Archive for the ‘Hockey’ Category

I took Asher to the Frisco Dr. Pepper Star’s Center last Saturday afternoon for a ‘Dad’s and Lad’s’ skate. It was the first time for Asher to get all suited up in his hockey gear and get out on the ice with stick and puck. As a father, it was a moment I’d been looking forward to since the day we found out Sarah was preggo. I am so proud of him!

Asher had a blast and did great for his first time out. It was a little slow going at first, but he got the hang of it as the session went on. He scored his first goal and even threw his first body check!! (2:40 into the video!). 

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Dear Asher,

Wow, this past month has been insane. Do I say that every month? Well, this month for real! Your mom and I found out that in about 7 months, you’ll be a big brother!! That’s right, you’ll have your very own little one to boss around. We are so excited and can’t wait to find out if you’ll have a little brother or a little sister… We told our friends and family, but I’ll save those stories for next month’s letter.

You are becoming quite the little hockey player. Your wrist shot is already better then your old man’s! All you want to do is play hockey. Last week I made you your very own “real” stick from am old broken shaft of mine cut down to size with a junior blade stuck in the end. We spend hours and hours out in the garage passing and shooting the puck. One of your favorite things to do is to ‘Faceoff’. You either want to pretend you’re the ref and drop the puck for me, or you want to be the center and take the faceoff. You are already working on perfecting your goal-scoring celebrations. You are a master at the fist pump, but you have yet to master the ‘ride the stick-pony’ move.

I’ve had a ton of 7pm Sunday hockey games lately, so mom and you have been coming out to watch a lot. I don’t think you actually watch very much of the game, you just like being there with your little stick and puck. After one recent game, I took you out on the ice and you took a couple shots on goal. It was awesome the way your eyes glimmered as I skated around with you in my arms. After the game, we usually go out for pizza or wings with the team. Last time we went, you apparently weren’t feeling all that great… I thought you were just tired until you erupted like Mt. Vesuvius while sitting in my lap. It was gross… I had puke ALL over me. We got you cleaned up and bailed as soon as we could, but you let loose again about half way home in the car – projectile style. I swear there was puke on the windshield… I spent about 3 hours that night cleaning up yarf in the car, yarf on you, yarf on your mom… Poor little guy… Our house was vomit city, and you were the mayor for about 4 straight nights. I finally figured out that I needed to carry an emergency yarf bowl with me at all times. You are a total trooper though, you’d yarf, then just keep on truckin’ like nothing happened. I admire that.

The last couple of months you’ve started this weird ‘boycotting’ of daddy thing. I try not to take it personally, but it is soooo hard. At least once a day, something happens and you want nothing to do with me. “no daddy” you say. “Go Away”. I guess all working parents go through this at some point, but it doesn’t make it any easier. I think a little piece of me dies each time you scream “I don’t want Daddy”. You usually make up for it later with lots of hugs and kisses though, so it’s all good…

I had such an “I’m turning into my father” moment the other day. You were standing up on a kitchen chair and I kept telling you to sit down on your bottom. I tell you this for your own good because I know, in all my vast wisdom, that standing on kitchen chairs is a very bad idea. Sure enough, it took about 12 seconds for you to tumble head fist off the chair and land with a loud thud on the tile floor. You immediately began to cry, and as I picked you up off the tile, I heard myself say “and that’s why we don’t stand on kitchen chairs!”. Oh God, did I just say that? Here you are, crying in my arms, with a potentially serious injury, and I just told you “that’s what you get for not listening to me”… I am so much like my father in a lot of ways, for better and for worse. And for the record, you cried for about 12 seconds, then you went back to standing on that chair!

Work has been really crazy-busy lately. I’ve been working late quite a bit and when I get home, the first thing I do is to check my email and set up my laptop so I can do more work. A couple weekends ago, we had a power outage in my office building, so I got to work an entire Saturday, shutting down our datacenter and bringing it all back up. You asked me several times after that day, “is the power on daddy?” ”Check email daddy?” “Go to work daddy?” Each day when I get home now you ask me if I was at work in this strange accusatory tone… it’s like you’re checking up on me, making sure I wasn’t out doing something fun without you.

I guess I’ll have to start including info about how your little sibling is coming along, and how your mom is handling it all. We should know a lot more next month!

