1.How do you celebrate when your team scores a goal?
(sent in by Bobbi)
- Umm...I usually yell: "Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!" or "Yes!!!!!!!!!" or "Woohoooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!" You get the picture. =P It's actually quite shocking for my family, I'm sure, because before hockey I rarely yelled or screamed. Even on roller coasters I usually laughed.
2. What has been your favorite fight memory?
- Well, I'm not a big fight fan, so I can't really remember the fights I've seen. I must admit though, watching Ruutu fight Pisani and Cooke taking on Laraque at the Dec. 27th Edmonton @ Vancouver game was kind of fun. =P
3. Have you ever met an NHL player? If so, describe.
(sent in by Cerasi)
- Yes, yes I have! Not the ones who really count (sorry guys), but here's hoping! Anyway, I've written quite a bit about my experiences in the past, so simply click on the links for the full story:
- Ron Ellis: at the Hockey Hall of Fame signing for his book "Over the Boards"
- Darryl Sittler and Wendel Clark: at an ACC signing
- Phil Esposito: at the BCE Place Coles signing for his book "Thunder and Lightning"
- Ken Dryden: at the First Canadian Place Coles signing for the 20th anniversary edition of his book "The Game"
- Matt Stajan: at an ACC signing
Stajan is the only one of the players I've met who is currently playing in the NHL! =P Hopefully this will be different after Colorado, however. MUST MEET SAKIC! MUST MEET SAKIC!! I would be ecstatic if I could meet Forsberg as well, but if I had to choose only one, of course it would be Burnaby Joe! And I've yet to visit the Yellow Griffen so I can "stalk" Kaberle. =P
4. [Would] you rather watch a game at home or in a restaurant?
Um...That depends, I think. For playoffs the atmosphere in a pub/sports bar is really great. It makes it fun and exciting enough to make up for the fact that you come home smelling like smoke. xP But in general, I like to watch from the comfort of my own home, where I have the bathroom breaks perfectly timed for commercials, where snacks and drinks are both plentiful and free, and where I don't feel embarrassed about my yelling and constant commentary/comments directed at the tv. =P
My friend Anthony has connections so he was able to get 3 gold tickets! The scary thing is that they cost almost as much as my Colorado game tickets (that's AFTER the conversion), and they're not as close! I'm going with my friends Huston and Ivy. Ivy is also an Avs fan. She got a Kariya jersey for her birthday, so I'll have some company in the sea of blue. =P I'm SO EXCITED!!!!! That makes it five games for me this year! Two in Toronto, two in Vancouver, and one in Colorado!! I can't wait for Colorado either! It's less than a month away!!!!
What else? Oh yeah, Lisa and Jello are going to be watching their first live games ever in February!! Hooray! Take lots of pictures, okay guys? ^_~
Speaking of pictures, I finally uploading my Avs @ Canucks game photos! You can check them out here. Remember, you've got to have an Imagestation membership even to view images, but it's totally free! ^_^
What else? Oh yes, since Kaberle came back, he's been on a 3-game point streak!! Yay!! My dream of him returning back in form seems to be coming true!!! ^_^
Oh, and these are really late, but here's this week's Forecheck Four:
1. What are your opinions on Jeremy Roenick's suspension and his rants about the officiating?
(sent in by Eva)
- Hmm...Well, I can see why the league would hand out the suspension, but I can also understand where he's coming from. Meh. I kind of tuned out on most of his comments though, so I can't really say much.
2. Do you think Mario Lemieux should retire himself? Why?
(sent in by Jowelle)
- Well, it's always nice to retire not because you have to but because you chose to. Then again, it's also nice to go out in a blaze of glory, so if that's what Lemieux's after, he might be an old geezer before his team is able to support him enough for that. ^^;; Anyway, I think that if he evaluates things after this season and he feels healthy, he should give it a try, and at least leave the possibility of ending on a good note (i.e. after playing).
3. Do you think the Penguins should be moved to Winnipeg? Why/ why not?
(sent in by Astrid)
- Eh? Why? I don't think the market there would be any better. I think the best thing possible would be to just let the club fold and not try to move it anywhere if it can't survive. I agree with the opinion that downsizing the league would help improve things (see this week's Hockey News).
