There is hockey- real, live, regular season hockey on my television right now! :) YAAAAAAAAAAYY!!!
And my boyo Sharpie got a point. Hossa took the goal, but that's okay- because I have both of them on my fantasy team(s). Not the same team or league but they are both representin. The stinky Avs are winning at the moment (early in the 3rd) but there is still time.
My nose itches. Just wanted to share that.
C'mon 'Hawks! Where's your Defending Stanley Cup Champs "swagger"? They seem quite fond of that term tonight.
Colorado is blocking shots left and right on this power play. Wow.
Man I have missed hockey. Have I said that lately? But guess what? HOCKEY IS BACK!
Wooohoo just saw a clip from Jordan Eberle from Edmonton's goal. It was pretty. He's on one of my teams. :) But man oh man, what is up with the Oilers' uniforms? They are uuuugly. Looks like retro night or something and that is just not necessary. Shorthanded goals are great though.
SHARPIE SCORES! Great heads-up play to grab a loose puck in front of the net. I love that man. Now we're tied.
Out of town update again- Eberle has another goal- this one a PPG. What a nice fantasy addition!
Oh man now they are talking about Sharpie and how awesome he is (duh) and they showed one of those nice little cut-away videos where he turns around with a hockey stick over his shoulder.. and ooooh my I had to rewind it and watch it again. Those EYEBROWS. I'm a little puddle of goo. Sorry, I'm embaraassing myself.
Let's get back to hockey. It's overtime.
Awwww. Poo. The Avs won. :( Oh well, it's just game 1 of 82. There's time. Turco looked a bit sloppy at times tonight. He needs to be better but it wasn't a bad game.
Showing posts with label i love hockey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label i love hockey. Show all posts
Friday, October 8, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
I don't know if there are words
Guys, I've been a hockey fan for 16 years. I have watched more hockey games on tv that I can count. I have watched the Stanley Cup finals (at least a few games) every year since 1994 except 2007- I was on a cruise and couldn't get the games. I have seen live games in 8 different NHL arenas (and one baseball stadium), 6 AHL arenas, and 9 ECHL arenas. I have been to many ECHL playoff games- even seen the Kelly Cup awarded (to the other team on my ice) twice but before today, had not been to an NHL playoff game.
Today I went to the Sabres game.
It was UNreal. The atmosphere in the arena exceeded my expectations. There was so much energy and feeling in the place that words fail me trying to describe it. It was just a rush of pure adrenaline and magic and I wanted it to go on forever. Sabretooth rappelled down from the rafters to a chorus of cheering and whistles. Doug Allen's (always stirring) renditions of the Anthems almost brought me to tears. The first few minutes of the game felt like a dream, with the chanting of 'Let's Go Buffalo' floating down all around me. (Usually I'm the one trying (in vain) to incite the citizens of section 116 *a rather quiet lot* to cheer on our boys. Then when the Sabres scored, I thought the roof might actually blow off the building.
Things quieted down a bit later, when the game got kinda rough, but wow.
It was moments like today that remind me why I love going to hockey games so much. There is a magical quality about 18,690 people (minus the few Bruins fans in attendance) whose minds are melded to the same purpose. It wasn't enough to propel the boys to a win today, but that did not diminish the incredible feeling that I found at the game. My love of hockey is rooted in THE GAME, but my love of being a hockey fan is rooted in days like today. Imagine if we could harness that feeling and power. We could save the world.
I will break down my actual thoughts on the play later but for tonight I just want to savor the feelings I had today. I love this city and I love this team. Is THIS the year? In a lot of the ways that matter, it already has been for me. Now let's make it even better.
Let's GO BUFFALO!
P.S. Speaking of 'dreams'- The Buffalo News had a really great article about Patrick Kaleta and Tim Kennedy, two Buffalo boys who made it to the Show. It's worth a read if you haven't already. :)
Today I went to the Sabres game.
It was UNreal. The atmosphere in the arena exceeded my expectations. There was so much energy and feeling in the place that words fail me trying to describe it. It was just a rush of pure adrenaline and magic and I wanted it to go on forever. Sabretooth rappelled down from the rafters to a chorus of cheering and whistles. Doug Allen's (always stirring) renditions of the Anthems almost brought me to tears. The first few minutes of the game felt like a dream, with the chanting of 'Let's Go Buffalo' floating down all around me. (Usually I'm the one trying (in vain) to incite the citizens of section 116 *a rather quiet lot* to cheer on our boys. Then when the Sabres scored, I thought the roof might actually blow off the building.
Things quieted down a bit later, when the game got kinda rough, but wow.
