hockey day in canada

some things really work out for the best. i mean, what were the odds that i was going to get from san francisco to toronto this weekend for free? sometimes good things come to people who travel a lot for work.

i got in yesterday (friday) afternoon to the toronto airport after only a little bit of airline drama. after clearing customs and taking a car over to the Westin downtown, I realized there was a really good chance the Wings would be staying in the same hotel -- the ACC is right across the street and this is a nice hotel (34th floor harbor views - using Starpoints! I digress...).

friday afternoon i ran into some players (lebda, downey, homer) and coaches (mclellan, maclean). i also hung out with a group of autograph whores for 10 minutes down in front of the hotel. those guys are ridiculous, and they're the reason that players don't like to give autographs. "here, nick, please sign my pro set 1994 card, the one with you backchecking pat falloon...no? please??"...give me a break...the guys said they come wait out here no matter what team is in town.

so around 6:00 i made my way over in a cab (the one i took from homer) to exhibition place, where the alumni game was going to take place. that was great -- only about 2,000 people showed up, but that's more than are sometimes in the stands at the joe when the puck drops for a versus 7pm game. just kidding. anyway, it was an amazing time, and the boyhood memories from HNIC came rushing back almost as fast as marcel dionne skated. man, that guy is amazing. other notes:

• mickey still has a lot of crispness on the shot and was trying to play kind of a puck-possession game (i guess that's what you get when you call 41 home games)
  
• klima is still klima (kind of a ham, and still tapes the stick in stripes)
• funny that woolley is on the alumni squad while chelios rests for the big game tomorrow
• probert definitely does NOT still have it, whatever it was. that year in 1987-88 when he got to play LW in the all-star game on a line with the great one? wow. funny how life changes things a lot.
• surprisingly, ciccarelli did not look all that nimble, and kocur and burr looked kinda tired
  
• Tiger Williams is still messing around every chance he gets - he was sticking fans wearing Wings jerseys when he'd walk to and from the Leafs locker room
• CLEARLY everyone was having a good time
• Marcel Dionne scoring on a slapshot on a penalty shot was the highlight of my evening

below are some pics from the game. i ran into mickey in the hotel elevator on my way back from breakfast and he said he's calling the game with ken today. just got some great seats in the lower level down where the wings shoot twice so i can't wait. off to the hall of fame now to check things out before the game.

click on photos for full-res.

Klima warming up:

Dionne getting the legs ready:

Mick chatting it up at center ice:

Dionne and Tiger - does it get any better?:

Woolley and Dino:


The A-line of Dionne, Mick, and Klima gives one up!:


View of the bench:


Rekindling a relationship, eh?:


Fat-suit hockey @ intermission -- brilliant!:


Running lots of biased old HNIC DET/TOR highlights:

hockey night in so cal

this past weekend marked the start of the wings' first west-coast road trip of the year. gone are the schedules from the early part of the decade where we'd start the season out here, in order to make one less trip during the year. but, this was pretty close to the beginning -- the wings only played 5 games before flying from detroit to LA on saturday night.

sunday at staples saw the wings play a solid game in front of a red-hot chris osgood, en route to a 4-1 victory. kris draper had a great shortie, and zetterberg scored on an amazing around-the-net move in the 3rd to seal it.

i flew down early monday morning to catch the game in anaheim that night. brian and i hung out all day -- he picked me up from the airport around 9:30, i checked out his new place (and his inventive 80" television), and we rode the beach cruisers over to brunch at a new place in venice. he told me all about his brilliant thesis idea, which i am confident will rock the foundations of political economy for generations to come (as soon as it is done in 3 years).

pretty soon after brunch we did the drive down to OC to avoid the traffic...after a quick stop to check out a beer garden that turned out not to be open, we scoped out the new trek 08 OCLV frames at a bike shop in downtown HB. i know i'm due for a new bike soon, so here's hoping my first bonus is pretty decent...those new frames are awesome. no longer are the top and down tubes completely cylindrical -- they have a kind of "twist" as they approach the junctions with the other tubes -- this makes the total frame stronger, yet the new madone 5.2 is still the lightest carbon frame on the market.