Ah! In other random news, I won two boxes of Czech Republic hockey cards from 1997-1998!! ^_^ Cool, ne? Chances are I'm not going to recognize anyone, but I'm hopeful that I'll get something cool--like a Kaberle insert or something! =P
BOOYAH!!! Who came back from an injury, got an assist, a couple of shots on goal, played extremely well defensively and was named first star? KABERLE!!!!!!!
Thank goodness I decided to watch the game, even though I was supposed to be reading 4 chapters from Tale of Genji (I got 1 1/2 done during commercial breaks and intermissions), plus a short story collection for tomorrow, but oh well. =P It was SO worth it!
I haven't seen Kaberle play so well in a long time--and I don't mean because he was injured. Even the TSN commentators noticed it! He got three compliments for good plays tonight, plus they snagged him for the interview after the second period!! ^___________^ Yes, I definitely got my fill of Kaberle for tonight.
Oh, and not only did I get to watch him play tonight, I also got five more cards in the mail today! Well, seven actually, but two of them were doubles. It's funny because I bought the lot thinking I would only get 3 new cards, but when I got them I noticed that two of the cards I thought would be doubles weren't because the cards I had in my collection were parallels! Not bad, huh? All in all, a great day for me! Ah, all my fatigue from school has been washed away watching the Leafs and Kaberle play!
Woohoo!!!!!!!!!! Thank you thank you thank you TSN for broadcasting the Dallas @ Colorado game tonight!!! It was AWESOME!!!! The speed of that game was just incredible, and of course, Dallas was soundly trounced 4-1 by the Avs!! I'm SOOOOOOOOOO happy I got to watch that!
Hinote's goal was cool!! He gloved down a pass from Nikolishin that was about four feet in the air, right to his stick and shot it just under Turco's left pad! Sweeeeeeeet!! Good for Hinote!! Ha ha ha! The Stars thought they could succeed just by shutting down the top two lines (and up to that point they were pretty successful at it) so then of course the fourth line scores! Ha.
And Forsberg was a force tonight! His first goal of the game was classic! He came around from behind the net and just outmuscled the Star player. Of course, he was lucky that the puck hit the Star's skate, but still, he created his own luck by forcing his way to the net. Heh. And Forsberg's second, well, that was just too easy. Poor Zubov. He really should know better than to try to take on Forsberg.
Larsen's goal was nice too. It looked like it did a curve or something. Plus it was especially impressive since his face was all bloody from getting a puck in the face.
What else? You know how I've never really been much of a Kariya fan? Well, after watching him on the PK, I'm definitely starting to appreciate his skills. He's SO fast, it's amazing! His shorthanded chance had me standing up yelling "how did that NOT go in?!" *shakes head* Man, I'd love to see more footage of his glory days with Selanne. I never really saw it for myself before, but he's just so good.
Speaking of Kariya, I mentioned that I got my Avs Better Halves planner, right? Well, There's a Valerie Dawson wearing his jersey in the "Better Halves" photo, so too bad for all those hopeful fangirls out there! It's kind of funny though, because I always assumed that the "Better Halves" were all wives, but I guess it's just significant others? Unless I'm totally clueless and Kariya is indeed married. *shrug* Not the type of thing I really pay attention to anyway.
But yes, back to the game. The only mar on the game was that Aebischer didn't get his shut out. xP You could see it coming too, when Foote lost his glove and stick and the Avs didn't manage to clear it within like 5 seconds of that. Ah well, he played extremely well tonight, and I guess that's what mattered.
Whew. That game was a lot of fun. I haven't yelled like that in a long time! ^_^ I can't wait until we're in Colorado!! We'll be watching the game in one month!! Crazy! It's coming up so fast, it's so exciting!
Ah, in other hockey news, today was an absolutely insane eBay day for me. Two sellers had mega auction listings, like 7-20 pages worth, and all of them started really cheap, so I just bought and bought and bought! But the cool thing is I'm not actually spending all that much! For 30 auctions won ( >50 cards since some of the auctions were lots of cards), I'm paying just under $25 US, before shipping and handling. And since the majority of my purchases were from two sellers, I'll be able to combine shipping, so my total costs aren't going to be all that high at all. ^________^
Yes, I feel very satisfied today. Especially since two more of my Kaberle cards came in the mail, bringing my count up to almost 50!! Life is good in hockeyland.
