When I got home today there was a rather large, rectangular package waiting for me. My mom, of course immediately asked "What did you buy (again)?" For once though, I didn't have anything to hide, because I really didn't order anything, and I had no idea what it was!
I took a look at the box, and although it had no return address, it said "Original Six," so I figured it was something hockey related. Anyway, I brought it into the living room and was just in the process of opening it when my dad came in, and his first question was also "What did you buy (again)?" ^^;;
Upon opening the box, I discovered a Pepsi hockey bag and a "Joy of Pepsi" t-shirt (size XXL, of course). I was totally confused as to where it could've come from. Did I enter some contest or draw recently? Was it a gift from a (very strange) secret admirer?
I called Steph down to see if she had entered a contest in my name. Of course, she hadn't. I even asked my brother if he had put in my name for something. Naturally, he hadn't either.
Finally I decided to check the junk mail folders of all my various email accounts, figuring if I won something, I must've gotten some sort of notification. Well, the first account I checked was one I hadn't logged into for a while, and right there in the inbox was an email from the HHOF Legends Club notifying me that I was a Pepsi Game Time prize winner! Mystery solved! =P
The funny thing is though, I don't think I even really played the game! I might've logged in once or something, but that's about it. Anyway, maybe winning the hockey bag was a sign that I should take up playing hockey! ^_~
Woohoo!!! I already loved the HHOF Presents class, but tonight just made me love it even more (if that was even possible) because our guest was Mike Cammalleri, from the LA Kings!
He's a really really nice guy! It's amazing how approachable, open, friendly, and down to earth he is! At the end of the class he was more than happy to sign autographs for us, and I got to take a picture with him too! (Thank goodness I started bringing my camera to every class!)
But before that, he was a really fun guest to have. To plagiarize myself (I also wrote about his guest appearance in my HHOF Presents blog (it's under "personal"), the stories he related were often amusing and always reflective of his great love for hockey.
Two of his stories really stuck in my head: how he got his jersey number, and his meeting(s) with Felix Potvin.
So yes, if you don't know (I didn't before Kevin mentioned it), Cammallari's number is 13. He got it when he first started playing hockey (age 7). The coach came into the room with a box full of jerseys and he just dumped them onto the floor. So all the kids started grabbing them and he went too, but his dad pulled him back and told him that since he was the youngest and new to the team, he should wait and take his jersey last. At the end, the jersey left sitting on the floor was number thirteen. As he put it, he didn't speak to his dad for two weeks. You see, at the time, the only player wearing number 13 was Lars Lindgren of the Vancouver Canucks, and Cammallari knew him as #1 on Don Cherry's "Rock 'Em, Sock 'Em" (or whatever it's called) video as the guy who scored on his own net! So it's not surprising that he was upset to get that number, even without all the superstition around it. But apparently he played well that year, and except for his first year with the Canadian World Junior team (the coach was superstitious and refused to let him wear it), that's been his number.
LOL. I'm sure all you BC'ers and Canucks fans love that story!
His Potvin story was that his favourite player (or favourite Leaf? same difference?) used to be Felix Potvin (he grew up around Toronto, and Potvin was with Toronto at the time). So one day when he was about 11, or thereabouts, he got to watch a practice, and afterwards he also got to choose a player to get a signed stick from. Gilmour was there at the time too, so that was tempting, but of course he went with Potvin, got the stick and put it up in his room. Fast forward to the start of his NHL career, and who is in LA but Felix Potvin! So he tells Potvin,
hey, when I was like 11 you signed a stick for me and I've still got it hanging in my room, so you should come see it or something," and Potvin's like: "you make me feel old, never bring that up again."
LOL. Cute stories, huh? Well, I thought so anyway.
At any rate, Mr. Cammalleri (I just can't break that Mr.--- habit! I feel weird calling people I don't really know by their first names! And for hockey players, when I'm talking about meeting them, it doesn't feel right to just call them by their last names either!) made such an impression on me tonight, one of the first things I did after logging on was join the Michael Cammalleri Fanlisting! ^_^
Dang it!!!!! I love Kaberle as a player, but I'm extremely irritated that he's going for arbitration. I mean, he earned $2.75M this season, and apparently a "favourable comparable" player for him would be Derek Morris who's going to be earning $3.1M next season. This is going to sound ludicrous on so many different levels, but that's a mere difference of $0.35M. Why the heck is he asking for more?
He came off a bad season (and he knows it), and his "favourable comparable" is playing for the Phoenix Coyotes, meaning that he (Morris) is probably their top D-man, meanwhile Kaberle is probably third or fourth right now on the Leafs' depth charts. Besides, in Toronto he has a chance to play with Leetch, to learn from him, and I think that's a pretty good thing.
Kaberle has said before that he'd like to stay in Toronto, so why the heck doesn't he just take a bit less in a one year contract, work really hard and prove himself deserving of a bigger, longer term contract? Is the money really that important? I mean, the team's that are spending and signing free agents right now are teams like Carolina, Florida, Phoenix--the ones who missed the playoffs by large margins last year. Sure there are benefits to playing on a developing team, but...
