Attempted Hockey Week in EPland Part 4: HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay so maybe all that excitement I was feeling after my Voltigeurs downed the Tigres was really because I knew that today was HAMMIES DAY!! HAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEES! EEEEEEEEEEEE!

Okay.... Um yeah.... Hammies got to play the Yucky Phantoms. I actually passed through Glenn Falls when I went to DC. Forgot to waive to the Phantoms at the time because I didn't even know that they played in Glenn Falls. Anyway....

HAMMIES. I went totally squealy. I admit it. I think I love my Hammies more than I did back in November even. THEY WERE RIGHT THERE. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

*calms down*

Okay. The game. It got off to a tentative start. The poor Hammies seem to get spoked when they have more than 2,000 people cheering for them. Poor things. The poor Hammies weren't shooting the puck and they just seemed to get stuck in their own zone throughout most of the first period (St. Denis tried to hide out in the penalty box early on in the first period). The SOG seemed to be perpetually stuck at 2 for the poor Hammies. I tried to see if I could hear Guy yelling at them but it was too noisy to hear. He was pretty animated though ;D If we were fearing a repeat of November's game against the Bingy Sens, we really feared for not. PYATT scored with a couple of mins left in the period. WHOOOO! (Pyatt doesn't want to get yelled at during the first break).

Second period was a kinda ugly. Trotter did score within seconds of the second period opening up which was SUPER great. But then it was a party to the penalty box. Maxwell, PK and Stewie all headed off to the box within a four minute span. It was very frustrating after seeing my Voltigeurs spend a lot of the night in the penalty box last night to see the Hammies hiding away in the penalty box too. Poop. Thankfully Teddy was super focused and the PK (THE PK not PK) was either on fire or the Phantoms' PP stunk big time because there were no goals from the Baby Yucky Flyers. The Phantoms made it nice though at the end of the second period though when they coughed up the puck to Trotter who really had no choice but to score (well, okay, so really, Mr. Flyer Goalie Guy should probably have stopped that one, but whatever. We take all the goals that we can get). There were a few posts in there. Really, the Bell Centre posts are fat. We like fat posts when it's the opposing team hitting them, but not so much when it's the Hammies ringing them off the iron.

Moving right along.... Apparently Gluuu went to the penalty box so Pyatt and Stevenson could look SUPER awesome on a short handed breakaway. Yup. Yup. Yup. I like short handed goals. well, when MY teams are scoring them. Not when the stupid Tigres are scoring them (AHEM). But yeah. It was a very pretty goal. Bwahaha... And really... when was the last time Stevenson scored? Oh... in their last game? Okay, but before that? And with five mins left, the Hammies got a PP and..... THEY SCOOOOOOOOOORE! Pyatt again! WHOOHOOOO! That's 5-0 in case you're wondering.

Ole ole ole! Ole! Ole! Hammies say "suck it losing streak at the Bell Centre!!! We win!!!!!"

Hugpile of EPIC win!

EP is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO happy that her Hockey Week got to end in total WIN. Actually, it was all WIN (except for the stupid 67s but meh on them). Picspam of epic win coming up soon!

RANDOM NOTES BECAUSE YOU KNOW YOU LOVE THEM:

• Okay so I actually had to walk around the stupid huge scoreboard thingy to see where the media guys were sitting and after squinting a whole lot, I did see where Flandersdude was :D 
• I never realized how funny it was to watch the opposing team's coaches walking across the ice trying not to slip and die. Don't worry... nobody died.... 
• I could watch Guy yell at the Hammies all day :D He's almost as entertaining to watch as the Hammies.
• Pics are here.  

Attempted Hockey Week in EPland Part 3: Yeah, I just went to Drummondville to cheer on the Voltigeurs

Eeeeeeeeeeeeee! Eeeeeeeeeeeee! Eeeeeeee! VOLTIGEURS.

Can not say that I've been this hyped after a game since.... well, a while.

ANYWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Back in April, EP was headed off to Quebec City for something totally unrelated to hockey. On the way there, she passed by Drummondville. She could not help but notice the huge sign that had been placed near the highway that said "Go Voltigeurs Go". Upon  reading it, she then launched into a rant about the horrendous team that was the Drummondville Voltigeurs. The Voltigeurs were like the evil empire to EP. They were just so damn good it was so maddening. When the Evil Empire crushed Mooski and the Juniors and some other hapless teams in the playoffs, EP hated them even more. Guy Boucher was officially the evil Sith lord and the rest of the Voltigeurs were like those weird white clone doodad things.

Anyway, moving on from the whole weird Star Wars analogy.... As we all know, Guy got hired by the Hammies, the Habs drafted Dumont and Philippe was so great at the training camp that he got a signing contract from the Habs..... And somehow the Voltigeurs became EP's second team in the Q.

