"I Am Not Going To Compete With a Puckbunny"

There were so many lines I could have used for the title of this weekends story. I know that, at one point, I had told Kurt that his "It's an American tradition" was gonna be the one. But...well...the one you see came up later on that same night. More on that later.

I got off work early Friday afternoon so I could go help Kristi buy her new car. I drove up to Redmond to pick her up at Jacque's salon. While on our way, we stopped off at the Safeway she works at to cash her paycheck. Then it was backroad after backroad to get up to Everett. We did this since she said that it would be faster than taking the freeway. Which could have been true. But we were winding through so many of those roads, I think we could have made it up there in about the same amount of time.

She bought a blue convertable Volkswagon Cabrio. She seemed pretty excited about it. But I guess we are always pretty excited after we buy a new car. I just hope she takes good care of it. Although I didn't get to take a ride in it, it seems like it's a decent car.

So after we did all that, it was time to head down to the Key Arena. The game was between the Seattle Thunderbirds and the Portland Winter Hawks. The T-Birds came out looking strong and alot more focused than they were the previous week. Although, after all the crap that went on behind the scenes in Seattle with the whole Tomanek situation, I can understand their lack of focus for that weekend. So I think they were determined to put that whole debacle behind them once and for all.

Ryan Gibbons looked strong, scoring two goals in Seattle's 4-1 victory. Ladislav Skurko also scored an empty-netter that sailed all the way down ice and into the Portland net. After that goal, Garth Collins of the Winter Hawks used James McEwan as his personal punching bag off the draw. Then about a minute later, Seattle's Benn Olson dropped the mitts with Frazer McLaren. That one I'll call a draw...even with Olson throwing his elbow pad at McLaren just before they hooked up (which he drew two 10 minute misconducts for).

The big topic of conversation on Friday night was the Thunderbirds St. Patrick's Day jerseys. And the overall decision is that they were horrible. I guess the color would be best described as a light green. But I also heard "puke green", "sea sick green" and the one that damn-near started a brawl, "baby diaper brown". That actaully all happened while we were outside during the first intermission. The topic was the jerseys. But Jacque and I turned the subject between us to her and Kristi coloring their hair a few nights before. Just after I told her that I thought it looked good, Jeff piped up with "it looks like baby diaper brown to me". Jacque was kinda stunned and asked "what"? Jeff looked at her and said "the Thunderbirds jersey's look like they're baby diaper brown". Looking relieved, Jacque said "oh, okay". She thought he was talking about her new hair color (lol). Which looked more like a dark red to me.

Interesting people sitting around me on Friday. To my right was a dad with his very young son (I would guess around 2 or so). And to my left was a really bad first date. The girl sitting directly to my left was so put-off by her date that she just kept asking me questions about what was happening out there on the ice. The couple probably had three or four small conversations the whole time they were there.

And then the kid on my right. Well, once again our section was selected to go diving for Tim's potato chips for their "Crunch of the Night" promotion. I tried getting some for Emily (since she hates me whenever I catch some...lol). But I didn't get any. But the family to my right did. They got a pack of my favorite...Jalapeno. But I still learned a valuable lesson from them. Whatever you do, don't feed your two year old child Jalapeno chips. The dad gave him a small one, and the kid didn't stop crying for at least five minutes.

Kara also made the trip up there to Seattle for the game. I only saw her once, though. And I would have missed her had Karin not pointed her out to me (lol). She gave me a San Antonio Rampage puck that she got when she was at a game there while she was in the army. So that was really cool of her to do. Thanks, Kara :)

Saturday was a day for the books. Probably one of the best days...if not THE best day...of all the non-roadie days this or any other year. I don't count games between Everett and Portland as "roadies" since I go to those cities (with Seattle in between) any day of the week.

On the way down there, somewhere around Vader, I saw a small doe grazing just off the road. Actually, the doe was standing on the shoulder of the road while eating the grass just off it. I've seen alot of deer over the years on I-90. But this was probably the 2nd or 3rd time I've ever seen one on I-5. But the other two were dead (lol).

I met Kurt in the mall parking lot at Jantzen Beach. Without getting out of the car, I just tailed him to this place called "Acropolis" in Milwaukie for some killer steaks. He had been telling me all about it practically the entire season. And we finally found a day where he could take me to it. Without getting us into too much trouble, I'll say that the food was outstanding and the entertainment was even better (lol). I've been debating with myself over the last couple days as to how much I would tell about the place. The one thing I will say is that I'll never look at a Zippo lighter the same way again (haha).

