Tonight, I rang in the New Year by watching the Winterhawks in lieu of my normal Bears. Sure, there's B2, but the Hawks were also live.

I have to say that it's really true that the farther you get away from the NHL the more.... um.. interesting the play gets. The way I put it to one of the friends there with me, in the NHL, the dipsy-doodle passes make it to someone 90% of the time, as the passes are decent, and the other person is there. In the AHL, the passes make it to someone 75% of the time, and about 15% of that is inadvertent or the recipient has to work their butt off to get there. In the CHL (Hawks) passes are missed by both teams more often than not. Maybe my paradigm needs shifting, absolutely it's a training league, yes not all of them are that bad, but holy heck. I though the BEARS spent a lot of time digging at each other's ankles in the corners.
Of course, what they lack in skill, the Hawks almost make up in cute and tiny points. I swear, they're like Mini-Players, as even the goalies don't look the width of some of the scrawnier Bears or Pens. They also got me to guffaw out loud standing in the benches for the anthem... the boards were at waist level on them, while they're at hip joint or lower level on all the big boys. I kept waiting for someone to just eat it coming out, but remarkably, they all seemed to make it. Of course, both teams had some trouble with the vertical DURING the game.

Not even to mention Goalie Who Will Be The Next Ty Conklin. Mucha, whatever your first name is, STOP IT NOW before you get to that. Don't go down that primrose path. Don't make me find the bungees for you too. Also, mad props to the coach who pulled the Hawk goalie as the T-Birds were bearing down on their end of the rink. Mad props. Really. Mad.

Final score was 6-3, I believe, NOT in Portland's favor.

Anyway.... It's 2am and I don't feel like finding the needed cordage to attach my camera and download the three or four pictures I took (as we were in the nosebleederish section, which is significantly farther away from the ice than in Giant Center as you're not stacked as vertically so most of them were kinda useless shots) so instead you're getting a pre-emptive image of Colby Armstrong being a doof.

I love that guy.




Happy 2008!