The whole point of this stupid story/analogy? If you had asked me back in April if I was going to trek out to the middle of nowhere in Quebec to see - and cheer for - the Drummondville Voltigeurs, I would have called you a bigger nutcase than me.

But of course I seem to continually prove to be a huge nutcase myself and tonight I went to Drummondville to cheer on MY Voltigeurs. Yup. Yup. Yup. Dont' ask how I ended up loving this team. I have no clue. It pretty much happened over night. It's weird. It's like somehow a combination of me really liking Guy as the coach of the Hammies plus the Voltigeurs having two Baby Habs made me like them. Weird. I know. Oh and DiDomenico is a baby Leaf.... =/

It's a pretty awesome building. It's super old - like Verdun Auditorium old - and the seats are super uncomfortable, but the atmosphere is pretty awesome. Oh and my view of the whole rink was pretty awesome too...

Yup that's ice level. Man, the whole boards really shake when someone gets flattened along the boards 

Even though I love the look of the K-Rock Center, I would take the atmosphere of the Centre Marcel Dionne over the K-Rock Center. Atmosphere wins out over arena pretty-ness. And I'm used to enthusiastic, demanding and loud fans who swear in French. Not these super friendly and super polite Ontario people (no offense Ontario people. I love you all too. But you scare me with your friendly-ness).

So it was Victoriaville vs Drummondville tonight. If you recall, the Chris DiDomenico pretty much singlehandedly demolished the Tigres on Wednesday. In Victoriaville. Obviously the Tigres weren't happy with just demolishing the Juniors and they were looking to demolish the Voltigeurs too. Couple that with a big blowout win last night for the Voltigeurs and I wasn't expecting great things from the Voltigeurs in the first period. Good thing my expectations were nill because they came out flat as a pancake. All you need to know is that the SOG were 20-13 for Victoriaville but felt more like 100-2. Jake was fighting the puck the entire period, giving up ugly and untimely rebounds. Really, the first period was summed up with a shorty by Victoriaville. Bleh.

I think the coaches must have yelled at them or something because in-between hiding away in the penalty box for a lot of the second period, the Voltigeurs did manage to score 4 goals. Yes. 4. I was more surprised taht they actually came out with more energy than I was about the fact that they actually scored goals. This team scores goals. DiDomenico continues to prove to me that he's not a defenseman like I kept thinking he was and he scored the first goal just under 2 mins into the game. Lots of other tense moments on the PK followed and then Comtois scored (and yes, Chris had the first assist on it). And then! Desnoyers tried to make up for all of his dumb penalties and scored not once but twice! Because Jake was at my end of the rink when all of this happened, I got to see the Voltigeurs coming over to celebrate their goals with him (and he was kind enough to stand on my side of the rink too. Bwahaha). Jake was really solid in the second period, coming up with some great saves (the posts were also his friend tonight, but in general he had a great second period). 4-2 is a lovely score by the way.

Third period turned a potential repeat of the first period. The Tigres looked like they were on the PP for a huge portions of it even though they weren't. Former Rocket, Doyle scored for the Tigres making the score 4-3 now. 4-3 is not a pretty score. At this point, I was just staring at the clock, hoping it would hurry up and run out of time before the Voltigeurs imploded and allowed another goal. Thankfully though, Comtois scored and it was 5-3 and we could all breath a little easier. Kinda. The Tigres did get around to pulling Poulin and there was more nail biting. But the Voltigeurs hung on - err more like Jake hung on really - and so.... Nyah! Tigres loose. Voltigeurs win! We can all go home happy now. Well, not the Tigres fans who were sitting on the other side of the rink. They get to go home really unhappy.

We win! We win! HUGPILE OF WIN!

OLE OLE OLE! (Yes, they sang that).

A few random notes:

• Funniest thing ever: the crowd was getting seriously annoyed with the refs for calling all kinds of penalties on the Voltigeurs (which they deserved most of, but the Tigres got away with a lot of crap). At one point a guy comes down to ice level and sticks a ten dollar bill in-between the glass. Presumably this was a sarcastic attempt to get the refs to call a penalty on Victoriaville. At least...we hope it was sarcastic and not a real attempt to bribe the refs. 
• Okay so they have huge pictures up from when they won the President's Trophy. For some reason I burst out laughing at the picture of Guy. There's something oddly hilarious about him looking so damn happy. Okay, so maybe at that point sleep deprivation had set in for me (I"m literally closing my eyes while typing this at this point....)  so that's why I just started laughing for no reason, but yeah.... Loved the pic of all the guys (plus Chris in a wheelchair) with the cup thing. Too bad I hated their guts when they won it :D 
• Um was not loving the banner with Itty Bitty's name on it hanging from the super old rafters. Nor the big picture of The French Marshmallow hanging on some random wall. YUCKY. YUCKY. YUCKY.
• I'm probably forgetting to mention something important... like how the baby Habs did or something (they were great by the way. Dumont was everywhere and hitting everyone and talking crap to everyone and Philippe was actually doing a LOT. Poor guy doesn't get any pretty goals to go with all his hard work though).  
• If Canada doesn't make it to the gold medal game on the 28th or if the Voltigeurs get around to changing the time of their game, I'll be back in Drummondville for a Voltigeurs/Juniors game! I bought the tickets forgetting that the stupid gold medal game is the same day.... =/ 
• Pics will be up tomorrow because I'm falling asleep here.............

