Not Just Any Sunday

It’s May 17th, 2009.  Its 2:50 pm.

You are Nicklas Lidstrom.  Your body aches everywhere but the pain reminds you that you’re alive.  You take in the crisp air of Joe Louis Arena as you stand on the ice, but you ignore the crowd and the sounds that surround you.  You think back to your first time in the playoffs, when you played the same Blackhawks franchise that you will play today.  You think about the sting of losing that series, about how you were young and wanted to win so badly.  You’ve been driven by those early experiences ever since.

You were never the biggest guy on the ice, nor were you the most physical, but you were tough.  Tough enough to play in 1,330 regular season NHL games over seventeen seasons; tough enough to never miss the playoffs; tough enough to be warming up for your 225th playoff game; tough enough to have never missed a single one; but most of all, tough enough to win the Stanley Cup four times.

Better on Ice

For my first blog post I thought I was going to write about my first couple days interning for the Binghamton Mets, the AA Eastern League affiliate of the New York Mets.  But since I’m a Phillies fan (and because it was just going to be too hard to put into words how much I had to do) I decided that writing about working for the Mets was not important at this time. 

What is important is the time of the year it is—May.  This means it is time for the NHL and NBA playoffs.  One of these I love and the other I just get annoyed with.

First, for the one that I love.  This is the NHL playoffs.  To me nothing beats the excitement of playoff hockey.  Yes, the NHL does a horrible job of getting itself out there (thanks Gary Bettman) but when you can actually watch a game it puts you on the edge of your couch.  An OT game is even better.  In fact I say it is the most exciting moments in any of the professional sports.  A goal can end it at anytime and anyway.

Blackhawks Game 6 Running Diary

Well the burden of the first real post apparently falls on me.  None of the other guys seemed to want the job.  I was trying to think of what I would do for my first post and decided to jot down some notes while I watched the Blackhawks playoff game with my longtime friend, Blake.  Anyway, here goes:

May 11th, 2009

8:11 pm : We arrived late to Old Chicago, the restaurant we finally decided to watch the game at, so we missed the puck drop.  Unfortunately, the special tonight is $1.00 OFF select beers instead of the beers being $1.00, like we thought.  Too bad.

8:17 pm : Chicago manages to kill their penalty.  I decide on a “Avery Brewing’s Collaboration not Litigation Ale,” whatever that means.  Blake gets a Sam Adam’s Summer Ale.  Both draft of course.

8:19 pm : Havlat gets a huge breakaway but gets stoned cold by Luongo. The bar got excited, only to be disappointed.

8:23 pm : The game has been fairly uneventful thus far, but they’ve played a lot of hockey with few breaks so I’m not complaining.  The beer is definitely a thumbs up but it has too much of a sweet aftertaste.  I don’t know much about different beer glasses, but this glass seems pretty sissy. (It’s the size of my fist for reference.)  I’ll have to ask Gianni about it.