And we'll leave it at that.

Then we weaved our way through Portland to the Rose Quarter. Just after we got there, Kurt and I noticed this strange girl sneaking around behind this little wall, taking a peek over it every once in a while. She would take her peek, then squat down and do something. This caught our curiosity and, upon taking a closer look, we found out what she was doing; she was smoking a cigarette. At first we estimated her age at around 14 or 15. But as we looked closer, it gradually dropped until we agreed that she couldn't have been more than 10. She was hiding from her mom while she puffed away at her smoke. And that's how easily entertained we can get when there's absolutely nothing else happening around at the time (lol).

While we were outstide the Rose Garden, Kurt and I talked alot about what all went down at the Acropolis while we were staring at the hot girls walking by on their way to the cheerleading competition being held in the Coliseum. After about 15 minutes of this, I told Kurt "okay, clean out your mind. Our conscience is here" as Karin walked up to us fresh from her stint at the scrapbooking show at the Convention Center.

We told her that we were having a good time so far that day. And, of course, the conversation turned to the Thunderbirds sweaters from the night before. Kurt wanted to know if they were as bad as the Portland announcers were saying they were. According to Kurt, Scooter Vrooman said during the broadcast that he was getting sea sick just watching the Thunderbirds skating around out there (lol). I thought that was a pretty accurate description of what most everyone felt Friday night.

After the doors opened, the three of us walked around the concourse a little bit. There was one cool new display that they had there. It was a board with little plaques with the name and number of every Winter Hawk who had ever skated in the NHL. And there were quite a few of them; Mark Messier, Wayne Babych, Dave Babych, Keith Brown, Perry Turnbull, Randy Turnbull, Byron Dafoe, Cam Neely, Ray Ferarro, Glen Wesley, Steve Konowalchuck, Cale Hulse, Richard Zednik, Adam Deadmarsh, Marian Hossa, Marcel Hossa, Brendan Morrow, Joey Tetarenko, Andy Ference, Paul Gaustad and quite a few more. It was an impressive display to say the least.

They also had an auction with all the proceeds going to the young son of the Spokane Chiefs trainer who has cancer. The Winter Hawks organization had called out to many of their alumni to donate whatever items they could spare for the auction. And they came through with flying colors. Marian Hossa donated an autographed jersey of his. Both the Boston Bruins and Anaheim Ducks supplied team autographed sweaters. And there were alot of sticks. Brendan Morrow sent one of his and had both Mike Modano and Marty Turco sign sticks of their own for the auction, too. Dustin Butler gave up his game mask for it. I didn't bid on any of the items (I had already spent enough the day before...lol). But I still thought the whole thing was one of the more awesome things I had seen in a long time.

Before the game upstairs, we ran into Kurt's parents. Of course, they were asking just how bad the Thunderbird jersey's from the night before were (lol). I told them I would point one of them out if I saw one. But I never did. Karin told me later that she saw two of them downstairs during intermission. But I never saw one with my own eyes (thankfully...haha).

Kara came up to us and said that she had $5000 worth of bids floating around in that auction. She went down the list, but I can't remember what all she had bid on and how much. I do remember that she had bid $2000 on something. I asked her how she could afford all of that. She never gave me a straight answer (lol).

Year End Award Time: Line of the Year

At the end of the season, I'm gonna give out a bunch of "awards" for the various things that have happened over this year. But I figured I might as well hand one out early as kind of a teaser (lol). I just thought this was tooooooo funny. Here's how it went...

During the 2nd intermission, Kurt and I were talking to his parents once again. At some point, the PA announcer told the crowd that there were only 5 more minutes to bid on items in the auction. Hearing this, Kurt urged his parents to go downstairs and bid on something. "Come on. You can choke-up $3000 to beat out Kara". At which point Kurt's mom, Erlene (I hope I'm spelling that right) answered......

(drum roll)

"I am not going to compete with a puckbunny".

That line hit me so hard, I damn-near choked on the slice of pizza I was eating I was laughing so hard. I mean, the line was FUNNY! But I think I was more taken back by WHO said it. I never would have expected that to come out of Mrs. Williams mouth (lol). And both the timing and delivery was pitch-perfect.

