of the first but don't get any goals, and then they suffer major defensive breakdowns in the second half of the period, get owned and let in a couple of goals." And what happens? Right around the halfway mark, the Flyers get a goal from mistakes from Pilar and Kaberle. ^^;; Unfortunately I know my team too well.
But the bright side of the game was that after that bad goal, Kaberle really got it together and played extremely well for the rest of the game. Okay, so there was one other memorable bad moment when he coughed up the puck and Belfour had to save him from being responsible for two goals against, but other than that, he was excellent. He created a fair share of scoring chances and was good in the defensive zone too. ^_^ I was very proud of my Kaberle!
McCabe on the other hand, I really don't know what happened to him. After the second Flyer goal (which was partly McCabe's bad, if I recall correctly) it didn't really seem like he was able to pick himself back up. Yeah, I really don't know what was wrong with him and Leetch that game, but they didn't really seem totally with it.
Anyway, I didn't really think about it at the time, but after hearing Pat Quinn's comments, I am wondering why the Leafs were so impatient. I mean, there was no need to be playing with so little concern for defense as to be giving up those odd man rushes. It was an impressive way to go out--lots of chances on either side--but I would rather have watched a more conservative OT period, or periods with the Leafs winning! *shakes head* Ah well. Guess it just wasn't meant to be. At least the Leafs DID play well, unlike my other team.
Now THAT was disappointing. Even when they were down 3-0, they didn't seem to have any energy. There really wasn't much pretty about that game. I was tempted to not even bother watching the end, but I felt I owed it to them as a loyal fan to see them through to the bitter end. *sigh*
Again, on the bright side, the Avs weren't swept, and they did demonstrate quite a bit of character pulling off those two wins to keep them alive up to game six. So good for them!
In other news, I'm upset that Team USA beat Team Czech!!! BOOOOOOO! >_< Anyway, Sweden is playing them in the semis, so I really hope that they (Sweden) crush them (US). =P Not that I really have anything against Team USA, I just wanted to see Team Czech and Team Canada meet in the finals! Oh well, Sweden and Canada would be great too. Of course I'm just assuming here that Canada will be beat Finland, which actually isn't a sure thing. I just have faith in my team, I guess.
But back to the NHL playoffs, Calgary all the way now! As Canada's only hope for the Finals, and because I hold grudges, I really hope the Flames down the Sharks in four or five games! Kill them! I know Colorado really beat themsevles, but I still don't forgive the Sharks. xP Same idea for Tampa! If Calgary doens't win the Cup, my next choice is Tampa! In this case, it's not only anti-Flyers sentiment, but the fact that I like St. Louis and Tortorella, so I'd like to see their hard work get rewarded. Down with those who defeated my teams! Die!!!
Well, it's unsurprising, but nonetheless, it's disappointing that the Canucks' upper management has formally announced their decision to NOT renew GM Brian Burke's contract (i.e., they fired him). You look at what Burke started with (a team that finished with a pathetic 58 points in a full regular season, and, according to the Sportsnet guys--Nick Kypreos, Bill Watters, etc.--was losing something like $36M) and where the Canucks are now (over 100 points, and their first division title in something like 11 years, and 80-something consecutive sellouts or something like that) and you've really got to wonder what's going on in their heads. Not just that, but he's a guy who really supports and stands up for his players, so I think it really is a big loss for the team.
And I don't think the Canucks' playoff performance had anything to do with the decision either. I think they basically had their minds made up when they extended Crawford's contract for 3 years during the season and didn't do anything about Burke's. The fact that the Canucks lost in the first round might've just made it easier for the management to make the announcement.
Ay any rate, Burke's too good a GM to be sitting around without a contract with an NHL team, so I'm sure he'll be back in the league soon. *shrug* The Canucks' loss is another team's gain.
In other news, the Czech Republic beat Canada 6-2 in the World Championships today, which means that they'll be facing the US in the quarter-finals, and Canada will play Finland. I watched a couple of minutes of the game, and I've got to admit (a bit ashamedly) that I was more excited to be seeing (Frantisek) Kaberle playing for Team Czech than I was to be seeing my own team. =P And, to make a full confession, when I remembered that the game was on today, my first thought was that I should've worn my Team Czech jersey!! ^^;; But I'm truly for Team Canada all the way, really!
Ah! I'm really excited about the World Cup of Hockey! I wanna see "my" Kaberle representing his country! And I'm excited to see what Team Canada will be like, of course. Wonder if Bettman or whoever's in charge of such decisions would let Bertuzzi play? It'd be nice to see...
I'm glad I couldn't watch the game. My family left to visit my aunt in Scarborough right around when the game started, so I only got to hear it on the radio, and that was bad enough. ^^;; I can't believe they played so poorly. The only good thing about this is that it happened in game five, and not in game six or seven, so it leaves the Leafs with an opportunity to bounce back, and to get momentum for game seven. Esche got injured too, so I can't help but wonder if the Leafs might have an easier time with Burke, should he end up starting game six...
