Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Longest Drive
Today I drove from Vancouver to Richmond, and then back to Vancouver. But the longest drive was the one after playing hockey.
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
The Ties That Bind
Sunday was the last day I was stationed in North Van. I had to pack up fast as I was finished at 6PM and I had to bolt it down to GM place to catch the game at 7PM. I was lucky enough to get invited to watch the Canucks Ducks preseason game. Not only did I get to go, it was in the corporate box. I love this box, first of all its catered, secondly it's got a great view of the game, and it has this awesome poster (Building the Dream) of the 1993/94 Canucks team dressed in construction attire. The poster kind of gives off a wrong message with the hard hats and the tank tops, but nevertheless what a great poster.
The game itself was action packed, plenty of goals and a fight to boot. Despite Mason Raymond getting 2 goals, the game came to a 3-3 tie at the end of the third period. Not a problem though as Nathan McIver of the Ducks was in the penalty box to start over time. McIver was recently waived by the Canucks, and was picked up by Anaheim that same day. This is why it stung pretty hard when during overtime, right out of the box McIver received a break out pass to score the over time winner, ouch.
Despite losing the game, I enjoyed myself. I got to converse with a few of the people from work that I haven't seen in a while, plus there was Kobe beef burgers that pretty much melted in your mouth. In a hierarchy of burgers it would be:
Big Mac < Whopper < Kirkland patties < Big Mac after drinking < Kobe beef
That's right it's better then a Big Mac after drinking.
Following the Canucks game, Danny and I rushed to Burnaby 8 Rinks to play the first regular season game for the Sharks. Due to some players not being able to make the game I had to play defense again. I don't think Captain Eric understands that I can't skate backwards. Maybe he's being really nice and forcing me to get some experience. Or maybe he's a sadist who enjoys seeing other people skate around me as I pretend to know what I'm doing. Regardless I was stuck playing defense.
The game started out pretty even, we were down going into the second but we were able to catch up. During the second a girl on the opposing team (Cubs) somehow ended up down on the ice after a loud thud. I didn't see what was happening, but I assume that the Sharks aren't women beaters so she probably "slipped." After a few minutes of being down she was able to get up and make her way to the bench with help. As far as I know she did not return.
During the third one of the players on the Cubs blew by me on the outside and made their way to the net to slip it by Randy the goalie to tie the game at 3-3. I couldn't find a hole big enough to hide in.
Here I was an hour (or so) after watching the Canucks lose in overtime 4-3, the Sharks were going into overtime 3-3 because I let a guy blow by me. This was looking all too familiar. Was the fate of the Sharks binded to the fate that the Canucks had just suffered? Was our future by some stroke of fate tied to the fate of the Canucks? Did I just repeat myself in an effort to reinforce the title of the blog? Did I just shamelessly tried to direct your attention to the title because I'm so proud of it? So many questions, and so without further ado:
In the late stages of overtime, the Sharks went on a power play. Unfortunately....here it comes....we couldn't convert and the game ended in a tie.
Was I relieved? Not really we had the win in our grasp and ended up with a tie. This will be a tough one to swallow for me, hopefully I'm not on defense next game. I listened to Metallica the whole way home, and one song stuck out: The Unforgiven.
New blood joins this earth
And quikly hes subdued
Through constant pain disgrace
The young boy learns their rules
The game itself was action packed, plenty of goals and a fight to boot. Despite Mason Raymond getting 2 goals, the game came to a 3-3 tie at the end of the third period. Not a problem though as Nathan McIver of the Ducks was in the penalty box to start over time. McIver was recently waived by the Canucks, and was picked up by Anaheim that same day. This is why it stung pretty hard when during overtime, right out of the box McIver received a break out pass to score the over time winner, ouch.
Despite losing the game, I enjoyed myself. I got to converse with a few of the people from work that I haven't seen in a while, plus there was Kobe beef burgers that pretty much melted in your mouth. In a hierarchy of burgers it would be:
Big Mac < Whopper < Kirkland patties < Big Mac after drinking < Kobe beef
That's right it's better then a Big Mac after drinking.
Following the Canucks game, Danny and I rushed to Burnaby 8 Rinks to play the first regular season game for the Sharks. Due to some players not being able to make the game I had to play defense again. I don't think Captain Eric understands that I can't skate backwards. Maybe he's being really nice and forcing me to get some experience. Or maybe he's a sadist who enjoys seeing other people skate around me as I pretend to know what I'm doing. Regardless I was stuck playing defense.
The game started out pretty even, we were down going into the second but we were able to catch up. During the second a girl on the opposing team (Cubs) somehow ended up down on the ice after a loud thud. I didn't see what was happening, but I assume that the Sharks aren't women beaters so she probably "slipped." After a few minutes of being down she was able to get up and make her way to the bench with help. As far as I know she did not return.
During the third one of the players on the Cubs blew by me on the outside and made their way to the net to slip it by Randy the goalie to tie the game at 3-3. I couldn't find a hole big enough to hide in.
