Vegas Hockey Baby!!!

Frozen Fury XII

This was the reason to go out to Vegas last weekend, not that I would mind going to Vegas pretty much anytime...

We showed up for the morning skate, just like we have the past two years. When we got to the rink the Kings were still on the ice, so we watched the end of their practice. When they started leaving the ice, we were all told by the ushers that we had to leave the rink. We sat down outside the doors waiting to be allowed back in.

An usher announces to everyone waiting that the Av's practice is closed and we will not be allowed in to watch and should leave.

Well, this is a familiar situation since it pretty much went the same way each year.

We remained seated on the floor to wait.

About 10 minutes later a supervisor (or at least someone in charge) comes up to the ushers and tells them that the Av's say to let the fans in to watch in about 15 minutes. So we hang out until they open the doors and let us in :) glad we know not to be too upset when they tell us that practice is closed, it never stays that way!

We watched practice, which was cool as usual! I just like hockey (even had fun watching the Kings practice). They had the front 12 rows or so taped off so we didn't get as close as usual so no pics, but it was still fun!

After practice we waited for the players to come out. We got autographs on another hat and on some pucks as well as some pictures.

James and I with Stastny, he might be sick of us by now since we have a few pictures with him already. Hopefully he can stay healthy this year, it will be exciting to see him play.



James and I with Smyth...It's a bummer to lose him to the Kings, but I hope he does well!



James and I with O'Reilly, he seems to be a good addition to the team from what we've seen so far.

Me with Liles, hoping to see some good strong defense from him this year. I think he's my favorite player right now, maybe I'll even get a jersey this year...

James and I with Koci, he is a big guy with some grit that the Av's need.

Jeremy and James with Weiman. He's been sent back down to Lake Erie, but a great goalie! Jeremy was excited to talk with him for awhile since he knows him from when he played for the Colorado Eagles.

I won't bore you with too many pics of the game, mostly because I didn't get any really good ones. Here is a pic during warm-up before the game.

Koci's fight!

Random pic during the game, but you can see Stastny #26.

It was fun to watch hockey as usual, but the reffing was awful! The Av's gave a good effort, but had to kill several penalties and deal with lame calls including a penalty shot. They ended up losing by one goal :( However, this was just pre-season and I look forward to seeing them kick butt this year!

I Love My Job!!!!!

There are some great benefits to working for my family's business.

1. I get to see my family often

2. I have a great boss

3. I get the opportunity to learn new things daily

4. I can ask for last minute time off

5.... Lot's more, but back to great reason #4:

On Sunday night I called my mom to see if we were still going to have a meeting in Denver on Monday morning (it had been discussed but was still up in the air).

She said that we were going to schedule it for a later date, but that I would still need to come down to pick up a server from their office. So I asked if I could take Monday morning off to go to the Colorado Avalanche training camp and then stop by to pick up the server. I didn't have anything else on my schedule so she said that would be fine and to have fun!

When I got off the phone, I asked James if he wanted to go to training camp in the morning; he looked vaguely interested. He had considered driving me to my meeting in Denver, and then heading over to watch training camp. I told him that my meeting was cancelled and that I was taking the morning off so we could both go! He seemed much more excited with this change of plans.

So we planned to leave around 7:15ish in the morning so we could get down for the start of camp at 9. Well, my alarm went off at 6:20 and I was not quite ready to wake up yet, at 6:35 James grumbled at the "stupid alarm clock" and rolled over, I finally got up at 6:45. It's hard to get motivated to get out of a nice comfortable bed when you really don't have to!

I made a pot of coffee and fed the monsters (our pets) and got ready to go, James got up sometime during this and got ready as well. Thankfully neither of us are too high maintenance so we get ready fairly quickly. We got in the car and realized we needed some markers for autographs. A quick stop by the store and we had 4 silver and 5 black permanent markers (we got the larger packs so we would have them for Las Vegas on the 25th).

We drove to Denver, thankfully traffic wasn't too bad. We got there a little after nine, and went into the pro-shop to get a hat and pennant for autographs. It is kind of a tradition to get a hat and pennant signed each year we go (we missed last year but went a couple times before).

Then we watched some hockey. Well, we watched some drills and then a scrimmage and some more drills. I am always amazed just to watch those guys skate! I wish I could skate like that, or even half as well!