Now I can only hope that he and the Leafs reach an agreement before the arbitration hearings begin, because from all accounts, arbitration is a nasty process that really messes with the relationship between a player and a team. It's no good. Oh, and I hope the same thing for McCabe and Antropov, who have also chosen arbitration--although I'm even more confused by Antropov's decision to go for arbitration than Kaberle's (and McCabe's I can understand, even if I don't agree).
So yes, the Leafs' (and every other team's) schedule was posted yesterday, and the first thing I checked was whether the Avs would be coming out to the ACC this year. They are not, but the Leafs are making their first ever trip to the Pepsi Center on Dec. 27th, assuming there is a season at that point. (Ah Jello, how well you know me!!)
Naturally, the first thing I thought was: "I wonder if I'll be able to persuade my parents to fund another trip to Denver." =P Of course that's not going to happen, but hey, I can dream, right? Anyway, even though the Avs aren't coming to either Toronto OR Ottawa, they ARE going to Buffalo on Mar. 15th! That's pretty good timing, actually, since it's a Tuesday and I don't have class on Tuesdays so I can make the trip up no problem. Of course, I'll be tired going into class the next day, but it'd be worth it!
Unfortunately the Leafs will not be playing at home, but instead will be in Florida on Mar. 2nd, otherwise I would've got tickets to that game and brought a "Happy Birthday, Kaberle" sign! ^_~ The other games I want to attend are the Canucks @ Leafs game (can't remember the exact date, and too lazy to check at the moment), and the last home game of the season.
Ah, I really hope a miracle happens and a new CBA gets done so the season can go on as usual! I want to go to more games, and volunteer to sell 50/50 tickets this year!!!
Well, my new fanlistings are finally up! Big thanks to Lisa as always for hosting me! Thanks as well to Jello as well for sparking my figuring out the problems with the Francis FL image map!
Also, some url changes for all of my other fanlistings, they are now listing in this format: http://rhf.obliviousmind.net/WHATEVER with "WHATEVER" being the part that used to be before the obliviousmind.net. For example, http://avs.obliviousmind.net became http://rhf.obliviousmind.net/avs So please change any links! Hope that makes sense!
Woohoo! I can't remember if I actually ever wrote it, or just thought it, but I'm really glad that "Quenneville [is] to coach Colorado"!! He's an excellent coach, and I always thought that St. Louis was stupid to fire him! ^_^ Wow. This is the best Avs news I've heard in a long time! Okay, maybe not so long, since I was pretty happy about them re-signing Konowalchuk...
But yes, this is definitely good news! Granato wasn't an awful coach, but I wasn't particularly impressed with the way he handled Selanne, and the way that reflected on his ability to foster chemistry on the team. And let's face it, his playoff record was pretty pathetic. Again, that's not to say he was a bad coach, though. I mean, Tanguay regained his confidence under Granato, and...umm... I'm sure he did lots of other things I just can't remember at the moment!
Wait! Got one! Game two of the Avs-Stars series, for the last five minutes of the game, Granato benched Sakic, Tanguay, Forsberg, and Hejduk, and let all the other lines play instead because he knew there was no way the Stars would come back from a 5-2 deficit. I thought that was pretty smart , and nice for the players who got rewarded with that ice time as well. Of course, I don't know if it just seemed smart in comparison to my very limited knowledge of hockey coaching strategies, but let's not detract from Granato here.
Anyway, hopefully having Granato as an assistant coach with Quenneville as the coach will work really well--keeping the good of Granato, and adding all the benefits of Quenneville. ^_^
Argh! I don't know why, but the image map for my Ron Francis Fanlisting isn't working (meaning that no one can get to the "about", "join", etc. pages)!! >_< I really don't know why there's a problem considering that I basically just copy and paste my webpages! ^^;; So yes, if someone could do a "view source" on the page for me and figure out why the image map isn't working, I'd really appreciate it! Oh, and the link for the FL is francis.obliviousmind.net. Thanks in advance!
Dang it! Why is it that Berg has got a new contract worked out, but Kaberle doesn't?! Reportedly (can you even use the word that way?) the Leafs gave him a qualifying offer (along with Antropov, McCabe and Ponikarovsky), so don't tell me he's holding out for more money! You know he's my favourite Leaf, and my second favourite player overall, but I really think he should just be happy with the qualifying offer, considering that he wasn't exactly performing as well as he could/should have this past season.
Anyway, the good news is that Belfour, Roberts and Nieuwendyk are all locked up for next season. ^_^ Actually, Belfour supposedly got a multi-year deal, so I guess he'll be around for more than one season, provided his back holds out. ^^;;
So yes, things are looking good in Leafland, although I really wouldn't have minded getting rid of Berg once and for all! =P
