Oh Ye Of Little Faith...

Pre-Game chat with Dad:

Me: "I just hope that the Wolves don't get their asses handed to them tonight."
Dad: "It has been a week since they've played. And Iowa has those new guys from the NHL on their team."
Me: "I guess we'll just have to see."

The Game:

Puck is dropped and the Wolves gain control.
43 seconds in... Shot and a GOOOOOOAL!
1-0

Back to the center line, the puck is dropped again. Wolves again gain control.
1 minute 3 seconds in... Shot and a GOOOOOOOAL!!!

At the end of the 1st period it was 3-0.
At the end of the 2nd period it was 5-0.

3rd period started with the same fire. The Wolves came streaking out of the locker room and kept the pressure on the Iowa Stars.

At 15 minutes the Stars pulled their goalie. Within a few seconds we got an empty netter.

6-0.

Everyone was on their feet, cheering on the Wolves during the last 30 seconds of the game. They get control of the puck yet again, take it down to ice.

Shot and a GOOOOOOOAL!!

With seven seconds to go, they score their 7th goal of the game. The crowd goes NUTS. The clock winds down, the game is over.

1 down, 3 to go and we clinch the Western Division Championship and continue on in our quest for the Calder Cup.

Heading out to the car, a spectacular sight greeted us all.
Guess the full moon brought the beast out in our Wolves.

Here's hoping the beasts stay around for the next 3 games.

In Hostile Territory

Last night my father and I followed the Wolves north on their quest for the Calder Cup. We made the drive up to Wisconsin to watch the 3rd match-up between the Chicago Wolves and the Milwaukee Admirals. At the beginning of yesterday’s game the standings were 2-0, with the Wolves winning 2 games to the Admirals 0.

No offense meant to any Wisconsinites that may be reading, but there were some seriously hostile cheese-heads at that game.

We were a few rows from the glass and sitting behind us was just the MOST obnoxious group I’ve ever experienced. These people never stopped shooting their mouths off. The arena gave away bang sticks (big inflatable plastic tubes that you hit together to make noise) and the guy directly behind me, any time I started to cheer the wolves, would start up.

bang banG baNG bANG BANG WHAP! Right on my head, he’d hit me with these damn things. It must have happened at least a dozen times. And I kept hoping my dad didn’t see. Last thing I wanted was for him to go into ‘protective’ mode and kill some jackass for hitting me with a balloon.

This same guy decided to imitate me, every time I cheered. By the end of the game I was ready to turn around and spill my drink on him, I really was.

I also noticed a difference in the style of fan cheering and arena announcing. The Admiral fans didn’t so much cheer their team as make fun of ours. Attacking different players and booing every single call the Ref made against their team, even when it was totally legitimate. And they kept yelling “Send the Wolves back to the barn!” Cause, you know… Chicago is known worldwide for its… barns.

The Wolves pull a larger crowd to their games, hands down. There were almost as many Wolves games at the game in Wisconsin last night as there were Admiral fans. And the Wolves do more for their fans. Before every game there is a 3-5 minute firework, pyrotechnic, music show. The team skates out of a giant wolf’s mouth while the paws shoot towers of flame into the sky. For the Admirals? Nothing. And I mean NOTHING. They announced the team, sang the national anthem and dropped the puck.

As for the arena announcements, they were fairly immature. At the Wolves home games, whoever scores gets the same announcement. Team, player and assists. Right after the goal, as soon as play resumes. They try to keep it even and the only thing they do differently for the home team is announce how many of the season it is for the scorer. In Milwaukee it was completely different. They would mumble something about Wolves goal and then, about 45 seconds later, mumble the person who scored.

When the Wolves got a penalty it was announced “Wolves PENALTYYYYYYYYYYYYY!” And when it was over they would say “Teams are evenly matched.” to which the Admiral fans would response “That’s debatable!”

All in all, I was rather unimpressed with the sportsmanship of the Admiral fans. Even while we were just walking to get drinks or hit the bathroom people were booing us because we had Wolves Jerseys on.