Now if only Kaberle would come back, everything'd be perfect! ^_~
Good hockey day again for me! My Avs Better Halves planner finally came!! The final cost actually ended up being ridiculously expensive, though. ^^;; I paid $28 US for the planner ($20 + $8s/h) which was fine, but then I had some UPS brokerage fees that I had to pay as well?!? Stupid US postal service! That was another $22 (CDN). @_@ So, after everything, the planner ended up being almost $60 CDN!!! I must be crazy, because I'm still extremely happy with it.
My 6 Czech Kaberle cards also arrived today!! I now have...45 Kaberle cards, plus 2-3 Kaberle jersey cards! Woohoo! ^_^ Very exciting! Of course I like all of my cards, but I'm especially pleased with the 12 Czech cards I have, and his All-Star jersey card. I even have a parallel Czech card! Thank goodness for eBay, because I'd have had a heck of a time trying to find all these cards in stores or at the sportscard expos... Did I mention that when I went in October, one guy was like "Kaberle? Is he a Leaf player?" @_@ Che! Of course, he was from Montreal, so I guess he can be excused?
What else? OH, I really lucked out (for once) in our girls' hockey pool today! I have Hackett, Boucher, and Turco as goalies, and ALL of them were playing tonight. So I had a bit of a debate as to who to play. Hackett was against Philly, Boucher against Vancouver, and Turco against San Jose. My initial instinct was to play Turco even though I don't like him and I don't have much faith in the Stars, because, well, they're playing San Jose, and Turco's play has picked up since the start of the season. It seemed the safest thing since Philly hasn't been playing well, and Buffalo, even though it's still not thought too highly of, has been playing quite well of late. Boucher's been streaking, but Vancouver doesn't take THAT many shots, and historically the Coyotes have sucked against the Canucks. So yes, I played Turco and resisted the temptation to second guess myself. Thank goodness I did!
Hackett let in 6/25 shots against Buffalo, and Boucher let in 3/16 against Vancouver. As I'm writing the Dallas game is still going on, but so far it's 2-0 for the Stars. Unfortunately San Jose isn't much of a shooting team (only 11 shots), so if Turco slips up it's going to hurt, but at least I still have the hope of a win, which I wouldn't have right now had I played either Hackett or Boucher. ^^;; I wonder if Burke is going to get to start again after tonight? Unless Boucher played absolutely horribly, I don't think one less than stellar game will erase the confidence gained from his crazy shut out streak. I think he's probably earned himself the starting position, especially since Burke's play has been quite disappointing so far this season.
Ah, and to cap off my day, both the Avs and the Leafs won!!! ^_^ Woohoo!
[edit: Update! I finally started posting some of my game pics on ImageStation, so if you're interested, take a look here: http://www.imagestation.com/members/Presea. For the Avs game, only the pre-game stuff is up. Hopefully I'll have some time to post it tomorrow. Oh, and if you haven't used it before, to view the albums you need to register with ImageStation, but no worries, it's free!]
Well, I was officially registered for Seneca's Hockey Hall of Fame Course for one day--today. *sigh* I'm feeling a little sad. It was my own decision to withdraw from the course, but dang it! I really wanted to go for it! They'd better offer it again, or I'm going to kick myself!
While I was sitting around and organizing my hockey cards--instead of doing homework--last night, I realized that I'm having a hard enough time getting my school work done with five courses at U of T, so it'd be academic suicide for me to take another course, especially when it's just for fun and one that I'm really interested in! I'd probably end up spending all of my time preparing for or thinking about that course and end up failing everything else. As lackadaisical as I've become about school work, I still care enough to not want to totally flunk. Well, that and I need to cut down on my spending, so even though I would have considered it $200 well-spent, $200 not spent is even better.
*sigh* At least my mom said she'd pay for the $25 admin fee I still have to give to Seneca, which is nice of her since I didn't ask, and I was just planning on paying for it myself.
