This is the first year that I've really had a long term steady full time job. At the same time, I've moved back in with my parents, I've paid off my car, and I don't have student loans. (Yes, now I'm just bragging.) Basically, I have more money than I know what to do with and it's wonderful! I've been working on saving but I've also been spending a lot of money on hockey-related expenses.
Earlier today I was wondering how much I've actually spent this season on hockey. I'm a little scared to total this up but I've made a lot of notes on a piece of paper right now and I will be chronicling my reaction as it happens...
Okay, first we'll start with the merchandise section. This season I have purchased the following:
For a grand total of.......... $465! The scary thing is that I was considering getting a new jersey (haha, New Jersey) before H2H. I may be rethinking that considering that it would put me over the $500 just on hockey apparel this season.
OH NO! I bought a tshirt at the Hockey Hall of Fame for $15. Adding that to the total, I'm now at $480 for hockey merchandise.
Okay, next are the miscellaneous costs...
H2H Preparty Ticket - $20 H2H Donation - $27 (40-13=$27. Hank and Pavel.) Hockey Hall of Fame ticket - $15 My share of the hotel in Toronto - $90 My share of the hotel in DC - $70 Gas and tolls to Toronto - $60 (estimated since we stopped by Rochester on the way...) Gas and tolls to DC - $70
I am positive that there are more but these are the big ones that I can think of right now. They add up to a grand total of......... $352!
Next up is a very scary category. I am going to attempt to add up how much money I've spent on beer... I really shouldn't try this but I'm going to anyway.
I know that in Toronto, I spent approximately $16 on beer. I know that in DC, I spent $24 on beer at the game, another $10 on beer at the bar and then $9 in shots at the bar for a DC total of $43. At Red Wings games (so far) I've just had $8. I have attempted to count up how many beers I've had at Walleye games and I believe the number is $136 worth but that could be a low estimate. Dear Lord.
This bring my current beer total up to........ $203. God, stadium beer is expensive.
And now, the part that I fear will be the worst. How much money have I spent on hockey tickets total?
My Toronto ticket was $70. My Caps ticket was $80. My Red Wings preseason ticket was $25 but I had to buy both because my bro doesn't have a job (because he's still just a kid) so I spent $50. My H2H ticket is like $35. My Red Wings/Ottawa ticket was $90. My Red Wings/Nashville ticket is $150. (Although, to be fair, I'm not paying for it because SB is awesome.) The amount that I have spent on Walleye tickets is $390 (including the upcoming regular season games that haven't happened yet but we have tickets to.) The total that I have spent on hockey tickets this season is......... $865!!!!!!!! (Including the RW/Nash game)
So the grand total of this hockey season, so far, is..... drumroll please.....
1900 fucking dollars.
Dude. That. Is. Awesome. You know what's scary about that? It's not even the playoffs yet!
I have playoff Walleye tickets to buy, maybe some Red Wings playoff tickets to buy. I want a Franzen jersey. I want this other Walleye tshirt. And I want to go to the Nashville/Blues game on April 10th.
Sooooo the excuse I'm using for my lack of writing is that my laptop was out of commission for about 3 weeks. I hadn't even touched it really because one day it shut off and wouldn't turn back on. I figured I would wait until I got my next paycheck, take it to the Geek Squad and say "Hey! Boy! Make this work again!"
So on Sunday morning I actually took it over there and, of course, it instantly turned on. The Geek looked at me like I was a moron. I sheepishly took my laptop home and it has worked ever since. Then I found $5.
So I'm far too tired to research and write something real right now. Plus there's no NHL so I have nothing new to say so I decided to talk about Herm 2 Hockeytown. Now, with the money that I saved by not having to fix or replace my laptop, I took that money and purchased tickets to H2H for myself, Schmegan and SB. (I also bought a fancy H2H shirt that I'm ecstatic about!)
The majority of people reading this are probably going to know what I'm talking about but for the 5% of you that don't. Here's the deal: Herm is a Red Wings fan and hockey blogger who has never seen a live hockey game. I know, what? Really. That's because he lives in Brazil. Freakin' South America! Do you know how far away that is from here? Really effing far. Oh yeah, and apparently he's never even met another hockey fan. So the plan is to bring Herm to Hockeytown to meet many hockey fans all at once! It's genius, I tell you!