after putzing around near the water for a while (it was actually a pretty dreary day, but stayed dry), we headed inland to anaheim and holed up at starbucks for a while to get some reading and work done. while we were there, the miller lite promo "actress" girls showed up for their pre-game meeting...i of course did not miss the chance to do the miller lite taste test at honda center when we got there later on.

but there was more excitement even before the game! that's right, brian drove us east on katella ave and found a round table pizza...with an air hockey table inside. we only got one game in, which i used to take him down 7-3, and he didn't want the rematch. maybe next road trip. brian had a huge craving for little ceasars that we were not able to fulfill but the round table was pretty darn good. anyway, no one in LA ever notices the irony of walking into a little ceasars with red wings jerseys on...but i guess they didn't recognize it back in michigan either.

we drove over to the arena, at the pizza in the parking lot, and went in. kind of weird to actually have season tickets...i even had the little plastic ticket sleeve you put around your neck. after we did the miller lite challenge and watched the wings warm up, we were about to head to our seats when...all of a sudden...there was teemu selanne, shooting the shit with some fans in the aisle. i really wanted to meet him but felt like it would be lame to ask for a pic...so when he walked away from the other guys and toward me, i just said his name, and thanked him for everything he did for hockey in SoCal. he warmed up right away (despite my red and white jersey) and said it was his pleasure. i told him that steve yzerman was my favorite player, and he said steve yzerman was one of his favorite players (i mentioned this because i remember on yzerman's jersey retirement night in detroit, the wings played the ducks. the ducks' coaches asked the players to stay in the locker room until the ceremony was over, but teemu insisted on going out to watch it, and did). then i asked if we could get a picture, which he obliged, and i felt cool. he's really built for being a "small european player." i realized why i'd not been an NHLer.

so, the game was awesome for 2 periods, as it always is every time we play anaheim. then in the 3rd period, reeling under the weight of having killed penalties all night, we finally broke, and ended up losing 6-3 after one final empty-netter. dom didn't play all that well, but the bottom line is that the ducks are very talented in every aspect of the game. physical, positional, offensive, defensive, goaltending, special teams, whatever. small wonder they did as well as they did last year...of course, the wings let that slip away, but that's another story.

so we did the drive back to venice and crashed since i had a 7am flight back home the next morning. i'd thought my trip was over when i landed in SF, but while waiting for the BART, a guy noticed my wings fleece and asked me if i'd been to the games in LA. we got to talking and got on the same train, and it turned out that he was also a super-fan. pretty cool to know an affiliation with the wings is like a tattoo...it gives you something to talk about.

the game on thursday in san jose was much better. we played our best 3rd period of the year, and it was more of the same old story for the sharks. wings win 4-2. oh well...at least, for them, they have a really cool new HD scoreboard.

already looking forward to the january west coast swing!

lord stanley's cup

easily one of the coolest experiences of my life...being there in person to see the presentation of the stanley cup. ask me another time how i got to be an anaheim ducks season ticket holder. for now, enjoy the show!

fun times with fondue

to celebrate amy's return to health following a ridiculous over-prescribed regimen of antibiotics to treat a staph infection, we had a couple of good friends over for fondue. it was the first time that we'd hosted such an event, and more important, it was the first time we'd gotten to test the new fondue gear we'd acquired for the wedding.

for 4 people, we served (for the oil) a pound of de-veined shrimp, 1 breast of chicken, and a couple of potatoes. for the cheese (the more exciting part - a 3-way swiss mixture boiled with white wine), we served sourdough bread, broccoli, cauliflower, and apples. Yes, I had to look up how to spell cauliflower.

To top it off, we did a chocolate fondue as well, and dipped into it strawberries, marshmallows, and bananas. To die for, especially with the Ghirardelli chocolate chips we melted for the sauce.

Returns exceeded expectations, as evidenced by the pictures below.

cool stumble - glen canyon

this afternoon i went for a run, and went down a little further south (past the park in glen park) than i usually go. i was rewarded with the find of glen canyon, which i had never even heard of, whereupon my run temporarily turned into a mini-hike. just another one of san francisco's natural majesties! the area has stayed undeveloped because of a stream that goes through the canyon (it's really more of a valley), and there were some pretty well-maintained trails in there...but a lot of low-hanging trees.

i now know that i can run up to diamond heights (and avoid the super hilly streets) if i want to. hopefully amy will be healthy again so we can start running together to prep for our next race.