4 pucks, and adding fuel to the fire :)

So this past week was the Annual College Classic at Germain Arena in Fort Myers.... My family and I like to go every year to support Cornell (Home town team for us) and also it's a great day of hockey! Since Maine won last year, they were back again this year..... and much to the surprise of my daughter, so was her goalie :)

*Emma watching Maine warmup on the glass* All 3 goalies came over and tapped on the glass and waved at her... I swear she was on cloud 9!

So this is my younger brother Tyler, and Emma. Tyler has played hockey since he was Emma's age and still plays in a pickup league on Sundays. Emma spent most of the Classic with my Mom's camera taking pictures of "Her goalies" My brother brought his friend Chad with him, who also plays in the Sunday league, and he was telling Emma all about playing Goalie (he skates out most of the time, but is a goalie) She was listening so intently to him, holding on to every word!

 Emma had a blast at the games! Maine WON again this year, so she's already planning for next year's classic! She managed to walk away from the game with a even more pronounced love for hockey and goalies, and 4 pucks! One from Uncle Tyler, One from SwampHockey, and 2 from the Maine players during warmups :)

My favorite picture of the evening was the Cornell goalie.... He's POCKET SIZE :)

So I think after this weekend, I'm going to need to get Emma some skates and lessons.... Uncle Tyler already bought her a stick.... She really wants to learn how to play hockey. :) I may have a future WNHL player on my hands :)

Got a Case of the Mondays?

Or maybe it's the holidays getting you down. The fabulous (and delicious, bendy, and gigantic) Jacob Markstrom has a cure for what ails you.



I'm endlessly happy that someday he will be playing about two hours away from me when the Panthers give him an NHL gig. Endlessly happy.

All I have left to say is- Gift dig med mig Jakob?

Stick tap to the fabulous Ms. Conduct for bringing that to my attention via Twitter.

Wait for it....

Normally, I wouldn't have any patience for a goalie in a Flyers themed lid.



Nor would I appreciate him and his four game win streak and ECHL goalie of the week honors Ccoming to my barn when my team's goalies deserve every single award the league offers. Even the awards for skaters.



Honestly, I wanted to hate Brian Stewart and his goofy goaltending style and his dumb mask.



And I did manage to... for one period. Then he came on over to my end of the rink and did this...



Let me just transcribe my thoughts as he did his warm-up:

- Oh, hey big boy. Gonna get out position a few more times and let my boys win? I hope so.
- Yup, you're gonna give up so many goals ya big goober.
- Siiieeeevvvveeeee!
- Ooooh, well hello. Look at you. Nice stretching.
- Oh my.
- Oh my.
- Giggle.
- Holy shit you just did a split!YOU JUST DID A SPLIT!
- Oh! Oh!
- WHY IS THERE NO OXYGEN IN THIS ARENA?!
- *untillegible happy noise*
- MARRY ME.

Ahem. Anyway, Brian Stewart. Yes. He's been putting up nice numbers and earned goaltender of the week honors for his four game (now it's five games) win streak. He's a former NCAA goalie... you know what? You guys don't care about this. No normal human being's brain could work after that video. My brain still isn't working at full capacity after witnessing that live.

Let's just all agree that is an excellent warm-up and Brian Stewart is excellent and the only thing that could make it better is a a backbend. Ohhh, never mind. Scratch that, a backbend would have left me comatose for the rest of the game.

I'm not sure how I'm going to survive the next two nights of the series with him trying to impregnate the ice as I watch, but I'm going to tough it out for all of us and take one for the G5H team. Because that's just what I do.

I'll probably need to bring a tank of oxygen though....