So money is being collected to bring him to the game on March 26th. Since we already have enough money for Herm, all proceeds above and beyond his expenses are donated to the Children's Hospital of Michigan. So seriously, even if you don't support Red Wings fandom, you should at least support helping sick kids.
If you're interested, everything you need to know is found here: Herm 2 Hockeytown. I'm pretty much overwhelmed at how much fun we're going to have that night. I have been to hundreds of NHL games. I was a season ticket holder through the 2008 Stanley Cup season and I can honestly say this is second most excited I've ever been for a hockey game in my life. (Second most? Yes. I was unbelievably and uncontrollably excited for the Stanley Cup Finals Game 5 in 2008. Hmmmmmmm, I'm thinking I should tell this story...)
So this is the story of how I almost quit loving hockey. Lower bowl season tickets. My family put in for 4 season tickets in 1996 and forgot about it. The waiting list was so long and it was just never a thought. One day, in 2004, I checked the mail and received a letter from the Red Wings. It was stating that we were to attend magical seat choosing day. I FLIPPED OUT. Long story short, we somehow got lower bowl season tickets in our first year as ticket holders. (Thank you, lockout!) So I've seen my fair share of Wings games and I'm always excited but that 2008 team made me so nervous and excited at the same time that I couldn't stand it.
So it's Game 5. I know that the Cup is in the building. I know it's somewhere downstairs in a room being shined up. It's the third period and I'm terrified but confident at the same time. I'm thinking, "This is it. I'm here. I'm about to see the Stanley Cup presented to Mr. Nick in person. OH MY GOD." Suddenly I hear the call that it's the last minute of play. We're all standing up and just dying of anticipation. I look up above me and I see tons of people on the catwalks by the ceiling. They have garbage bags full of confetti! A real celebration is about to begin and I'm going to be a part of it! A brown-haired man situates himself right over me on the catwalk and as I'm preparing for my glitter confetti bath... FUCKING MAX TALBOT.
I sat down and I cried a little. Just a little. So the game continues... and continues... and continues. Marc-Andre Fleury did have a phenomenal game and I will never forgive him for that. I teared up during each intermission. My stomach was in knots. People were pacing around and no one knew what to do. Triple overtime. Jiri Hudler gets called on a DOUBLE MINOR penalty. Then I knew it was over. Sykora scores. BAM.
It takes about an hour and 15 minutes to get from Joe Louis Arena to my driveway so it was damn near 3am when I got home. I just sulked and moped around. The next morning I woke up and hoped that it wasn't real, that it was all a bad dream. That's when I got some snacks and I holed up in the basement, the only place in the house with a VCR. First, I watched the 1997 Game 4 tape against the Flyers. I smiled at Shanny and Stevie and I cried when they won. I even found my box of old newspaper clippings and old hockey posters and looked through them. But I wasn't any happier because I had convinced myself that this 2008 team WAS NOT and COULD NOT BE that special 1997 team.
So then I popped in the Return to Hockeytown: 1997-1998 Championship video. I cried about Vladdy. I laughed at Ron Wilson talking about "Hombla-chay-a-pee" or whatever the hell he was talking about. ("It's a good day to die." No, Ron, it was a good day to lose. Is it sad that I've watched that tape so many times that I almost have his entire speech memorized?) But then I got sad again because I was thinking about how the 1998 team was also very special and had a real reason to prove something.
By this time, my best friend Zeus had come over to try to drag me out into the sunshine. Instead, I enticed him to join me in the basement and mope because not only did I have hockey tapes, but I also had snack mix. No one can resist snack mix. So next I put in the tape of Wayne Gretzky's last game. What does that have to do with the Red Wings? Absolutely nothing except I was already being all emotional and dramatic and that's always the best time to watch a little 99 montage accompanied by Sarah McLachlan music, right? I sat and tried to explain to Zeus why this was a big deal but he was still learning about hockey at the time so he didn't fully appreciate it.