So congratulations Erlene Williams. You have successfully slayed the one-line dragon known as Tom Winter (who has had a death grip on this award the last few years) for this seasons "Line of the Year" award. And believe me...taking down Tom is no small task. Previous winners in this catergory consist of "Hey Saberkitty! I have $10" (that was good ol' Doug back in the Tacoma Sabercats days), "Good thing you're not a plumber" (Tom W. at the Beaverton Hooters last season) and, of course the all-timer, "could you play something white"?

Your prize is in the mail.

Kara did wind up taking home one of the prizes. I believe it was the leather World Junior Championship jacket. It was a nice jacket. Hopefully that wasn't the one that she bid $2000 on.

In-joke time. During the national anthem, Kurt and I stood there cracking each other up. People were looking at us funny. I think that made us laugh even harder. We know what it's all about. And maybe some of you, too. But it's an in-joke. So I'm not telling you what we were laughing about (lol).

The game was interesting, too. Portland was still playing for something...to lock up third place in the division. Tri-City could still pass them in the standings. But Seattle had their fate sewn up the night before when the beat the Hawks. The Thunderbirds came out and scored the first goal in the first period. The highlight of that period was this great hip-check by Portland's Lenny Thunderchild on Ryan Gibbons. It sent Gibbons cartwheeling through the air before landing on his back. It was classic.

Jon Bubnick and Kyle Bailey scored twice in the 2nd period to give Portland a 2-1 lead. Then 15 year old Thomas Frazee scored in the 3rd to give the Hawks a 3-1 lead. Then one of the more bizarre brawls I've seen broke out. The whole thing started as a small scrum next to the Portland bench. Then, for whatever reason, Seattle's Benn Olson went after Michael Funk. Olson kinda dragged Funk out of the pile and then started punching on him. The Winter Hawks on the ice not wanting to see one of their stars (and a softy, at that) fight Big Benn, all four went screaming after them in hopes of getting Olson off him. Other T-Birds headed them off before they got there and more fights broke out.

But don't worry about "GRAAAAND". He handled himself pretty good. He actually opened up a good-sized cut over Olson's right eye (which the pro-Portland crowd loved). As the various scraps were broken up, James McEwan broke away from the linesman and tried to dive into the Portland bench. But he was caught before he followed through on it. And then, to top it off, McEwan threw a water bottle at a fan on his way back to the locker room.

Seattle/Portland. Are there two more magical names in the hockey world???

Seattle did score one more late goal. But Portland held off a late rally to win the game, 3-2. And with that win, the Winter Hawks wrapped up third place in the US Division. Which also brings with it a first round series with the Thunderbirds. Of course I'll miss the first two games when Tom and I are in Salt Lake City and Boise (lol). But I doubt we'll see any of these types of things in the playoffs. However, it should make the first regular season meeting between the two next season a little more interesting (like they weren't interesting enough in the first place).

I had a headache all day Sunday (lol). Too much excitement the day before, I guess. I drove Rick up to Seattle for the game between the Thunderbirds and Everett. They had the Irish celebration in the Seattle Center House that weekend. So I listened to some traditional Irish music for a little bit. Last week, they had this bongo drummer from Senegal performing. But he spent most of the time on stage pimping his new cd. But I like it when they have stuff like that in the Center House. It reminds me how cool it is to live in such a cultured place like the Puget Sound area.

The game itself was a snoozer. Two teams with their playoff seedings all locked up. Everett didn't play Peter Mueller, and the rest of their top players didn't play much, either. Seattle won the game 4-2. I mean, both teams played like they wanted to win. But there weren't many big hits at all. There wasn't a whole lot of pushing and shoving after the whistle. And, believe it or not, Everett didn't take that many dives (lol). Although they did waste alot of time behind the net with the puck again. This is a tactic that is getting REALLY annoying. The Silvertips take the puck and hold it behind the net while they change lines. Nothing unusual there. Everyone does it. But the worst part is when the d-man comes off the bench, takes the puck from the one who was holding it there, and waits while the other guy skates over there to make his change. And this process usually takes a good 15 seconds to take place.

It's ridiculous. It's legal, but there are those famous "unwritten rules" that you just have to play by. And Everett doesn't. Of course I'll shout out my usual cry and say the league should make a rule about this. But they probably won't. I don't think there are enough teams in the league who have experienced this nonsense yet. So I think if it happens, it'll probably be in time for the start of the season after next.

Okay.....we're just a couple days away from our big trip to Salt Lake City and Boise. Of course, I'll be keeping lots of mental notes and will be more than thrilled to share them with you when I get back.