It was moments like today that remind me why I love going to hockey games so much. There is a magical quality about 18,690 people (minus the few Bruins fans in attendance) whose minds are melded to the same purpose. It wasn't enough to propel the boys to a win today, but that did not diminish the incredible feeling that I found at the game. My love of hockey is rooted in THE GAME, but my love of being a hockey fan is rooted in days like today. Imagine if we could harness that feeling and power. We could save the world.
I will break down my actual thoughts on the play later but for tonight I just want to savor the feelings I had today. I love this city and I love this team. Is THIS the year? In a lot of the ways that matter, it already has been for me. Now let's make it even better.
Let's GO BUFFALO!
P.S. Speaking of 'dreams'- The Buffalo News had a really great article about Patrick Kaleta and Tim Kennedy, two Buffalo boys who made it to the Show. It's worth a read if you haven't already. :)
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
a Treatise on hockey fandom- or Don't Question Me!
(this got a little rambly along the way, but bear with me, I do have a point. Somewhere.)
I call myself a hockey fan.
I would even go as far as to call myself a hardcore hockey fan.
I've been watching hockey for 15 of my 28 years.
The game wasn't born and bred into me, I came to it on my own. (with a little help from my sis and a boy named Lance Links)
I've been to hockey games in many exotic locales (Las Vegas, NV; Baton Rouge, LA to name a few).
I've cheered on teams at the ECHL, AHL, NHL, and college levels.
I own 12 hockey jerseys- 3 of which are game worn.
I have an entire shelf of hockey books and a wish list probably longer than my arm of the ones I still want to own.
Name me almost any city you want (of a certain size, or anywhere in Canada) and I can tell you if they have hockey and many times what the team name is and what league they are in.
I think you get the point- I. LOVE. HOCKEY.
There are many facets to this love, not the least of which is my well-documented enjoyment of the personality and attractiveness of players, which just keeps things interesting. (However, that is just gravy to the meat of hockey, which takes place on the ice.)
Hockey is a game of contrasts:
Brutality and grace
Cold surfaces and hot sweaty players
Tiny puck- big net/goalie
The speed of an up-ice rush and the almost slow-motion of a perfectly timed play
The physicality and anger exhibited by players on the ice versus their off-ice, charitable, kind, gentle selves. (this has been true for many of the players I've known personally and it is always the most striking.)
The heated rivalries of playoff series which end in handshakes and hugs
Why do I write all of this? What does it even mean? What's the point of throwing it out there? I guess it's a defence of sorts.. a way of saying that while I may be silly and flip and all fluff sometimes in this blog, hockey runs in my veins like fire and I'd be lost without it. (let's not talk about the 04-05 season that wasn't. I think I literally went through a hockeyless-related depression during part of that year.) With me, though you may not know it from the writings, it really is all about the game. THE GAME. Everything else is entertainment for sure, but The Game is where it all begins and ends.
Watching hockey (live or on tv), listening to games, and reading about past and present hockey stories from all walks of life and all levels of the pro game is one of the things that keeps me going. Something happened to me 15 and a half years ago; hockey sunk its hooks deep in my soul and hasn't let go. There have been times when I've tried to shake the NEED for the game, but it would not relinquish its hold. I've been to some awesome places because of hockey. I can't even tell you how many friends I have because of hockey fandom that I wouldn't know otherwise. Whatever IT is, I have IT, and I'm teaching the game to my nephews and will eventually (should I have any) teach it to my children. It's that important. It's a vital part of who I am.
With all of that said, I did not watch this year's Winter Classic.
I watched the first one, in 2008. It happened in Buffalo (which is near where i live and my current favorite team) but I wasn't at the game. I wasn't even in the state, as I went home to visit friends and fam in Ohio for a week after Christmas. However, I had some friends over and we watched the game in my parents' basement and had a wonderful time. It was the original "Sidney Crosby Day" and set the stage for a host of jokes that are still valid among the group and also was the formation of the "87 Club". The game itself, of course (who knew there was actually a game on?) looked absolutely perfect, with the Sabre faithful (and some Pens fans too) packed into The Ralph and the famous Buffalo snow falling quite heavily at times. It was unqualified success for the teams, the League, and the fans and it was a beautiful thing. I loved watching it and would have loved even more to be there.
Fast forward to December 25, 2008, when I learned that my sister had procured tickets for us to see (along with our dear friend Emmy) the Winter Classic Part II: Blackhawks v. Red Wings! Definitely one of the best Christmas Presents EVER! I have been a Red Wings fan since I started watching hockey, and by this time last year I was flirting with the idea of liking the Blackhawks so of course it was a brilliant idea. Plus, hockey in Chicago with great people on New Year's Day IN A BASEBALL STADIUM is just too cool to pass up, right? So of course we went. It was incredible and oh so much fun. The fans were amazing, the venue was fantastic, it was cold as anything but that didn't matter. It was glorious, definitely the coolest hockey game I have ever been to (and possibly ever will be to unless I see a Stanley Cup game 7 that ends in my team's favor or something). The atmosphere- everything, just can't be touched. It doesn't I can't go to games anymore but just that obviously this was special.