If you look at the time, I'm sure you'll note that I SHOULD be sleeping right now, but I'm not because I'm an idiot. Instead, I'm going to answer the Forecheck Four for this week:
1. Who do you think [does] not deserve to be a starter in the East? Who should have been one instead?
- Eh, for the most part I was okay with the Eastern starters. I was a bit surprised that Gonchar didn't get that many votes, although I suppose that's understandable considering Washington's play so far this year.
2. Who do you think [does] not deserve to be a starter in the West? Who should have been one instead?
- I've ranted about this enough for people to know that I think Mr. -19 Modano was the dumbest choice for a starter, ever. I mean, Blake had more points than him, and he's a defenseman! And there were SO many other players who deserved to be starting center instead: Forsberg and Sakic were the best candidates, in my opinion, and even Yzerman or Demitra would've been understandable. People are really retarded, though, I mean, Jason Allison got the fifth most votes, and how much has he played this season? Oh, and I didn't really think Lidstrom or Guerin were all that great choices either--their play definitely hasn't been all that stellar/outstanding this season. I think Jovo should've been on D, and Naslund or Palffy as the second winger.
3. How would you fix this whole "fan voting" system? Got any ideas?
- I dunno...I think the main thing is that I wouldn't have the starting lineup determined by fans at all, simply because it's the starters that get the glory, so I think they should deserve it. Then again, it wouldn't be as fun to vote for the second line or something, so I guess that'd be a problem. Oh, I think I'd definitely put something in to prevent people from voting for players who haven't played all season, because that's just ridiculous.
4. Name some players that you think will be named to the All-Stars teams.
- Forsberg, Sakic, Datsyuk, McCabe maybe, or Sundin, I think it'd be nice for Zidlicky to get a nod too...Maybe Boucher..It's a bit hard for me to guess, since some of the truly outstanding players I can think of are injured, like Palffy and Kiprusoff.
So that's done. Quickly now, before I sleep, Jello has joined the Blueliners' Crew as McCabe. Ever since I started liking Kaberle I've had to remind myself that when I first started watching hockey, I liked McCabe (largely as a result of reading all of Rosie DiManno's butt-checking articles), so I shouldn't dislike him now just because I see him as Kaberle's competition for recognition/status on the Leafs. =P
What else? Oh, I finally got my pictures back on Friday, the ones with Phil Esposito, Ken Dryden, Matt Stajan, and the Hockey Hall of Fame!! ^_____^ And today I scanned in the Stajan one and enlarged, cropped, and printed it so that I could put a closer/better picture in my Leafs frame! It looks pretty good, if I do say so myself. Maybe when I've stopped being lazy, I'll take a picture of it to post.
Speaking of pictures, I really should have taken pictures of my room while it was clean! It was only clean on Christmas eve! ^^;; Once I started getting gifts and stuff, it started getting messy again, and I haven't had a chance to clean it thoroughly again since! Boo! I especially want to photograph the walls around my bed, because I've got my No Ordinary Joe poster, Avalanche McFarlane figures, Avs/Nordiques hats, and Stajan signed jersey up! Plus you can see my Leafs body pillow and comforter, my Avalanche and Leafs teddy bears, and Mashimaro wearing a Leafs' tuque! Slowly but surely, my room is being taken over by hockey! I still have a lot of anime stuff around though, so the mix is rather interesting, at least to my mind. But yes, I'm going to be SO dead tomorrow, so I'm off!
Woohoo!! Avs 4-2!! Turco had a lovely, what .749 or something along those lines? Mwa ha ha ha ha ha!!!!! Yes, I'm evil.
Thanks for all the comments on my All-Star post, by the way, guys! It made me feel so loved! ^_~ Just to clarify my position, I don't think Turco is a bad choice as a starter, even though I really dislike him. Of course, his performance tonight didn't really help support his case. =P Mwa ha ha ha ha!!! Anyway, enough of the gloating.