Attempted Hockey Week in EPland Part 2: Juniors wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin

You didn't think a 2 hour train ride + getting home 12 last night + getting up and running around all day would keep me from going to see my Juniors, did you?

Something has happened to my team. They've gone from failing every single time I go to see them, to actually winning games when I go see them. It's a strange feeling.

The game kicked off with a.... fight..... yeah. A fight. Chouinard got into a fight right off the opening faceoff with Roussel. It turned out to be the only fight of the game but there was soooo much yapping during the game.  Anywhoo, Poudrier kicked off the game for real when he scored just two mins in. Cue cheering! The people behind me with lots of noise maker things were so happy! At least someone was. I was happy too but my ears were not pleased in the least. OUCH.  Parkes made it 2-0 near the end of the period. Any thoughts of a shutout went out the door 20 seconds later when the Juniors forgot that you need to clear the puck passed the blue line for it to be considered offside for the other team... a couple of nice passes later and it was 2-1. Oops.

Second period kicked off where the first one stopped ie. Cucumbers controlled the play. It's really annoying when the play is all down on the opposite side of the rink from you because you can't see very well and it's even more annoying when the Juniors photo guy comes over to my end of the rink and stands there and obstructs my ability to take pics. Oh well.... Nobody scored for what felt like forever (16:39 to be exact) until Parkes scored again! YAY!!! 3-1 is a nice score! And you know what's better than that score? 4-1! With the clock ticking down until everyone would jump up and head for the bathrooms or the snack places, Brenton got a breakaway of sorts and put the Juniors up 4-1! Berube got the first assist too! Hehe.

Berube likes getting assists on goals. Yes, he does. 

Third period saw zero in the way of scoring until the end. With 4 mins to go, I figured I was safe from a third period melt down by the Juniors. Of course that was when the Cucumbers scored. Four mins left and they were now down only by two goals.

Someone must have told the Juniors that blowing this game would make some people very, very angry. They responded immediately with a goal of their own from Poudrier (yes, him again). Annnnnnnnd before the PA guy could finish announcing the goal, Brenton scored! Yes him again!

WHOOOOOO! 6-2!

And that was that. Juniors wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin!

Couple of random things:

• The BabyBenchWarmer has a new mask. Like, it's all painted and everything too!
• The Cucumbers goalie is French. Like, France French. 
• Maybe it's just because we have guys like Eli and Brenton, but the Juniors looked like shrimps next to the Cucumbers. That's okay. They're super fast shrimps. 
• The itty bitty smaller-than-Marcoux goalie during the first intermission was hilarious. When his team scored he was sooo happy. When they were finished their thing, he left the ice waving his hands up and down because his team "won". 
• Some other tiny kids did this shootout thingy. It was funny because a couple of them were showboating after their scored and they both ended up falling flat on their faces :D

Oh and.... Welcome back Chris DiDomenico! He's been out for the Voltigeurs all season because he broke his leg in the playoffs last year... Well, he's back now and he just scored a goal and had three assists as the Voltigeurs sunk the Tigres (IN Victoriaville) 4-2. 

I'd write more, but I'm super tired and I see JARO and Turtle-Pleky on my TV (yes, it's past 12). GO JARO. GO TURTLE-PLEKY. No to Chara. And no to Jagr!

Attempted Hockey Week in EPland Part 1: Kingston here I come!

The aim is to hit 4 games in 7 days in 3 cities. Yes, that sounds like a lot of hockey. It is a lot of hockey. I fully expect this to be almost the end of my live hockey games for this hockey season so you're just going to have to bear with me for this week. The plan - which might change - is: Frontenacs/67s on Monday, Juniors/Cucumbers on Wednesday, Voltigeurs/Tigres on Saturday and HAMMIES (HAMMIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and Phantomthings on Sunday afternoon.

Okay, now you know what  to prepare yourselves for........