Love,
Papa

For the second season in row, my hockey team, Alman Electric, was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs 2 games to 1 in a best of three series against the hated Hangovers. We got off to a horrible start in game three going down 2-0 in the opening period. We just had no legs. As usual, we got into penalty trouble in the second and third periods (including a dumb 4 minute penalty to me for slashing). The Hangovers just happen to have the best player in the league playing defense for them, and he single-handedly shut our offense DOWN. He’s so good that the league office told him not to score any goals or he wouldn’t be allowed to play (presumably because he can score at will). Every time we had an odd man rush or a scoring chance, that freaking guy was there to break up the play. I hate him.

Not only did we lose, but I injured my right knee with about 5 minutes left in the game when some douchbag checked me from behind into the boards. It was by far the most painful injury I’ve ever had in my 12 years of playing hockey (and I’ve had a LOT of injuries). I had to be helped off the ice and couldn’t put any weight whatsoever on my swollen knee. I didn’t go to the hospital, but I did end up taking the next day off work. Today it feels 300% better – I can limp around a bit and the pain is at least manageable. The swelling has gone down and the bruising is starting to show. Luckily, I didn’t twist my knee at all during the collision, so all my tendons and ligaments seem to be OK. The majority of the impact was to my kneecap and the bottom of my femur, so I should be good to go when summer season starts up in mid June.

And yes, I did shave off my playoff hockey beard. (Sarah was VERY appreciative)…

Beer League Hockey Playoffs are here once again. My team, Alman Electric, finished second overall in the standings and faced off against the dreaded 3rd place Hangovers. Game 1 was a chess-match, but we put together a great team effort, lead by salacious goaltending and hung on for a 3-2 win. Game 2 was a different story. We got absolutely SCREWED by the refs…. It was like someone put a keg of beer in the penalty box – we couldn’t stay out. We were shorthanded the entire game and lost 4-2. All four goals against were scored while we had guys in the box (2 5-on-3 goals and 2 5-on-4 goals). That had to be one of the worst displays of refereeing in the history of sports… I actually got a 2 minute minor penalty called against me for sneezing on a guy. The deciding game 3 is next Tuesday at 10pm. We’ve got to stay outta the freaking penalty box if we want to have a chance of beating those chumps.

As a side note, I’ve been growing the traditional playoff hockey beard, much to Sarah’s chagrin. I hope it helps my luck on the ice more than it’s helped my luck in the boom-boom-room (if ya know what I mean)…

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07072/769032-61.stm

The last 6 months have been a hellish waiting game, but it was all worth it in the end!! My beloved Penguins will stay in Pittsburgh! Thanks Mario!

From this…

To this!

2 weekends ago our family of three took a little vacation trip… to Pittsburgh, PA. Impossible you say? Vacation? In Pittsburgh? Yes indeedy. We flew up on Friday afternoon and spent the next 3 days soaking up the sun and enjoying the great weather. OK, so it wasn’t all that sunny and it wasn’t even close to being warm… But I still had an absolute blast, and I’m pretty sure Sarah and Asher had a good time too.

My best friend Ryan has been living in Pittsburgh for the past 5 years or so, and this is only the second chance I’ve had to visit. I went up a couple years back in late summertime and caught a Pirates game at PNC. This recent trip has been in the works for a really looooong time. I’m a HUGE Pittsburgh Penguins fan, and even though my mom is from Pittsburgh and I spent a lot of time there as a kid, I’d never been to see the Pens play at home in the Igloo. That was unacceptable, especially since they might not be there much longer… Long story short, on February 18th we saw the Penguins beat the Washington Capitals 3-2 at Melon Arena. It was a dream come true for me (hey, I’ve got attainable dreams alright!). The best part was that I got to see the game with Ryan and share the experience with Sarah and Asher.

We were lucky enough to stay at Ryan’s Aunt and Uncle’s condo at the Hidden Valley Ski Resort about an hour east of the city. I really can’t write enough about how great Ryan and his family were. Ryan chauffeured us around all weekend, which was precarious at times due to the 458ft of snow that fell while we were there. Seriously, it snowed almost non-stop. Ryan and I spent all day Saturday skiing on fresh powder at Hidden Valley, and even though it was about 15 degrees, it was still incredible. I don’t think Sarah had ever been in weather that cold (and I don’t think she’ll ever want to again).

By the way, Asher is the most laid back kid I’ve ever met. On the plane? Awesome. In Ryan’s car? Awesome. At the game? Awesome. Sleeping at night in a strange place? Awesome. Scratching the hell out of Uncle Ryan’s face? Awesome.

