Blues with the Blues

It was the best of times it was the worst of times!

It was a tall order already down 3 games to none in the series. They only had to win the next 4 in a row.

The Blues started out good, gave up a soft goal in the first six minutes, but held the Canucks off the rest of the period. You good feel the air just go out of the place when Vancouver took a 2-0 lead in the 2nd period. Not good!

But I'll be damned if they didn't get their sticks out their cracks or heads out of their @$$ and they started playing hockey! They actually came back and tied it up on two amazing goals within minutes of each other. Another puck that went behind the goal line a few minutes later was called no goal by the officials. Boooo!!!

We were on the edge of our seats all throughout the overtime, the Blues were just one shot from extending the series one more game.

Then with only 20 seconds left in the 1st OT it happened. A Vancouver player jumped on a loose puck that was dumped along the boards in the St. Louis zone. The Blues defenseman knew he couldn't beat him to the puck as the rest of the team was making a line change so he collapsed towards the net, Burrows took a sharp angle shot on goal and I could see it hit the twine behind the goalie and that was it. The dream was over.

Vancouver had quite a celebration on the ice and the Blues looked down and lost. Then all of a sudden everyone in the arena started chanting "Let's Go Blues! Let's Go Blues!" It was a nice tribute to a team that had fought so hard the last two months just to get into the playoffs from being last place in the conference in January.

It was fun, but dissapointing. I'm glad I was there!

Hockey Night!

We went to the St. Louis Blues hockey game Friday night against the Anaheim Ducks (they are no longer known as Mighty Ducks). The occasion was Sierra and Gabe cashing in their chore Stars to go to the game. They each have set chores to do during the week, but there are also "bonus" chores that they can choose from that range in severity from 3 to 5 stars. They can cash in their accumulated stars for a variety of treats or activities. They both decided to go for the High 35 Star reward of a hockey game. I was glad!

I found an offer for the tickets on Craigslist a couple of days earlier and was able to get a good deal on four seats in the lower bowl of the arena. I got out of work early and arrived home to change into my Clarkson hockey jersey (there were two Clarkson Alum playing for the Ducks, Todd Marchant and Kent Huskins). We headed north into the night and then pulled over on the shoulder of the highway just north of Perryville.



I had set a reminder on my cell phone to hopefully catch a glimpse of the International Space Station and the space shuttle Endeavour. The night before was very cloudy, so I missed seeing it. We got out of the car and saw it just coming into view in the western sky. It was booking along and went right overhead of us to the east. Sierra took a take a movie of it on her Lumix digital camera, but it was much too tiny against the night sky to make out.



We got to the arena in good time and was surprised that the lot parking nearby was only $5. It's usually around $10 or 15, I guess times are tough!

Dreamtime

Well I have definitely been known to have some crazy dreams, but this one woke me up around quarter to five this morning. I was dreaming that Kel, Gabe, Sierra and I were going to a hockey game and we were meeting up with a high school friend of mine that I haven't seen in years.

We were walking to the game, which turned out to be at the Montreal Forum. After waiting in line I realized that I didn't have any tickets and I had to find the will call and pick them up there. The lady told me that the will call was upstairs in the church! Okay, I'm game, so I headed up there while everyone else waited in line. Then Gabe said he wanted to go with me too.


--le Forum Montréal (Didn't look anything like that in my dream)

As we were waiting in line to get scanned/searched before we entered the main building and head up to the church?! I heard the Hall & Oates song Sara Smile over the sound system and I started singing along.... in my best falsetto..... The French Canadien guys in line started looking at me funny and laughing and then I woke straight up out of my dream, knowing the horror that I was actually singing along to a Hall & Oates song!

I'm not sure what Freud would have said about this, but I guess it's something from my subconscious someplace. I never liked Hall & Oates much when they were popular, but I guess now that 25 or 30 years have passed I am giving myself permission to sing along to their songs in public. We'll see...

"If you want to be free, you know, all you got to do is say so
And when you feel cold, I'll warm you
And when you feel you can't go on, I'll come and hold you

It's you... And me forever"

--from Sara Smile Hall & Oates

Go ahead and sing along! You know you want to...

Now the hockey part of the dream, I definitely know where it came from. I found 4 tickets to the Blues vs. Anaheim Ducks game tomorrow night on craigslist and I have to pick them up at will call. I can't wait!