Kingston Frontenacs vs Ottawa Blehs 67s

Boy, this was a funny game in so many ways. First of all, I went to the game by myself. I've never actually been to a hockey game by myself because... it's not exactly all that fun to go to a game by yourself. But I went. After navigating Kingston, I found the arena and I found my seat.... which happened to be behind the 67s bench.....

Before we go any further, let me explain something: The 67s and the Fronts are in the same division as my Petes. I do not like the 67s and the Fronts just beat my IceDogs in a shootout last week. I came into this game not knowing who to cheer for. While I don't like the 67s, they're much further ahead of my Petes so it would have been beneficial for them to beat the Fronts. That being said, I didn't really want to cheer against the home team..... It just feels weird plus I didn't know if this crowd got hostile towards visiting team's fans or not.... and I mean, while it might be beneficial for the 67s to win, I still don't like 'em. 

Moving on... so when I found out that I was behind the 67s bench - having forgotten where my seat was when I bought the ticket - I was a little dismayed to see that I was going to be with 67s fans. And not just 67s fans either. SENS fans 67s fans (and no, these ones weren't even from Ottawa. They were somewhere outside of Kingston). The shame and horror of it all, I tell you...... 

67s fan: Are you cheering for the 67s or the Frontenacs?

Me: uh neither. I'm a Petes fan! (thinking afterwards: D'OH. Great way to get hated by EVERYONE in the building, idiot.......).
67s fan: Oh that's nice....

The Fronts came out for the warmup in their jammies practice jerseys. I thought this was strange but then I realized what was happening. They were trying to make everyone forget that they're real jerseys look like this: 

YES BOOINS COLOURS. BOOOOOOO! Suddenly I realized that I was supposed to be a Habs fan and that it was necessary to hate everything that looked even remotely like a Booin. Okay, it didn't go down that way, but I did I remember that I was supposed to be a Petes fan so I decided to cheer for the 67s. Sort of like how you cheer for the Booins to beat the Leafs, you know?

The game itself was kind of myeh at first.  The 67s dominated the first period which kept the crowd really quiet. I mean, I could hear the 67s coach yelling (okay, fine, so I was right behind him. Still. It was quiet). The  end of the first saw the 67s up 2-1. The second period seemed to pick up right up from where the first stopped. ie. the 67s were dominating the play. The Fronts goalie, Beskorowany is around 6'5 which doesn't make him Misshy-sized, but he's still really tall... which makes it funny that the first 67s goal went over his head and into the back of the net. Oops. There was a reason why I was bring up his height but now I forgot what it was.... darn...

Moving right along in that case......... things were looking relatively good. The 67s would keep the Fronts down, the annoying people behind me who would not shut up (more on them later) were annoyed and kids beside me were enthusiastic but in a good toned down sort of way. All this meant of course that the 67s would implode, right? RIGHT.

The 67s completely imploded. The Fronts would score 3 unanswered goals on the Penguin (Peruguni) the Penguin having a so-so game against the Petes was okay. It was not okay to have a so-so game - and a crap second period - was not good against the Fronts. It was like...

After the Fronts second goal: hmmm okay, this isn't too bad. 67s are still up 3-2.
After the third one which was scored pretty soon after: ........... okay, tied game.... 67s can still win this....
After the fourth goal: I hate the 67s....... what a stupid second period this is..... stupid Ottawa........

Sigh. The one and only time I needed the 67s to win a game, they lose. Typical.... Stupid Ottawa. Boohoo..

ANYWAY. A few random notes because your life needs random notes:

• The K-Rock Centre is a lovely rink. If I've remembered right, it's also a very new rink. Only a couple of years at this point. I  heard that there was a lot of controversy about it when they built it. Apparently nobody could agree on where or how to build it. Anyway, the naysayers stink and the building is gorgeous. If they don't want it, I'll take it for my Juniors :D 
• Playing "chipmunk" music (ie making voices super squeaky to sound like those chipmunks) does not impress me. It's annoying after a while..... It's also just plain weird. 
• Sean Avery apparently played for Kingston. UGH. 
• The Fronts have one of the most annoying looking mascots.... it's like some colonial looking guy and some graphic of it appears sporadically on the screen and starts trying to get the crowd to yell. 
• the people behind me were really annoying. They kept talking and the woman in particular was annoying. "What are they doing?", "No, go that way. Why can't they go that way?", "we need a goal like, now!" (even though the Fronts are stuck in their own zone and there is no way in hell that they're going to score). "OMG SKATE". "OMG why can't they skate?!" "Why are they stopping? Is that penalty?" (no, it was offside.....). And I swear she said "jeepers" at one point too. 
• You know where the rest of the pics are *points right*

Question of the day: Which backup goalie has the better hat? :D 

Spencer Emery or Petr Mrazek?