Today was an AMAZING day for hockey! I went to Untouchables because I felt the urge to buy another pack of UD Trilogy cards, even though they're quite pricey ($35/pack). I figured they might be sold out again, and if they were, I'd take that as a sign I wasn't meant to buy anymore. Another thing I wanted to buy was a box of Ultra Pro pages (to put my player set cards in a binder), so at the very least the trip wouldn't be a waste. So yes, I went in and there were 2 packs left in the box, one on the left side and one on the right. I took the one on the right plus my Ultra Pro pages and left.
I stopped outside the store to open my pack, however, and was immensely pleased to find a Marcel Dionne signature card!!! It's really bad, but I was so shocked, I actually dropped the signature card! ^^;; Luckily it didn't seem too damaged by the fall, and it didn't fall into someone's wet footprint or anything, so I was lucky. Also, the base cards included Bobby Orr, "Mr. Hockey" and Owen Nolan! Sweet! Well, after my success, I figured, what the heck, I might as well buy the last pack! So I went back and the guy offered to open a new box for me, since he'd have to anyway, so I took the pack in the middle of the right side. I also bought the Sakic and Yzerman 2003-04 SPX singles, since they were pretty and I knew I probably wouldn't bother buying packs of the SPX.
After paying I was about to walk out when I noticed that they had Forsberg figures. I was like, oh, they still have such old figures (he was from series 1)? Then it clicked and I looked again, and sure enough, series 7 was out!! So I looked kind of ditzy, but I went back to the register a third time to pick up the Forsberg, Hejduk, Giguere, and Bertuzzi (for Steph) figures!
As I was leaving, I thought, what the heck, I might as well open my Trilogy pack, and I looked in and....! Just from looking at the tops of the cards I knew right away that I had a jersey card and not one of those stupid decoys!!! Yes!! Turns out it was an Ilya Kovalchuk PATCH card!!! Woohoo!!! I LOVE the patch cards! I even bid on the Sakic one (it has the Nordiques patch) on eBay, but I wasn't willing to spend enough, plus I wasn't able to bid at the last moment (the auction ended while I was at school) so I didn't win. Anyway, even though I'm not a big Kovalchuk fan, I'm so excited to actually own one of the Trilogy patch cards!!
Amazing! I'm so hooked on these cards! If I could afford it, I would buy a box! Unfortunately, that's >$200 +tax that I don't/won't spend on a single box of cards, so no go...Although, I WAS planning on buying two boxes of Between the Pipes, and apparently they're not coming out this year, so I could justify a box as a substitute, but...Dang it! I need to control my spending! I'm making so much money this year by working part time, and my school savings haven't grown at all! Must be more disciplined...
EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!! I'm so disgusted with the All-Star starters, I don't think I'm even going to bother watching the game. New Jersey and Dallas fans must have totally flooded the ballots. Gross. I think they should make the All-Star team like the World Idol competition, so that people can't vote for their local teams.
Okay, so the east (and hence the Devil votes) weren't that bad, but the Stars have totally SUCKED this year and are only starting to recover now, so it's an absolute mockery that Modano, Guerin, and Turco are all starters. Okay, so personal dislike aside, Turco isn't that bad a choice, but Modano? Mr. -19 so far this season? NO WAY. Forsberg should have won that one, hands down. Guerin hasn't been bad, but he hasn't exactly been stellar either. So yes, I guess the thing I'm most cheesed off about is Modano over Forsberg. That's just plain retarded.
Che. I wonder why I even bothered voting for real--as in voting for players I actually considered actual All-Star material rather than for just my favourites. Okay, so Kaberle was an exception.
Ew. Ew. Ew. Ew. Ew. Next year I'm definitely making sure I vote everyday so that at least I can say that I did my part to prevent such a disgusting starting All-Star team. Ew. Ew. Ew. Ew. Ew.
[edit: Dang, I hope Colorado CREAMS the Stars on Saturday! Absolutely pulverizes them!]
I've always liked Forsberg, but now he's definitely contending with Stevie Y for third favourite player! How can you NOT love a guy who gives so much to the community? (For more details, read this article) Now I really want to get my white Nordiques jersey customized with Forsberg...Or if I can find a youth sized Sweden jersey, that'd be cool!
1. The heritage classic in Edmonton was a huge success. There's talk now of Toronto, Ottawa and Calgary... doing the same thing. Would it be a good idea? Or is one time enough?
