Although my homepage is set to www.hokej.cz, I don't really pay too much attention to what's on the site. I mean, my Czech isn't that good yet, so it's too much work to even attempt to read any of the articles.
Anyway, today for some reason I looked at what was on the page and I noticed a litle picture advertising "Cepel: komix na téma?" hokejové dresy..." which translates roughly (I think) to: "Blades: Comics on themes? Hockey jerseys..." And lo and behold, there was a comic showing a conversation between Kaberle and Domi!If you're interested, take a look at it here. Below is my (very rough) translation!
Top: We find Toronto teammates Tomas Kaberle (presently with Kladno) and Tie Domi (momentarily nowhere) trying to resolve the problem of ads on jerseys.
Panel 1: Hahahaha... What do you have on your jersey? You look like a clown...
Panel 2: Well, for the most part not clowning around [over displays] (not sure about that part!) but the difference from you is I'm playing in a proper league.
Bottom: In the NHL they don't wear ads on jerseys. Indeed they have beautiful jerseys, but for those playing this year there isn't, in fact, even hockey.
Like I said, it's a pretty rough (i.e. BAD) translation, but you get the gist of it, I hope!
[Edit: I sent the comic to my Czech teacher to ask her help for a more accurate translation, and this is her reply:
Tie is making fun of Tomas because he has advertisments on his hockey jersey
(reklam) and telling him he looks like a clown or a fool (sasek). Tomas
replys that at least he is playing hokey and not playing the fool at exhibits
(refering to their public appearnace and exhibiton games) and actually playing
real hockey in a real hockey league.
The underneath part expains that the NHL does not have ads on their jerseys,
and that although they have beautiful ones, that what the players are playing
this year is not hockey!
So I guess I didn't do too bad on my translation, huh (even though panel 2 was pretty sketchy)? ^_^]
Words are few, I have spoken
I could waste a thousand years
Wrapped in sorrow, words are token
Come inside and catch my tears
Do you really want to hurt me?
Do you really want to make me cry?
Do you really want to hurt me...
Hockey, please come back
*sigh* I watched the Farjestad @ Linkoping game on Sportsnet tonight, and you know it's a very sad state of affairs when you're falling asleep while watching the first professional hockey you've seen in months. =(
Tonight's game really made me wonder how the heck Farjestad can be fourth in the Swedish Elite League. I mean, they haven't scored a single goal in two whole games, and, tonight at least, they didn't even have particularly good defense to make up for their lack of offense!! I feel so bad for Gerber! He just needed one period and a bit to set the Swedish League shutout record, but his team totally wasn't helping him out!!
That was something at least, I guess: the game today showed me that Martin Gerber's a pretty amazing goalie. His performance tonight was Luongo like, in that he didn't get much help from his team, faced a whole bunch of shots, but nonetheless managed to keep his team from being totally creamed. Go Gerber!!
Anyway, I hope the next few Swedish hockey games I watch are more exciting! I don't mind low scores, but I like to see teams play well!!
Oh, and the good news is that the company that distributes the Kladno jerseys got my money order last week! The bad news is that they're not going to send the jerseys until after they've cashed it, and who knows how long that'll take. =/
Whew!! It's been a busy couple of days, so I haven't had a chance to blog! Anyway, I finally got to watch my first full World Juniors games this weekend! I watched (and taped--I'm such a nerd!) the Finland-Czech quarter-final and Czech-Canada semi-final games!
I was very happy that the Czechs won against Finland!! =P Not that I have anything against Finland, I just like the Czechs better. But man oh man, what was up with that Swedish ref? I'd heard that he was supposed to be pretty well thought of in international circles, but a lot of his calls were pretty sketchy. Like there was the call Pierre McGuire called "a penalty for being strong" (or something like that) and then the non-call when the Czech player got taken out and was down on the ice bleeding. Of course, he did make quite a few good calls, but unfortunately it's only really the bad ones that I remember.
Anyway, luckily Canada got a different ref for their game, or Phaneuf probably would've spent all night in the box for "roughing". =P The Canada-Czech game was great!! Definitely a lot more exciting than the quarter-final! It may be poor comfort, but the Czechs have got to be pretty pleased with themselves for holding off the Canadians to only 3 goals. I mean, before that game the Canadians were averaging eight goals a game!! Good for goalie Marek Schwarz!! Vancouver's got to be glad that they've got him! Florida should be happy with Olesz too--he's a great player, and fun to watch too! (Actually, I'm pretty excited to see how Florida develops in the next couple of years! They've got a lot of good, young players!) Anyway, this Team Canada squad looks amazing!! Thank goodness the final is on a Tuesday when I'll actually be home to watch it!!! Definitely going to tape this game!!
On a totally different note, I checked out CBC's "The Tournament" tonight, and even though it looks like it might be an okay show, I don't think I could watch another episode--it's too painful! It's bad enough hearing about bad hockey parents, but watching a show full of them? I've always said that if I had kids I'd definitely have no problem driving them to hockey--heck! I even said I'd drive my friends' future kids to hockey if they wanted--but after watching the first episode of The Tournament, I don't know anymore. I'm not afraid of turning into a scary hockey mom, but I'd be afraid to put kids in a position to have to deal with other crazed hockey parents, or even coaches. Hockey should be fun, but more and more I'm getting the sense that organized hockey is more about the competition than all the good things like teamwork and good character development. I mean, I know The Tournament is fictional and all, but dang! it's still scary!
