There is no hockey off-season here

Saturday, July 18, 2009

(apparently I do not have a not-blurry photo of just Louis Leblanc so you'll have to settle for this. Louis just to the left of the ref)

Nope. No off-season here.

Today I went off to the Stanley Keg. Which is a mini-tournament that nobody seems to have heard of where mostly local pros play. There was a few NHLers, a lot of AHLers, some NCAAersand some people from some of the European leagues (I didn't know France actually had a league of sorts!).

I'll fully admit that I went to watch Louis Leblanc but then Sarah told me I had to go looking for Marc-Edouard Vlasic because he plays for San Jose. So I got there for the last half of the game before his game (which was before Louis' game). Vlasic's team is totally stacked with higher level players (hello Mathieu Carle so I just saw last week at the Habs' prospect camp!) and it showed as they decimated their opponents. Actually, I spent most of my time trying to find Vlasic - which i failed to do so I just took pics of everyone on his team in the hopes that I would find him later. I did manage to find him actually... YAY!

Moving on... I wandered around a bit inbetween games, ate, watched some of the other action going on in the other rinks, ate more, looked at all the hockey photos they have up at the area, then went back to watch Louis. He was very uncooperative with my camera and I now have a pile of blurry Louis photos. He was really easy to pick out as he had a Habs helmet, the ugly grey jerseys his team was given, Habs pants, and ugly maroon socks. His team completely killed the mostly EICHL (a UK league)-filled opposition. I think the final score was something like 9-2 or 9-3. Oopsies. He got into a little spat with some of the other players from the other team who were understandbly, not happy with the score *g*

Also, I could've sworn I saw Gui (Latendresse) but he wasn't on any of the rosters..... but the guy looked just like him, had a Habs helmet with the number 84 on the back.... hmm... will have to see if I can solve that one...

If you want to see quality hockey, maybe this isn't the best thing to go to (not that the quality was bad but it's obviously not top-notch players playing all out), but it's a great way to spend a July day (which was mostly crappy here anyway). I"ll take any form of hockey in the summer.

Pics can be seen here, here and here.

4 comments:

Number31 said...

I'll wear my Gui shirt tomorrow just in case ;D Woo!

Grrrreg said...

I'm impressed that you are still enjoying watching hockey right now.

Seriously, I love the habs and I love hockey, but so far, I'm really enjoying being away from everything hockey-related this summer. It has nothing to do with the decisions made by the habs, it's just that I seriously needed a little break! Don't you NEED at least a little off-season to refresh your mind? :)

YourHabs said...

That's pretty sweet man. I wish I lived closer to Montreal. The only hockey I get here is the PEI Rocket. I did enjoy watching Lappy when he was captain though.

Eternal Pessimist said...

Grrrreg - What's a break? Seriously, this was the fun I've had watching hockey. No heart-attacks, no hair pulling.... It was very relaxing. I've actually been avoiding most NHL talk for a bit but there is so much OTHER hockey to see *g* I'll get my break in when the Rogers Cup rolls into town in the second week of August. I'll be there cheering on whichever tennis player gets on the court =D

YourHabs (Justin?) - Awww! But the PEI Rockets.. aren't they in the Q? I've heard major junior hockey can be great too. And cheaper...! I really want to check out my Montreal Juniors this season (especially as their season starts so EARLY).

Post a Comment