(side note, I watched the "making of" dvd the other night and it brought me to tears. Yes, I really am that sappy about hockey.)
Then they announced the 2 teams for the 2010 Winter Classic, and to be perfectly honest with all of you- I couldn't have been less excited about the choices. I really really really CANNOT STAND the Flyers. I rather despise them with pretty much all of my being. And I don't enjoy the Bruins much either. I don't hate them, per se, but I don't like them either. I feel like the Sabres have to play them a zillion times a year and the games are never interesting or exciting at all. So all in all, I was feeling an almost negative amount of enjoyment in that announcement. Really, the only way it could have been worse would be if it were the Rangers and Flyers. Suffice it to say that I had very little intention of even watching the game, and certainly no emotional attachment to it. I have often watched hockey just to watch it (particularly in the playoffs) even if it was teams I didn't care about. But I will rarely watch a game in which I dislike both teams, and don't even care about any individual players. (It doesn't happen often. I have dream lovers on almost every team and many fellas that I enjoy watching all around the League, but none of them happen to play for either of those teams.)
So in the end, here I was on New Year's day- having been to a Blackhawks/Devils (now there is a game I can care about!) game on New Year's Eve and out to a party till 5 am. I didn't even wake up till almost noon Chicago time (which was puck drop I believe) I woke up and enjoyed some warm (well cold in memory) rememberances of "a year ago at this time I was at Wrigley WATCHING HOCKEY!" and thought... maybe I should watch this game. Then I dismissed it and played on the internet till Emmy and 'Nee woke up and we ventured out to brunch at a friends' place.
Thus I did not watch one moment of the 2010 Winter Classic (though I did watch the clip of Bobby Orr and Bobby Clarke just for fun and because I was reading a book about Bobby Orr) and I am totally okay with that. Part of me feels the need to justify that not watching so as not to be taken as less of a fan. But the rest of me just doesn't care. Anyone that knows me realizes that I am a serious hockey fan. (and if you didn't know before, and you actually read through all that rambling stream of consciousness up there then you sure as heck know now!) From what I heard and read about the game, it wasn't terribly striking or even all that exciting (aside from the novelty) until late in the game. I'll take last year over that any day.
No way you can top my experience in 2009. NO. WAY. However, should they schedule better teams for next year (ahemHabs/Leafsanyone?) - and really I already told you the only way it could get worse and that can't happen- then I will most likely check it out come 2011 and beyond.
When it's all said and done, I am truly, irrevocably and eternally, a hockey fan.
I call myself a hockey fan.
I would even go as far as to call myself a hardcore hockey fan.
I've been watching hockey for 15 of my 28 years.
The game wasn't born and bred into me, I came to it on my own. (with a little help from my sis and a boy named Lance Links)
I've been to hockey games in many exotic locales (Las Vegas, NV; Baton Rouge, LA to name a few).
I've cheered on teams at the ECHL, AHL, NHL, and college levels.
I own 12 hockey jerseys- 3 of which are game worn.
I have an entire shelf of hockey books and a wish list probably longer than my arm of the ones I still want to own.
Name me almost any city you want (of a certain size, or anywhere in Canada) and I can tell you if they have hockey and many times what the team name is and what league they are in.
I think you get the point- I. LOVE. HOCKEY.
There are many facets to this love, not the least of which is my well-documented enjoyment of the personality and attractiveness of players, which just keeps things interesting. (However, that is just gravy to the meat of hockey, which takes place on the ice.)
Hockey is a game of contrasts:
Brutality and grace
Cold surfaces and hot sweaty players
Tiny puck- big net/goalie
The speed of an up-ice rush and the almost slow-motion of a perfectly timed play
The physicality and anger exhibited by players on the ice versus their off-ice, charitable, kind, gentle selves. (this has been true for many of the players I've known personally and it is always the most striking.)
The heated rivalries of playoff series which end in handshakes and hugs
Why do I write all of this? What does it even mean? What's the point of throwing it out there? I guess it's a defence of sorts.. a way of saying that while I may be silly and flip and all fluff sometimes in this blog, hockey runs in my veins like fire and I'd be lost without it. (let's not talk about the 04-05 season that wasn't. I think I literally went through a hockeyless-related depression during part of that year.) With me, though you may not know it from the writings, it really is all about the game. THE GAME. Everything else is entertainment for sure, but The Game is where it all begins and ends.