But that’s ok. We won anyways.

All Hockey!! All The Time!!

This Saturday was my father's birthday, so I arranged for a little public humiliation at the hockey game...


Monday night was the Season Ticket Holder Autograph Party. I got to meet my two favorite players!!!
Boris Valabik and his fists of fury. No I was not sitting down at the time and no he wasn't standing on a chair. He's just ginormous. (God I have a fat face!!)

Freddie Brathwaite, the goalie who dreams of becoming, of all things, a weather man...

If I look like I was blushing in that first picture it's not just because I was hugging one my favorite players. Just before I entered the room my dad came up and gave me this...
A personalized autograph from Freddie that says "To Kelly, How is the weather?" This was before I had a chance to meet him and, in typical Kelly fashion, I got excited and yelled to my dad "You're the best Daddy EVER!" Right in front of, oh, 7 or 8 of the players I was about to meet. They laughed, I blushed, then laughed, then felt dumb all night long. Well, it's not like I didn't humiliate myself last year around the team...

Skates was there, being his usual cute self...


This picture made Kari's year.
Later on she gave him a kiss and he got all shy and hid his face and I thought she was going to just cry she was so happy. She absolutely LOVES Skates.

Of course I had to get in on the Skates action. He's too cute to resist.

The party was held at Gameworks, which is a huge arcade. Here's Daddy playing a racing game against 6 other people. I think he came in 2nd. (Don't I look just like him?)

More Reading and A Hockey Hero

The Beekeeper’s Apprentice – 384pgs

Let me start with a thank you to Chris and everyone else who harassed bullied convinced me to read The Beekeeper’s Apprentice. I absolutely loved it. The author nailed Holmes dead on, which was my biggest worry about reading the book. Once I got going in the story I couldn’t put it down. I can’t wait to get to the bookstore to get the next story in the series.

Weird thing is though… the ending of the book, the mysterious villain that is revealed to them all, is the SAME PERSON that I used in a dorky little Holmes short story that I wrote back in January, before I even owned the book. (No, you cannot read it, it sucks.)

Scene: Allstate Arena, Sunday night, Wolves vs. the San Antonio Rampage

The Rampage make a breakaway, the lone player pushes ahead of the Wolf pack, heading towards the defenseless goalie.

Colin Stuart puts on an extra burst of speed and charges up the rink, but he knows he can’t make it in time. So he throws himself onto the ice, using his momentum, and throws his stick out in a wild and desperate bid to knock the puck away.

It works, the breakaway goal is avoided and the fans begin to cheer the hero, until the Ref’s whistle blows and Stuart is ridiculously sent to the penalty box for, of all things, interference. (It would have only been interference if he HADN’T touch the puck.)

Boos echo around the arena as play resumes. The Wolves, distracted by the unfair call, allow a goal past, bringing the score to a tie, 1-1.

As yet more boos echo, I place my hands around my mouth and yell out, in a remarkably loud voice if I may say so myself, “Ref you SUCK!”

Cries of “You tell him!” and “You go girl!” respond to my shout and I laugh.

Later, while slipping out to use the little girl’s room, I push past a group of 7yr old boys who proceed to tell me how awesome I am, because I told the ref that he sucked. Upon my return one of the boys nearly slapped me with a mini-hockey stick on accident.

“Oh, don’t hit me!” I exclaimed, backing away.

“We wouldn’t hit you! We love you! You’re awesome! You told the Ref he sucked! That was really cool! You’re really cool!”

All night, while I kept shouting at the team, cries of “Where’s the damn defense people?” “High sticking! Open your eyes Ref!” and my personal favorite “Whiff! Nice miss there pal!” the kids would cheer and laugh and stare at me for a while.

That's right kids. Stay in school and eat your vegetables and one day you might be as obnoxious as me!

What Does Today's Girl On The Go Wear?

To the hockey game???



(We lost. )