Leafs vs. Caps, Along With Why I've Been Gone

What a night! A friend of mine couldn't go to the Leafs/Caps game at ACC tonight so I got the tickets from him at face value. In most cities that would be normal but here tickets for the season are sold within a couple hours on the first day so it is always a big deal to get them.

Our seats were in the gods but a great view. I couldn't have asked for a better script, Ovechkin scored a goal for the Caps, but with 30 seconds left in a tie game, Captain Crunch(Mats Sundin) scored the game winner.

The people behind us were hilarious, a bit soused but great fun. They kept hollering "BOYD FRANCHISE DEVERAUX" and swore a lot, but they were so entertaining.
When we were waiting to leave after the game, I noticed one of the guys was using a Carlton(Leafs mascot) hand puppet as a beer cup holder! I asked him if he bought it at the arena because I'd love to get one and he just gave it to us, to "make up for all the swearing" What a nice guy! My kid named his new acquisition Mats Boyd Sundin.

As for where the hell I've been the past few weeks, I had to give myself a crash course in sports other than hockey. Apparently they really do exist! The reason is that I've been accepted into a brand new private college, devoted exclusively to sports media. Radio, TV, print, online - they have promised to teach us all we need to know to get started in the biz. Despite not knowing much about basketball, football, or baseball my passion for hockey, along with my voice and writing skills helped me get my foot in the door.

My emotions run the gamut from nervous as a virgin during Fleet Week to sheer joy. For over 20 years I have wanted a career in broadcasting and dabbled in it until life gave me other plans. I always knew I'd end up back in school but never expected it to happen so quickly, quickly being a relative term. This is an overnight decision that took 20 years! Simply put, this opportunity is too good to let slip away, and people in the field have told me this is what they'd do of they were not already in media.

Wish me luck, and if I don't get to this often, it's because I'll be working ym way towards a diploma.

A Holly Jolly Hockey Holiday

I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays! I'll spare you the non-hockey details of my trip to Washington, DC no matter how amusing they were to me. On the first day that we did touristy things, I spotted this vehicle on Capitol Hill:




Like any good hockey fan, first thing I did once the trip details were finalised was to check the schedule. LUCK! The Caps were hosting the Lightning on Boxing Day so I bought 2 tickets, 2 tickets so great I couldn't believe they were still up for grabs. I shall let the pics do the talking.








Coming from Toronto where tickets are sold out the first day of sale I was floored that such prime seats were there for the taking. I also bought tickets to the New Year's Day game vs. the Ottawa Senators. Those were farther up and I didn't bother taking pics. The Caps came through for me and doubled the Sens, 6-3.

What struck be most about both Caps games was how empty the arena was. To say it was at 50% full would be generous. I know DC is not a hockey town, but a lifelong hockey fan, as a long suffering Leafs fan, seeing all those empty seats when a player of Ovechkin's skill plays...to me, it's a hockey sin.

O Canada!

How sweet to come home from Christmas holidays in time to see the Canadian JRs win a fourth straight gold medal! I'll post more later, likely Monday night as I've got to wake up for hockey practice at 0:600