Monday, March 17, 2008

The Penguins are Popular

Can't be upset at the Penguins for beating the Cryers 7-1. I always like seeing games like that - except for when Richards tried to decapitate Malkin.

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Last Friday on campus we had our annual "Wish Day" where we had a 16-hour ball hockey tournament in the parking lot, a silent auction, entertainment, and all that jazz, all in support of the Children's Wish Foundation of Canada.

I took some pretty sweet pics of local kids playing hockey outside my window - they were on March Break, so they played all...day...long. I watched the two goalies for a few minutes; one was a kid who just had a normal hockey stick, whereas the other one was obviously a competitive goalie because he had ALL the gear and he was diving after those balls like it was the Stanley Cup Finals.



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Okay, so we've had this little promotion thing with the cafeteria for the past few weeks. If you buy a Kraft product, you get a scratch card, and if you scratch two Kraft logos, then you win an NHL pennant. It's all in promotion of Kraft Hockeyville.

Me, being the hockey fan that I am, have been getting up early and going down to the cafeteria to get toast with peanut butter (because the only Kraft products we have are PB and Cheez Whiz, and I am NOT eating plastic 'cheese'). I'll even get toast with PB for dinner. Each time I ask for a card, and each time it mocks me by not showing two logos.

Today, I was down at the other cafeteria and got a scratch card. Oooooo look at that...TWO LOGOS!! I was so excited, I could've cried. The lady at the cash asked me what my favourite team was, and I proudly declared, "The Pittsburgh Penguins!!"

The girl next to me - "Sidney Crosby, eh?"
Me - "Yep." (but hoping that these strangers don't think I'm a puckbunny.)

Cafeteria lady - "Sorry, I don't think we have any left. (looks in the stack) Nope, no Penguins pennants left."

Me - "Any Montreal?"

Cafeteria lady - "Now, I do know that we don't have any Montreal left."

The guy behind me - "I bet there are tons of Torontos left!!!!" (hahaha)

Cafeteria lady - "No Toronto."

So here's what I ended up getting....



I guess that's what happens when you live in a city that is Montreal and Toronto crazy, but is also the hometown to the best player in the world - and current captain of the Penguins.

First, I lost out on a Mooseheads hat signed by all of the players (I made a bid on it during the silent auction on Friday, but some staff guy outbid me. Stupid him), and now I lose out on a Penguins pennant. Sigh.

Let the jobbing begin..

9 comments:

Stoosh said...

Love the photo of the kids playing hockey. It reminds me of what we used to do when we were growing up.

I was lucky enough to grow up in a neighborhood that had about eight or nine other kids who were all relatively the same age, and we were all huge sports fans. We got into hockey when we were all like 11 or 12 years old.

We built two nets out of some old 2x4's that my family had laying around. For nets, we used a couple of old afghan blankets (we nailed them to the posts).

We used a trash can as one goalie. We had another kid who only wanted to play goaltender, but we had no equipment. We took a couple of old couch cushions and duct-taped them around his legs as goalie pads. He had an older brother who played baseball and just happened to be a catcher, so we used his catcher's mask as a goalie mask, the chest protector and a first-baseman's glove as the goalie glove. We used an old tennis racket as a blocker and a sawed-off broom as a stick.

Part of our street was a dead end, so we'd go down to that end of the street and set up the nets, occassionally moving them for cars passing through. We'd play like all afternoon and evening...usually until we couldn't see the puck (either a wiffle ball or a duck-taped Bubble Tape container).

It became even better a couple of years later when we all got rollerblades.

Seeing those pictures made me think of that.

Ashley said...

Great story! That seems to be the same story as many kids who grow up playing the game, eh? Use what you have around the basement - who needs expensive equipment that you grow out of in 6 months?

DaBich said...

OMG! An Ottawa Senators Pennant! Priceless!

Ashley said...

Dabich - lol yeah, and today I got 3 more pennants - Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton. I walked into class with those and someone offered to take the Edmonton pennant off my hands for me :)

Tomorrow, I'll see how many others I can win...I thought about getting the Philly one, and then burning it, but that might've been a little TOO harsh.

Stoosh said...

The best thing about that stuff is that it was all so simplistic, but it was incredibly fun. Like you said, we just used whatever we could find and we made it work. I know we went through a hell of a lot of Bubble Tape. :)

And hey, the new face of hockey grew up learning how to shoot by firing pucks and tennis balls at a dryer.

Even cooler sidenote to the story I told above...

Without sounding too old (I'm 32), I often wonder if kids today still do the same things we used to do. Two of my nephews are about 15 and 10, respectively. They're part of the XBox/Playstation generations...the kids who have always had video games that allow you to play out successive seasons with your favorite team, complete with actual players in true-to-form jerseys.

I can remember being over at their house last spring and getting into a discussion with the rest of my family about the way most kids are nowadays. I remember telling that same story that I told above, and my nephews were in the room when I told it.

The following weekend, they called me up and asked me to stop over because they had something to show me. When I got to their house, they were waiting in the driveway. They went running into the backyard and there were two nets, built out of 2x4's, almost exactly like the ones I had as a kid...the ones I described when I told the story.

They did them almost entirely themselves, with some help from my brother-in-law when it came to cutting the wood. We're going to use them more this year when they get their driveway repaved to wrap around into part of the backyard. I can't wait.

When I was home this past weekend, I found in my mom and dad's garage a couple of old KOHO and Sher-wood hockey sticks that I used when we'd play roller hockey on weekends. The blades are shredded at the bottom from being used on blacktop, but I brought them all home with me anyway. Thank God my dad never threw them out. Once I get my basement finished (it's going to be an all-hockey basement), I'm putting them up on one of the walls.

Ashley said...

Sounds awesome! It's really nice to see kids get outside and start playing hockey, as opposed to just playing a video game.

Last summer, I was in my basement at home and I found an old pair of CCM hockey skates that belong to my dad. I think they must've been from the 70's, when he played hockey in school, but the blades are now rusted. I tried to find his old hockey stick, which used to be around, but he must've thrown it away (or Mom did haha)

DaBich said...

ashely ~ harsh? heck no! go for it!

Stoosh said...

ASHLEY - Just promise us we don't see any news reports about the city of Halifax on fire thanks to a Flyers pennant-burning gone awry.

:)

HockeyKnight said...

That last photo is fantastically artistic! Love it! Frame it and put it in the Louvre.

Oh yea.. and after several days of reading your blogs. I will add yours to my blog list.

Keep up the good work.