Here I was an hour (or so) after watching the Canucks lose in overtime 4-3, the Sharks were going into overtime 3-3 because I let a guy blow by me. This was looking all too familiar. Was the fate of the Sharks binded to the fate that the Canucks had just suffered? Was our future by some stroke of fate tied to the fate of the Canucks? Did I just repeat myself in an effort to reinforce the title of the blog? Did I just shamelessly tried to direct your attention to the title because I'm so proud of it? So many questions, and so without further ado:
In the late stages of overtime, the Sharks went on a power play. Unfortunately....here it comes....we couldn't convert and the game ended in a tie.
Was I relieved? Not really we had the win in our grasp and ended up with a tie. This will be a tough one to swallow for me, hopefully I'm not on defense next game. I listened to Metallica the whole way home, and one song stuck out: The Unforgiven.
New blood joins this earth
And quikly hes subdued
Through constant pain disgrace
The young boy learns their rules
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Blood, Sweat, and Tiers
Few days ago I got an e-mail from Captain Eric who let us know that we got bumped up a tier from 5 to 4. Great, as if I wasn't having enough problems before. On top of this, I also found out that the third preseason game was against a tier 3 team. I was not looking forward to this game. On the flip side, we were away which meant that I got to wear my old Canucks jersey again.
I got some tips prior to the start of the game from Harry. He told me to watch the stomach to avoid getting faked out. You can juke and jive the head and stick, but the stomach goes where the skater goes. In all my years of playing street hockey this has never occurred to me, but I also never used to be a pylon.
While we were changing, Captain Eric read out the lines, and I was on offense winging with with Harry. What a relief, I didn't have to skate backwards the whole game, of course I was counted on to provide some offense but for some reason we had a low scoring game.
We went on quite a few power plays with the Cold Shots taking some stupid penalties. The other team was playing pretty aggressively, but we didn't really retaliate. There were a few scrums that occurred, words were flown around but nothing happened, luckily for the Cold Shots because I would've made some heads roll.
We were down 3-2 in the third, and one of our players was called for interference with under four minutes to go. The whole team played hard the last few minutes to try to tie up the game. Despite being on the power play the Cold Shots seemed content on just winding down the time. Their careless play led to a breakaway by #96 (I still don't know everyone's name), skating in with two defensemen chasing him down, he wristed the puck 5-hole, but his efforts were in vain as he was stopped by the butter-flying goalie (damn you Patrick Roy).
Seconds kept ticking away from the clock, and the Sharks eventually lost 3-2.
The Good
We kept toe to toe with a tier 3 team. We played a pretty responsible game even though the other team were unbelievably fast. The referee complimented me on my jersey, I responded with "94 baby!" to which he replied: "I know."
The Bad
Their whole team was named Phan. There was a P Chan, Phan, B Phan. They scoured the Lower Mainland looking for players with last names that rhymed.
The Ugly
During the second period, El Capitan Eric skated into the opponents zone, and instead of trying to go around the defender he pretty much treated the guy like a Thai hooker...he nailed him hard. The guy obviously went down, and a scrum ensued. As I mentioned earlier no fights broke out. Even though some Sharks had friends on the other team something like this still happened. Kind of makes you wonder how the rest of the season will go.
Great game, the impact player failed to make an impact this game, but rest assured, despite my futility on the ice, I am (ever so slowly) getting better, I should hit my prime in 5-10 years.
I got some tips prior to the start of the game from Harry. He told me to watch the stomach to avoid getting faked out. You can juke and jive the head and stick, but the stomach goes where the skater goes. In all my years of playing street hockey this has never occurred to me, but I also never used to be a pylon.
While we were changing, Captain Eric read out the lines, and I was on offense winging with with Harry. What a relief, I didn't have to skate backwards the whole game, of course I was counted on to provide some offense but for some reason we had a low scoring game.
We went on quite a few power plays with the Cold Shots taking some stupid penalties. The other team was playing pretty aggressively, but we didn't really retaliate. There were a few scrums that occurred, words were flown around but nothing happened, luckily for the Cold Shots because I would've made some heads roll.
We were down 3-2 in the third, and one of our players was called for interference with under four minutes to go. The whole team played hard the last few minutes to try to tie up the game. Despite being on the power play the Cold Shots seemed content on just winding down the time. Their careless play led to a breakaway by #96 (I still don't know everyone's name), skating in with two defensemen chasing him down, he wristed the puck 5-hole, but his efforts were in vain as he was stopped by the butter-flying goalie (damn you Patrick Roy).
Seconds kept ticking away from the clock, and the Sharks eventually lost 3-2.
The Good
We kept toe to toe with a tier 3 team. We played a pretty responsible game even though the other team were unbelievably fast. The referee complimented me on my jersey, I responded with "94 baby!" to which he replied: "I know."
The Bad
Their whole team was named Phan. There was a P Chan, Phan, B Phan. They scoured the Lower Mainland looking for players with last names that rhymed.
The Ugly
During the second period, El Capitan Eric skated into the opponents zone, and instead of trying to go around the defender he pretty much treated the guy like a Thai hooker...he nailed him hard. The guy obviously went down, and a scrum ensued. As I mentioned earlier no fights broke out. Even though some Sharks had friends on the other team something like this still happened. Kind of makes you wonder how the rest of the season will go.
Great game, the impact player failed to make an impact this game, but rest assured, despite my futility on the ice, I am (ever so slowly) getting better, I should hit my prime in 5-10 years.
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