The scrimmage was a lot of fun to watch. Weiman played great in net and I hope he gets his chance this year! Duschene play well also, initially he looked a little lost but went on to make some great passes and scored 2 of the 4 goals during the scrimmage; he also scored in the shootout that followed. He has a great shot and some good moves, we'll see where he goes from here. Stoa, Koci and Wolski looked great also, along with many others but those are ones that particularly stick out. Anderson play well in net, hopefully he can be solid in net this year for the Avs. By the way, Stastny, Foote, Budaj and several others were not a part of the scrimmage and we watched them run some drills on the other rink.

I was too focused on watching the scrimmage to take any pics, but I got some during the drills.

Budaj blocking shots during drills:

Foote shooting on Budaj during drills:

Stastny taking a shot (Sorry I cut off part of his foot, I need more practice and maybe a better camera):

My awesome photography skills! I managed to get a puck flying across the ice but missed including any players, oops:

One of the other cool things about training camp is that after it's over, many players stop on their way out to sign autographs!

Every time we have been there, Liles stops to sign and talk to fans and take pictures. There is only one time that he didn't (a couple years ago), but he stopped to apologize that he had some place he had to be and would have time the next day. A class-act in my book, plus a defenseman so that's bonus points!

James was pretty excited with how Koci played and he stopped to sign as well, seemed like a very cool guy. So we got a picture of James with him:

Duschene actually came out first, but I'll finish my post with him. He looked good from what we saw during and I hope he does well in his hockey career. He walked out to sign and talk with fans. We got a picture with him also:

We got 10 autographs in all and watched some great players, so it was a wonderful way to start the week! Now the countdown to Vegas begins: 10 days and counting....

Hockey!

Just so you know, I love Hockey!

I enjoy watching it (in person or on TV), but mostly I love to play! Back in college, when we were "just friends," James' roommate convinced him to get inline skates and come play. It didn't take long for them to convince me to do the same. Why I decided this was a good idea I still don't know... I have never been that great on roller skates and the few times I had tried inline skating, I was not much better (in truth, probably a lot worse).

Just in case you don't know much about inline skates, here is a news flash:

Hockey Skates Do NOT Have Brakes! I thought that might help with your understanding of the insanity that is me. It must come down to my weird enjoyment of abnormal sports (for girls that is). I grew up playing football with my brother and his friends, ran track (not too bad, except I'm on the short side and ran hurdles and was learning pole vault...go figure) and did Tae Kwon Do. I participated in a lot of other activities as well, but those give you the basic idea.

So we went to the local sporting goods store and I found a pair of not too expensive hockey skates. I borrowed a stick from James' other roommate (thus the issue of me using a stick that is too long, bad habits are hard to break). We went to the outdoor rink on the CSU campus and started "playing." Well, I can't remember a whole lot of the beginning of my hockey playing, but I was lucky in that I didn't end up with too many injuries and nothing serious. I will say that you learn quick when you get thrown into the fire. I was hooked!!

We played roller hockey at the CSU outdoor rink and even got a team together from our church to play at the local roller hockey rink. That fizzled out, but then we met a few guys out at the CSU rink who asked us if we wanted to join their team. "Sure!" That led to several years of playing roller hockey with many of those original players.

James and I both held the desire to play ice hockey eventually. So, after we got fed up with the atrocious reffing at the rink, we decided to make the switch. We convinced a couple friends to take a Hockey 101 class at the ice rink in the spring (still playing roller hockey) and joined the ice league for the summer session. We managed to get one of the guys who took the 101 class with us to join, in addition to a couple guys from our roller team.

I really liked roller-hockey, but I LOVE Ice-Hockey. We have been playing for a few years now, both the summer and Fall (Fall is really a Fall/Spring league, it's extra long) sessions. We have played up to three leagues/nights at the same time and are currently playing two. It is great!

Our teams are awesome, especially our "C" league team! We have had most of the same guys together for the last few seasons. Everyone seems to enjoy....well....picking on each other. We've had our share of wins and losses and even won a Championship! Mostly it is just a great group of guys (I am the only girl, but am considered just one of the guys).

As much as I enjoy playing with my wonderful husband and our team, I really just love playing. I like that it is competitive, physical and fast! I don't have a great shot or puck-handling skills, but I am fairly fast (still trying to get faster though) and aggressive. I like that you can hit (not punch, they don't allow fighting in our league) other players and that it can be quite a battle to get to or keep the puck. I play defense and it's a great feeling to keep the puck in the zone or get it out of our end, to make a good pass or to steal the puck from an opposing player. I like battling for the puck against the boards and skating as fast as I can to get to the puck first. I definitely get my share of penalties: some I think are good calls, others not so much. I also take a lot of hits: I draw some penalties, but not many; I'm okay with that. I just enjoy the game! It is a blast!

Now if I could just figure out how to get paid to play hockey......I guess I can dream