The next video was the Red Alert : Hockeytown 3 : 2002 Stanley Cup tape. I just love this one because it's literally a collection of the greatest players of the modern era all on one team. I don't think they were appreciated enough at the time but that team is the most stacked team in history and will continue to be because we are now in the salary cap era. My point being that by this time, I had been locked in the basement for over 7 hours and was still dreading my next decision: Do I attend JoeVision to watch Game 6 or was I just done? Could I handle it? Honestly, I realize that my 2 day depression might sound a little crazy but I just didn't think I could handle them losing that series.
I looked at 1997 and saw a team with a 42 year old monkey on their back. I looked at 1998 and saw a team playing for a fallen teammate. I looked at 2002 and saw so many players going for one last hurrah toward the end of their monumental careers. I could no longer see the great things about 2008. I couldn't see the story of Dallas Drake. I couldn't see the resurgence of "Playoff Ozzie". I couldn't see the return of DMac.
All I saw was a man on a catwalk with a bag of glitter, his disappointed face, and him walking away. That's it.
Eventually, Zeus did talk me into driving up to JLA for Game 6. We went. We had a fantastic time. Everyone knows how the story ends. But that, my friends, is the story of how I almost quit loving hockey. They broke my heart and won me back all in under 48 hours and I'll never ever forget that.
So... 1- What's the closest you've come to quitting? How frustrated have you been? What'd you do? 2- Every season has a story. What's the story of 2009-10? (And don't say injuries. I hate the injuries. I'm saying if the Wings make the Finals, why? How? What makes them special this year?) 3- Didja donate to H2H yet? See, I distracted you with that story but don't think I forgot!
Yes, it's HBOTW day. No, you're not crazy. No, it's not Thursday. Yes, it's Friday. I was planning on waiting another week before bringing this back because I didn't want it to step on the toes of Mascot Mania. At work this morning, I received this:
From: Abby
Sent: Friday, January 15, 2010 11:03 AM
To: Leslie
Subject:
Umm soo… I didn’t get the link for HBOTW yesterday :( Not going to lie my smile faded slightly as I logged onto my email today and did not see it…
I'm hoping this will satisfy her need for hockey boys for this week and that she will appreciate my multi-tasking abilities. I hadn't really been worrying about who the next HBOTW would be because I figured I had another week to think about it. Because last night's game is still fresh on my brain, I'm going to do something that I try not to do. I typically try not to be too Red Wings-centric, as hard as that is for me, but today? I don't care. Today's HBOTW: Patrick Eaves. Because my favorite thing in the world? Dark-haired, scruffy hockey-playing boys. But I had to check in with Abby because she's in charge today...
From: Leslie
Sent: Friday, January 15, 2010 1:11 PM
To: Abby
Subject: heyyyyyy
Since I’m writing this FOR YOU… I don’t remember what kind of hockey guys you always say you like: the pretty ones or the scruffy ones? (Please say scruffy… please say scruffy…) I’m trying to remember what you said in the great Zach and Jordan Parise debate.
From: Abby
Sent: Friday, January 15, 2010 1:12 PM
To: Leslie
Subject: RE: heyyyyyy
Definitely Scruffy! :)
Is he manly enough for ya? He looks very intense and focused and I like that. The beard is a nice touch as well. It's not too sparse and not too full; it is just the right amount.
Even with that ridiculous uniform, he still looks good and surprisingly happy for having to live in Ottawa. Here's an interesting note: Patrick Eaves was born in Calgary but raised in the US. He holds dual citizenship. Oh my god, it's like the best of both worlds! He's Canadian AND he's American!? That makes him like super-human, I think.
I'm really loving to Draper-Helm-Eaves line that's been playing lately and I'm hoping that Eaves really steps up and makes a name for himself. With everyone coming back from injury, it's going to be interesting to see what happens in the next few weeks and who is still going to be playing with the Wings in March and beyond.
So I know that a few weeks ago, I think in the great Zach and Jordan Parise debate in my office, Abby commented that she had to hold out judgment on which brother she liked better until she could see them without shirts on. I googled and searched all afternoon with very little to show for it. Needless to say, that debate is apparently still open (so if anyone does have shirtless Parise brother pics, you know where to find me...). Luckily for Abby, I did run across this picture so she will not be so conflicted about things today:
This is a great picture for a multitude of reasons, namely that he's half-dressed. My complaint about this picture though? His hair. Push that back, brother. You look like you're 40 (And he's not, he was born in 1984.) It looks silly like this, which brings me to my next point:
Patrick Eaves appears to have gone through many different hairstyles during his hockey career. I will show you some examples and then we'll discuss which one we like best, yes?