The other consolation I have is that Kaberle (along with Klee and Domi) managed to have an even +/-, which is amazing considering that the team total +/- was -29!!! @_@ Not only that, but Kaberle assisted on Nieuwendyk's goal, so that means my Kaberle Go Kids Go! Leafs Fund contribution is now up to $40. ^_^ Gotta find my happiness where I can after a game like that.
Hopefully the Flyers aren't going to be to the Leafs what the Leafs are to the Sens. ^^;; But anyway, I'm pretty confident that the Leafs have enough character to pull off a solid win against Philly in game six. It's more game seven that I'm worried about...
To start it off, my Saturday students paid for their tutoring today, so that made me quite a bit richer.
Then Steph and I went downtown because she wanted to go shopping at the HHOF store! And guess what we found there? An adult SMALL TEAM SWEDEN JERSEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was so perfect! I bought it, of course! I also got a Nordiques ringer tee, and Steph got the the Canucks stick logo ringer tee. My HHOF membership saved us ~$33 today, not to mention what we saved on taxes (since they take the discount before tax)!! Sweet! I think I've paid for my membership has paid for itself more than four times over since I've used it to buy three jerseys, a toque, lots of random stuff, and to get into the HHOF for free at least three or four times! ^_^ So awesome! They should just sign me up for a lifetime membership!
So then we went to the Eaton Centre, and I was really tempted by an adult small white Foote jersey, but I figured I should refrain (if I got it, Steph might've bought a Koivu jersey, for 25% off). Then we went to Rivercity Sports, and they had a medium youth TEAM CZECH jersey!!! (Which is actually a better fit than the youth large jersey)!! ^______^ Woohoo! It's so beautiful!! I love it! Can't wait until I've saved up enough to customize it!! ^_^ Of course I'm gonna get Kaberle! Using my HHOF discount once again, it'd cost $64.39. ^_^
So, if I add that to my new Rivercity Sports (online) total of $123.04 for the Western Conference 2004 All-Star jersey (youth L/XL), my new total for to save up is $187.43! ^_^ Actually, I should probably bump that up to $287.43 since I'll also want to get my All-Star jersey customized for Sakic. Whee!!! I think I should be able to save that amount by mid-summer! ^_^ Now that I've bought my two international jerseys, I'm only going to have ~$64 left in my hockey savings account, but I've still got those loonie and toonie rolls to complete, and that'll be another $75! Plus I'm going to be starting work again in May, and I actually got a raise! ^_^ Of course I want to be saving a lot more money this year, but if I keep up with at least one of my students, it's doable!
Anyway, of course that's not all that made today perfect!!! When I was in Rivercity Sports, they had the game on, so I watched about half of the second period. Of course, at that point the Avs were down 1-0 and I was like: "The way they've been playing in this series, one goal is enough to beat them." Well, thank goodness I was wrong! Joe Sakic! Captain Clutch!! ^_^ It's kind of mean, I know, but I couldn't help thinking that if Alfredsson was more like Sundin or Sakic, he wouldn't have to promise wins, he'd just go out and get them. But I digress. I'm so happy! The Avs are proving me wrong! I really really hope they become like the third team in NHL history to come back and win a series from a 3-0 deficit! Oh, and Joe Sakic is now tied for first as the player with the most playoff OT goals!! Another credential to add to his lengthy list of milestones and honours! ^_^ Ah, it'll be great when he's in the Hall of Fame! Of course I'd rather see him play, but you know what I mean!! *sigh* I <3 Joe Sakic!!
Ah, and to top off the day, it's my parents' anniversary, so we took them out for dinner at a Chinese restaurant and had Peking duck! YUMMY! Today has just been the best day ever! I really should've been born a week later! I mean, last week, it was just pure depression surrounding my birthday, with the Avs AND Leafs both losing twice, but this week they both won twice and I got most of my jerseys!!! Oh happy day! This is definitely worth a second dance!
[Edit: Steph and I had a "fashion show" so here you can see us in our new clothes! Plus Steph's Team Canada jersey, to complete the international theme. ^_^
And our ringer tees:
Oh, and here's a pic of Steph's Canucks wall (it's kind of a parallel to my Avs wall). ^_^ The unsymmetrical part at the bottom--with the Beckham pics--is meant for the Naslund 2 figures coming out in series 10.
The top two are Naslund, the middle two are Linden (the left one is the rink/stick logo!), the two on the left (vertical) are Bertuzzi, and the two on the right are Cloutier. ^_^ Exciting, huh? Oh, and I almost forgot! Series 9 will have a Sakic 2 figure, and series 10 will have Aebby!!! I'm so excited! Unfortunately that means that the Nordiques figures are going to get replaced on my Avs wall.
Heh. Anyway, we might continue the fashion show tomorrow, so if we do, I'll post the pics here, along with my comments on the game, of course!]