(sent in by Sasha)
- I don't think they should hold another outdoor game if the sole purpose is to use it as a mere marketing ploy. Edmonton held the heritage classic to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Oilers, so any other team wanting to do the same would have to have something equally special to celebrate. Even with some special occasion in mind, I'd be iffy about holding the event someplace other than Edmonton, it just doesn't seem right some how--especially for Ottawa, which doesn't exactly have the same length of NHL heritage or glory as Edmonton...It might be okay for Montreal though, since they have a similar mystique...Toronto I'd say no though, because the current state of the team doesn't lend itself to the same nostalgic feeling, if you know what I mean? So, to get to the point, I don't think they should do it again until Edmonton's 50th, or even 75th anniversary. =P
2. Which NHL annual event (other than the Cup final) do consider "must see" on TV? (All Stars weekend, entry draft, Awards night...etc.)
- The only thing I make a real point of watching (and taping) is the NHL Awards, and the Toronto-Colorado game. I like to watch the All-Star stuff, and I'll even arrange my schedule to accomodate it, but if I had something really pressing that made me miss the All-Star stuff, it wouldn't be that big of a disappointment. I actually like the skills competition more than the actual All-Star game, actually.
3. Which team do you consider the biggest disappointment so far?
- Edmonton. I mean, yes, ever since last year I've believed that Salo sucks, but I thought that the team was skilled enough to make up for that. So far, Edmonton is the biggest obstacle to having all six Canadian teams make the playoffs, which is pretty weird considering Montreal and Calgary would make the playoffs in the current standings, and I didn't really have any expectations of them whatsoever.
4. What do you REALLY think of the overtime loss rule? Do you think they should keep it?
(sent in by Sam)
- Um, I'd say I'm pretty indifferent. I've read some articles discussing whether or not the overtime loss rule actually reduces tied games (which is what it was designed for, I believe) but in the end, it doesn't really matter to me. I don't mind seeing a tied game, even a 0-0 tied game if it was well played and hard fought. I don't like it when teams give up and play just for the tie, but eliminating the overtime loss rule wouldn't necessarily fix that, in my opinion. Plus, when teams come back from huge deficits to tie they really deserve that one point, so why begrudge them for it?
Okay, so that's done!
Oh, I was really amused today! I received my card from the Be a Player Between the Pipes He Shoots-He Saves redemption program today, and guess who it was? IRBE!! LOL I know I should be disappointed because the whole idea of the redemption card being really special and valuable doesn't work when the card is of Irbe, but what can I say? I still like him, even if he's no longer an NHLer. Besides, it comes in a cool case. =P
What else? Oh, my mother was appalled that I actually bought a pack of Upper Deck Trilogy cards yesterday. For those who don't know, Trilogy is pretty high end, a box costs two hundred something, and a single pack is $35 for 5 cards. They're really nice though, and the possibility of getting a really good card was just too tempting for me. I didn't (get a really good card), but I was still satisfied with the experience. Who knows, David Hale might turn out to be a really good player, and if he does, then his rookie card might be worth a lot some day. I actually want to buy another pack, but if I do, I'm definitely going to do so when my mother is not around. I also bought a pack of SPX and Black Diamond cards. The SPX cards are beautiful, but unfortunately I didn't get anyone I really liked. The Black Diamonds were the cheapest, and turned out to be the most satisfying too. I got Sakic, AND an Avs rookie, Svatos or something like that, I believe.
The cool thing is that all of this year's UD inserts are "No purchase necessary". So if you send in an index card with your name, email, address and day/night phone number, you have the same odds of getting an insert as when buying a pack! Cool, huh? I've sent in one card for UD Trilogy already. Since you can send one a day per household, I might send in another one in a day or two. It's not as fun as opening a pack, but the cost of postage is definitely a lot less than the cost of an actual pack!
In much older news, I've been avoiding talking about the World Juniors gold game. It was just too sad. The only good thing is that I didn't end up watching the game as I had planned. I was supposed to get a ride home from my friend right after class and we'd watch the game together, but I was asked to go into work, so of course I gave up the game and went in. So yeah, I only heard the loss over the radio. SO sad!! Poor Fleury. I guess this'll be a good chance for him to show his mental fortitude and to come back and play really well rather than letting his mistake affect his game. That was what I always admired about Roy, his attitude and fortitude, so I hope Fleury will be just as strong as him in that regard!