Now I'm generally not someone who likes long hair on guys, with the exception of Brock Wilson, may he rest in peace in effing Utah, but I think my favorite is the current long-haired Red Wing look. The college, spiky hair is a little goofy looking. The pre-Red Wing picture is good and all but the gravity-defying tuft of hair in the front is a little bit 'pretty boy' for me. Again, just my opinion. So, which Patrick Eaves is your favorite?
PS- Brock Wilson isn't dead. He was traded for a bag of cash because the Walleye had like 11 defensemen. It was a sad, sad day and I'm still working on getting over it. Clearly, I'm not there yet.
UPDATE:
This right here? Is why long hair wins. The moment his helmet came off yesterday was the moment I knew I was right. Yeah, I can see how the middle hair choice isn't fundamentally bad but in the fight, this is what you wanna see. Short hair would never look that sexy while fighting. Just sayin.
Seriously though, Eaves had a fight and a timely 3rd period game-tying goal and he looked good while doing it. I'd say he lived up to his HBOTW status and then some. Also, I love that the moment he started fighting, my phone went crazy with people telling me that "HBOTW is fighting!" Love it! Thanks!
I had never really given a lot of thought to mascots until a few years ago. At that time, I met someone through a mutual friend and I immediately didn't like this kid. I could tell that he was just bad news. He was rude, disrespectful and I couldn't figure out why a 20-something guy was dating young girls. Like YOUNG girls. Like super jailbait, not old enough to drive girls. Then, I found out that this gentleman's profession was to dress up as two very well-known mascots here in town.
I was repulsed by this.
I personally find many things about this guy to be disgusting. To find out that he could be inside that costume, looking at little 12 year old girls and thinking about them sexually made me really think about the fact that you have no idea who is inside those costumes. This is such a creepy idea and I've thought about this so much over the past few years that it's now to the point that mascots really freak me out.
So when the Toledo Walleye announced that this past Sunday's game would be called Mascot Mania, I was apprehensive, as was Schmegan, who attends all the games with me. The plans were that 14 mascots from various sports teams, colleges and businesses around the Toledo area would have mascots at the game. (Yes, the skeevy guy I know was there but I'm not sure which mascot he was that day since he's been 6 of the 14 characters represented. I don't know which one he was assigned that day.) They would be walking around the concourse and messing with people during the first intermission. During the second intermission, they would play a game of dodgeball on the ice. Despite my fear, my curiosity got the best of me and we went to the game anyway.
Even though we knew that the mascots would be out in full force on the concourse during the first intermission, Schmegan and I both really wanted ice cream. We figured it would be safe to sneak upstairs since the ice cream concession stand is just at the top of our section. Well, no. When we came upstairs, we were right in between JJ Jaguar, the mascot for Owens Community College (I wasn't aware they had a mascot), and something called Mudevious, one of the Toledo Mud Hens billion mascots that they've invented. They were both terrifying. They were touching children. They were hitting people on the head and running away. They were causing havoc and I almost had a heart attack.
This reminded me of an instance a few years ago when I was at the NHL All Star Game in Atlanta and all the mascots were wandering around the stands during the Skills Competition. It was insane. That damn Calgary thing would NOT leave me alone. I did not like it and I thought I was going to have to pull a Mactavish to get it to go away. Luckily, it did not come to this.
It was soooooo tempting.
I still don't really understand what this thing is. A dog? A wolf? Does it matter? It's just annoying. And I realized that I'm uncomfortable with mascots running around because I'm not used to that happening at hockey games. I've spent my life going to Red Wings games and they don't have some fool running around in a costume. (I guess they did have Dukes the dog at Toledo Storm games but he never really bothered me because he was tough, awesome and aware of my personal space. It makes me really sad that I just spent 20 minutes searching for a picture of him and I can't find one anyone. Storm hockey is dead and I hate that.)
The point of all of this is that I wanted to take a look at all of the mascots of the NHL. When I was at the All Star Game, I couldn't tell who all of them were because some are really obscure and there's a large percentage of birds and bears. I think that some of the mascots are really random and, honestly, pointless. So over the next few weeks, I will be uncovering who some of these mascots are. Today, we will start with the Central Division...
