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!!
