Hockey is back!

Excuse me for deleting my liveblog on the first preseason game. I found a live online feed to watch from Sportsnet and was watching it with friends... I think minimizing it every two seconds would have created even more of a ruckus. Yes, ruckus.

Mostly everyone has covered the media guide, the first game, the Red Carpet extravaganza, and the like. The one weekend that I'm swamped with stuff, I miss everything! Anyway.

I went to the preseason game against the Wild Sunday. Despite it being preseason, I still treated it as a regular season game given the few times I ever get to go to a game. So I was a complete fool there. Luckily, I wasn't the only one as it was the first hockey game for one of my friends which made it fun.

My record of winning games that I was at was 7-0. At this point, it's 7-0-1. I say since it's preseason and it was a shootout loss, it's not technically in my record. Right?

- My seats were awesome. 110 row 18. This was the game included in the season tickets package, so whoever had them (I think my friend's cousin) has a nice view. I'm very jealous.


And I guess it was almost a sold out game, but it didn't look that way. Attendance was 17,311.

-The game itself? We controlled most of the game, and besides the one little mistake from Spacek, (oh Jaro, you and your square head), it was a pretty good game. Boring at parts, but still good.

-I liked the tribute to Paul Newman a la Slapshot. There was a lot of clapping for him and what he did for charities, very nice.


-I'm LOVING the physical/stand up for your teammates kind of stuff going on. I haven't gotten to see the Rivet fight on YouTube yet... and even though there wasn't much with Goose's little fight, it was great to see.
Though, when I noticed that he didn't come back, I got worried. And now we know it's not good... surgery on the ligament in his thumb and out for 3-4 weeks. Bad times for my favorite, how many surgeries has that been now? The tendon stuff 2 seasons ago, sports hernia, this... not fun.
On the upside, it gives us a chance to maybe keep Clarkie in the lineup. Otherwise it could be waivers for my favorite rookie boyfriend :(

-Speaking of, Clarke gave a good effort in the game. He had some chances and set some good plays, like he's really trying hard to say up in the big leagues even with our over abundance of forwards. I was impressed with a lot of the rookies, especially Nate Gerbe. I saw him in rookie camp a few years ago, and it's still the same: he zooms around, goes into the corners, and obviously has the skills. He shouldn't be put in the lineup right away but definitely should be on the list for call ups. Impressive. But dude is short.

-Max was a crazy fool. I didn't see any of the bad actions that usually can come from him, more of the fast skating and the like. He's such a love-hate guy, and it was love that night.
Then Lalime got a lot of cheers for stops when he had the puck and the like. People are definitely liking him already.

- Benoit Pouliot was in the lineup for Minnesota and all I could think of was that NHL Access DVD or clips that they show from the past drafts on the NHL Network where he's doing his hair and depletes half the ozone layer with all the hairspray he uses. I didn't see him up close during the game so no hair check there. (There's a little clip of him here... this video and another one both have parts of him with the hairspray but get cut off. It's srsly a lot though!)

It was a fun time though, and now I'm dying to go to a regular season game. Who knows what's even left now... all I know is that I need to go to one if my Student Activities Board definitely decides to replace the Sabres game with an Syracuse basketball game. I'll kinda play basketball, but not watch it, sorry!

And the Bills 4-0, wooo!! We watched part of Sunday's game when we stopped at my house before the game, and then they showed parts on the screen at the game. Lots of cheers there too.

Oh, and last thing. Is anyone else a "The Office" fan? I'm a HUGEEEE fan and oh. my. god. the premiere. SO GOOD. Favorite part obviously was the Jim and Pam proposal. My friends and I squealed (no other way to describe it) so loud I'm sure people thought we were crazy. Good times.

EDIT: The Vancouver Canucks are naming Roberto Luongo as their captain, with 4 others becoming alternates, and two dealing with officials, then ceremonial issues. Very interesting... we'll see how that plays out.