Watching hockey (live or on tv), listening to games, and reading about past and present hockey stories from all walks of life and all levels of the pro game is one of the things that keeps me going. Something happened to me 15 and a half years ago; hockey sunk its hooks deep in my soul and hasn't let go. There have been times when I've tried to shake the NEED for the game, but it would not relinquish its hold. I've been to some awesome places because of hockey. I can't even tell you how many friends I have because of hockey fandom that I wouldn't know otherwise. Whatever IT is, I have IT, and I'm teaching the game to my nephews and will eventually (should I have any) teach it to my children. It's that important. It's a vital part of who I am.
With all of that said, I did not watch this year's Winter Classic.
I watched the first one, in 2008. It happened in Buffalo (which is near where i live and my current favorite team) but I wasn't at the game. I wasn't even in the state, as I went home to visit friends and fam in Ohio for a week after Christmas. However, I had some friends over and we watched the game in my parents' basement and had a wonderful time. It was the original "Sidney Crosby Day" and set the stage for a host of jokes that are still valid among the group and also was the formation of the "87 Club". The game itself, of course (who knew there was actually a game on?) looked absolutely perfect, with the Sabre faithful (and some Pens fans too) packed into The Ralph and the famous Buffalo snow falling quite heavily at times. It was unqualified success for the teams, the League, and the fans and it was a beautiful thing. I loved watching it and would have loved even more to be there.
Fast forward to December 25, 2008, when I learned that my sister had procured tickets for us to see (along with our dear friend Emmy) the Winter Classic Part II: Blackhawks v. Red Wings! Definitely one of the best Christmas Presents EVER! I have been a Red Wings fan since I started watching hockey, and by this time last year I was flirting with the idea of liking the Blackhawks so of course it was a brilliant idea. Plus, hockey in Chicago with great people on New Year's Day IN A BASEBALL STADIUM is just too cool to pass up, right? So of course we went. It was incredible and oh so much fun. The fans were amazing, the venue was fantastic, it was cold as anything but that didn't matter. It was glorious, definitely the coolest hockey game I have ever been to (and possibly ever will be to unless I see a Stanley Cup game 7 that ends in my team's favor or something). The atmosphere- everything, just can't be touched. It doesn't I can't go to games anymore but just that obviously this was special.
(side note, I watched the "making of" dvd the other night and it brought me to tears. Yes, I really am that sappy about hockey.)
Then they announced the 2 teams for the 2010 Winter Classic, and to be perfectly honest with all of you- I couldn't have been less excited about the choices. I really really really CANNOT STAND the Flyers. I rather despise them with pretty much all of my being. And I don't enjoy the Bruins much either. I don't hate them, per se, but I don't like them either. I feel like the Sabres have to play them a zillion times a year and the games are never interesting or exciting at all. So all in all, I was feeling an almost negative amount of enjoyment in that announcement. Really, the only way it could have been worse would be if it were the Rangers and Flyers. Suffice it to say that I had very little intention of even watching the game, and certainly no emotional attachment to it. I have often watched hockey just to watch it (particularly in the playoffs) even if it was teams I didn't care about. But I will rarely watch a game in which I dislike both teams, and don't even care about any individual players. (It doesn't happen often. I have dream lovers on almost every team and many fellas that I enjoy watching all around the League, but none of them happen to play for either of those teams.)
So in the end, here I was on New Year's day- having been to a Blackhawks/Devils (now there is a game I can care about!) game on New Year's Eve and out to a party till 5 am. I didn't even wake up till almost noon Chicago time (which was puck drop I believe) I woke up and enjoyed some warm (well cold in memory) rememberances of "a year ago at this time I was at Wrigley WATCHING HOCKEY!" and thought... maybe I should watch this game. Then I dismissed it and played on the internet till Emmy and 'Nee woke up and we ventured out to brunch at a friends' place.
Thus I did not watch one moment of the 2010 Winter Classic (though I did watch the clip of Bobby Orr and Bobby Clarke just for fun and because I was reading a book about Bobby Orr) and I am totally okay with that. Part of me feels the need to justify that not watching so as not to be taken as less of a fan. But the rest of me just doesn't care. Anyone that knows me realizes that I am a serious hockey fan. (and if you didn't know before, and you actually read through all that rambling stream of consciousness up there then you sure as heck know now!) From what I heard and read about the game, it wasn't terribly striking or even all that exciting (aside from the novelty) until late in the game. I'll take last year over that any day.
No way you can top my experience in 2009. NO. WAY. However, should they schedule better teams for next year (ahemHabs/Leafsanyone?) - and really I already told you the only way it could get worse and that can't happen- then I will most likely check it out come 2011 and beyond.
When it's all said and done, I am truly, irrevocably and eternally, a hockey fan.
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