The Chicago Blackhawks:
This is Tommyhawk. He's some kind of freaky bird thing. According to his profile on the Blackhawks website, he enjoys playing hockey, reading, dancing, spraying silly string, laying eggs, and getting the bird's eye view. His dislikes? Detroit. See, I don't him already. Actually, the real reason I don't like him is his shoes. He's a bird; why does he need shoes? Why do they have laces? Why couldn't he just have bird feet? If I'm supposed to accept that a giant bird is a big cheerleader for a hockey team, why wouldn't I accept that he isn't expected to wear shoes? I don't know. I'm thinking about it too hard.
The Columbus Blue Jackets:
I have a lot of issues with the Columbus Blue Jackets as a whole and Stinger, this giant green bug character, is a big part of that. See, I get the whole Civil War history thing that the Blue Jackets are trying to accomplish. How could I not? I was born in Columbus and have lived in Ohio for 23 of my 24 years on earth. On top of that, I have a degree in history (albeit not with a focus on the Civil War but I do have an above average knowledge of my own local history). But what's the deal with this bug? He's really only around because he was featured on the old Blue Jackets jerseys. But why? I can't figure out if he's supposed to represent something here in Ohio or if he's just a random insect. I can assure you that I have never seen anything like that running around here. What kind of bug is he? Because his name is Stinger, I assume he is some kind of hornet-type thing but if they wanted to pick something "local", they should have gone with a mosquito or a mayfly. Perhaps because mascots are terrifying, they should have just gone with the single most frightening Ohio bug ever: THE CICADA. I just don't understand it.
The Detroit Red Wings: The Red Wings do not have an anthropomorphic, scary mascot running around the stands. I don't really think this counts as a "mascot" then but from googling "Detroit Red Wings mascot", apparently, everyone else considers Al the Octopus to be the mascot of the Red Wings. Okay, fine.
He chills in the rafters with the banners all year long. Then, at the beginning of every playoff game, he explodes out of the jumbotron before going up to loom above the visiting goalie. I'm okay with this because at no point in time does he try to touch me and mess with me in any way.
I just love this picture. I really don't think it's necessary to explain where the Octopus thing comes from. Long story short: It was 1952. It only took 8 games to win the Stanley Cup, 4 wins in each round. Pete and Jerry Cusimano owned a fish market. They threw an octopus on the ice. Wings won the Cup. We still do it today.
I guess it's a mascot in the sense that it's a symbol of the team and the organization. I just generally consider mascots to be scary things that walk around and take pictures with children. That's all.
The Nashville Predators:
Okay, here's a mascot that REALLY freaks me out. This is Gnash of the Nashville Predators. Isn't that some nifty word play? I think the reason I don't enjoy this character is his tight shirt combined with his facial expression. Really, this thing looks like it could kick my ass. It has bulging biceps and rock hard abs. Perhaps I'm just imagining the abs but seriously, this is some scary stuff. Also, the fact that he's wearing the jersey that has his picture on it makes me a little uncomfortable. It would be like me wearing a t shirt with my profile on it and that's just not cool.
The St. Louis Blues:
Now this is a mascot I can get on board with. This is Louie, the St. Louis Blues polar bear. He's not scary; he actually looks very nice. I think my favorite thing about him is his tiny helmet. Compare his facial expression with that of Gnash and you will notice that Louie appears to be a little more laid back and a little less intense. At the same time, if I were to run into Louie in real life, I would probably still be freaked out because he's still a creepy dude inside of a suit.
So, is anyone else as freaked out by mascots as I am? Does anyone know what the deal is with the Stinger, the Blue Jackets bug? Any requests for which division (or for a particular team) that I should feature next? Whatevs. Let me know.
So I started writing this on Thanksgiving but life kinda got in the way and I'm just now finishing it. Pretend Thanksgiving hasn't happened yet. Or pretend that you're just late reading this and that I actually put it up days ago. There, that works.
So what I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving is... consistently inconsistent reffing. Yep, I love that NHL refs sometimes blow calls so ridiculously that you can't help but wonder what the hell they were thinking.