Hmm...I've actually uploaded my game pictures to my computer, but I've been too lazy to upload them to Imagestation. ^^;; Besides, my shots aren't actually all that good. Steph's much better, so I think I'll let her do the photo taking in Colorado. She says I should learn, and I agree, but I'd rather not be practicing at such an important game! I want good pictures!!
Well, I think that's about all I can think of right now! OH except I can't believe Kaberle re-injured his shoulder! And he got taken out by his own teammate no less!!! Boo!!! =*( I was really thinking he would come back in prime form, especially when he assisted on that game-tying goal on Saturday! Poor Kaberle!
Woohoo!!! That's 3 for 3 Canucks games I've attended that the Canucks have lost! Yes, I wanted the Canucks to win against Edmonton last Saturday, but other than that, I'm very happy with my record so far!!!! ^_^
Anyway, it's getting kind of late, so I'll jump right to the highlights. I was sitting in the very front row for the pre-game skate since there was an empty seat, and Fin, the Canucks' mascot came down right next to me. His head was steaming, which was kind of weird, but I ignored him and kept taking pictures. Then Fin starting messing with my hair (a kind of pseudo noogie, I suppose)! So I turned around and he was making all sorts of weird half-mocking gestures and giving me the "L". I didn't really know what to do--if he said something I could make a retort, but he didn't so I was pretty flustered--and I, oh so mature, gave him the 3D "L". =P Then he extended his hand, like a shake, but when I reached out to take it, he pulled it away. Yes, I just fell for the oldest trick in the book. It was really quite amusing. Too bad Steph was at the opposite end of the arena from me, it would've been cool to have gotten some photos or video of it! I tried to take some photos, but he was too close.
What else? I could totally see Naslund's goal coming. They had SO many chances before it finally went in! But overall, the Canucks seemed pretty sloppy tonight. I mean, how many odd-man rushes did Colorado get? Geh. Sakic's breakaway was in the second period, so he was coming down to my end, but I was so slow, I didn't even think about switching to the movie mode until it was way too late! >_< My only consolation is that he didn't score, so it wasn't so bad.
Sakic's goal was a beaut though! Too bad it was way down at the other end, so I didn't have a good view. I'm definitely watching the highlights on that one though. Yay for Burnaby Joe!
It was funny, because I was sitting next to two older gentlemen (Canucks' fans) and the guy sitting right next to me asked if I was a Joe Sakic fan or an Avalanche fan. Only in B.C. would people make that distinction, I suppose. I think people thought I was crazy, because I was cheering for Sakic when he iced the puck on the PK. =P
Anyway, that's enough for tonight, I suppose. My pics will be up once I get back to 'Sauga. Again, Steph managed to get some really good shots, so I'm probably going to steal a bunch of them. ^_^
Heh, I'm answering this week's F4 even though I don't really know how to answer! So here I go:
1. If you were league commisioner, what would you change first?
(sent in by Emma Gwen)
- Hmm...I'd probably make an instant icing rule, which would make things a bit safer and faster, and wouldn't be all that controversial.
2. What do you think could be done to make the game more enjoyable to the fans?
(sent in by Sallz)
- Who knows. Educate fans better? =P I mean, people are always comparing hockey from decades ago to modern hockey, but I fell in love with hockey in 2002, so obviously there's still some entertainment/enjoyment value left in the modern game.
3. If you [could] fire 2 NHL officials, who would they be?
- No clue. I don't have any grudges against any of them in particular.
4. Do you think Mike Keenan will be picked up this year? If so, by whom?
(sent in by Al)
- Again, I don't really know his reputation well enough to say. I think I've heard that he's pretty harsh on his players (wasn't he banned from team practices or something?) so it's hard to imagine anyone hiring him, but I'm sure his style of coaching has got some benefits, I just don't know them.
So there, that was my really sad attempt at this week's F4. ^^;; I think I just made myself sound really clueless, but oh well.