Here are some photos from our trip to the Burgh:

The Igloo

The Pens

Me and my baby Penguin

Winter Flower

A Blizzard at Riverview Park

Snow

LOTS of Snow

View from the slopes of Hidden Valley, PA

All of these pics are posted on the photos page under Places –> Pittsburgh – Feb2007

Below are some photos from the Pens vs Stars game back on January 26th. The Penguins won 3-2 in a shootout. We went down to the AAC early to get some pictures of the players warming up…

Sidney Crosby

Jordan Staal

Ryan Malone & Marc-Andre Fluery

Sid the Kid

Evgeni Malkin & Noah Welch

The Future

All of these photos are posted on the photos page under Hockey –> Penguins vs Stars (01-26-2007)

NHL All-Star Week

I was lucky enough to get a chance to attend some of the NHL All-Star festivities a couple of weeks ago, but I haven’t had a chance to write about my experience until now… I had a great time and got a ton of great pictures.

Sarah and I took Asher down to the American Airlines Center on the Saturday before the big game for the All-Star kick off party. It was cold and rainy but they still held a celebrity street hockey game sponsored by the Dennis Leary Firefighters foundation. It was a team of celebs including Jason Whitten of the Dallas Cowboys, some local radio personalities, and a couple of members of the ’99 Stanley Cup Champion Dallas Stars versus a team of local Dallas firefighters. The teams were coached by the two token hot-chicks from the TV show ‘Rescue Me’. It was interesting to see a game of boot hockey played in the pouring rain…

Asher and me – at the AAC

Andrea Roth of ‘Rescue Me’

Wade Williams – Brad Bellick on ‘Prison Break’

On Monday night, the All-Star teams held practices at the AAC as well as a ‘Salute to a Generation of Stars’… It ended up being a lot cooler than it sounds. Cuba Gooding Jr. hosted the event, but the highlight of the evening to me was seeing Mario Lemieux. Before the practices, members of the ’99 Dallas Stars arrived on the red carpet outside carrying the Stanley Cup. It was interesting to see how different they all looked – kind of like going to a 10 year high school reunion. Some guys, like Modano and Belfour, look exactly the same, while others looked… well… like they were thoroughly enjoying retirement (old & fat).

The W Hotel

Stanley Cup Champions of old

Super Mario

Why do I always have a lazy eye in pictures???

On Tuesday night, I got an invitation at the last minute to go to the YoungStars game & Skillz Challenge. It was awesome to see all the greatest hockey players in the world gathered on a single sheet of ice. Getting to see Sidney Crosby skate 3 times in one week was priceless.

South Plaza of the American Airlines Center

Sid the Kid

Crosby – about to humiliate Miikka Kiprusoff

All of these pics are posted on the photos page under Hockey –> 2007 All-Star Week

Remember those “anti-drug” commercials from a couple years ago? I thought it was a pretty good message for kids, but at the time, I couldn’t personally relate to it at all. When I was a teenager, I couldn’t understand why anyone would want to do drugs… All the reasons just seemed so un-JR. I didn’t really care about being “cool”, I didn’t want to “escape” from anything, and I sure as hell wasn’t about to risk my future by getting thrown in jail. It wasn’t until I was 19 that I finally understood… I know it sounds cliche, but after a really bad breakup with my highschool sweetheart, I hurt so bad I just wanted to forget about everything. It was the first time that I realized why someone would take drugs – to make the pain go away. While I never allowed myself to seriously entertain the thought of using drugs to escape, it was a HUGE epiphany in my life to finally understand why people make bad decisions in troubled times… I was working at an ice-rink in Addison during the breakup, and playing hockey was the only thing that made me forget about all the crap I was feeling. The ice became my safe-haven, my therapist, my friend, my anti-drug…

As corny as it is, nothing else in my life equalizes me like playing hockey. I can simultaneously banish all the stress and bad chi from my body while refreshing my mind at the same time. It’s almost a zen-like meditative state when I’m on the ice… the Tao of JR. Haha.

I think the world would be a better place if everyone had their own ice rink.

Yesterday at lunch I drove up to the Dr. Pepper Stars Center in Frisco to watch the Dallas Stars practice. I figured it would be a perfect chance to try out the new camera we got for Christmas this year (Nikon D50). No matter how many times I watch those guys skate, I’m always amazed at their skill and speed on the ice. I think I could just stand there for days watching them run drills and skate around…

I’m still getting to know the camera and all it’s settings and intricacies, but here are some of the better action shots I took. Keep in mind that I’m shooting through an inch of scratched-up glass and the lighting is absolutely awful…

Towards the end of the practice, Bill Guerin brought his son out on the ice and passed the puck around with him. It was great to be able to watch him just being a dad – it makes you realize that they are normal dudes living extraordinary lives…