I don't love it because it makes the league look like a joke sometimes. I don't love it because I've spent thousands of dollars supporting the league through tickets and jerseys and playoff tickets and tshirts and my late night shop.nhl.com addiction only to have it thrown back in my face at important moments. I love it because it's something unifying for all hockey fans. I love it because it's not perfect. I love it because it actually is exactly what disproves the tin-foil hat conspiracy theorists because it happens to EVERY SINGLE TEAM. (And I'm a Wings fan and I can say that. There's no conspiracy. We've just been spoiled for years and years and years.) (Actually, that gives me an idea... something for later... hold that thought until next week...)
There are few words that make my hairs stand on end like the words 'intent to blow'. Wow, that sounded dirtier than I meant it. But seriously, every time I hear that phrase, I know that something is about to go horribly wrong. While I think some aspects of it are ridiculous (like the fact that it's become more of a ref CYA than anything), I also don't agree that a bunch of calls need to become reviewable. There are certain things that, yeah, it doesn't seem like it would be that much trouble to have it be reviewable in the war room. At the same time, the more things become reviewable, the more the on-ice officials become obsolete and since robots are my greatest fear, we certainly do not want to make on-ice officials obsolete. And by we, I mean me.
Holy shit, tell me that's not terrifying.
Do I realistically think that could happen? Well, no. My point is that there is always going to be some human error in the game and I'm okay with that. I used to get very frustrated and angry but it's pretty pointless. I'm a big believer that it's good for the soul for people to emotionally invest themselves in something where they have absolutely no control over the outcome. That is being a sports fan. That is being a hockey fan. If you knew that every penalty would be called and every single moment in every game would be run exactly to the letter of the NHL rulebook, would you watch? Would it be interesting? Would there be goons and enforcers? Would there be role players at all or would everything become very homogenized? I guess I'm just trying to defend the referees just a little bit before these videos make them look completely stupid.
So I thought about bad reffing and, obviously, there are tons of examples but these are just the first ones that came to mind and that I could easily find on the youtube.
Ahhhh, the old 'intent to blow' nonsense. Goalie has on black pants. The puck is black. The ref can't possibly be expected to tell the difference between them, right?
I don't know why I remember this as clearly as I do because I really don't care about the Oilers or the Stars. Regardless, it just reminds me how much I hate Fatty McGeough.
Okay, this one is a two parter and it just happened so it was obviously fresh in my memory. This first video shows Ian White scoring with 29 seconds left in the game and the reason that's great is because he had been unjustly penalized with a double minor a few minutes beforehand on a call that shouldn't have been anything. After White's goal, the vid explains.
So everything is great, right? No. The Canes score with like 2 seconds to go in the game and it's really lame so it goes to OT. The Leafs have already been screwed so what are the chances of it happening again? Ugh, intent to blow...
PS- The fact that the Leafs ended up losing this game and that the Canes are the worst team in the NHL makes this all sting just a little bit more.
And just the night before that one, this happened. I don't even have an explanation for this and it's one of the rare times that the NHL has later come forward and said it's maybe kinda sorta just a little bit possible that the call they made wasn't the correct one. Maybe. Possibly.
You can't make a list of badly missed calls without including this one.
So I purposely didn't include anything that was a hooking/holding/slashing type call because those are more debatable and there is a lot more room for judgment calls in that case. I wouldn't necessary call it a ref blunder to just pick out a random instance or video and play it out of context and say, "See there! He missed that!" Within the context of any given game, there are different rules. Sometimes you watch a game and it looks like it's from 1996 with all the clutching and grabbing. I mean, there's basically a different rulebook used during the playoffs versus what gets called in November. But this? Anytime of year. Any year. The weakest call ever. And I was there. I saw it in person. I'm still sore about this. WEAKEST. CALL. FOR. A. PENALTY. SHOT. EVER.
Really? Nick Lidstrom? REALLY? Dude, it's Nick. It's 30 seconds to go in the last regular season game. How shitty. Just... gross. Terrible. Any time Ken Daniels or Mickey Redmond says, "Well, you decide," it means it was a shitty call. Always. I think this call is the reason why I hate Dustin Byfuglien so much actually.
Clearly there are tons more you can think of so post 'em in the comments because I want to watch them too. And am I crazy for being so zen about terrible reffing? Should I be more upset?
