THAT's TWO!

What a day! A very crazy unsettling day, with ups and downs to make your nerves rattled. Since so much related to hockey went on today, this one is going to be long. So, get comfortable if you wish, and I’ll try to bullet point it to make it easier to skim through for those short on time and patience.

Snow & Dey on NHL Live:
Don & E.J. had been promoting the fact that Garth would be on today’s live broadcast since last week. Then I realized that it was coinciding with the Islanders taking the Project Hope Chinese team to NYC. Check out Jason Lockhart’s blog on the day and the rest of the events at http://islanders.nhl.com/news/interdivision_blog.htm. Even before Garth arrived, E.J. was more than complimentary, and I really couldn’t figure out why. I understand he SHOULD be to our GM, who has done nothing but make us proud, but this is E.J. Hradek who calls out fans on the phone and steps all over his co-host Don La Greca. I stream this show every day on the web while I’m at work, so I was just listening and working when Garth first started his interview. He seemed amazingly at ease and jovial, and although I was worried that my speakers would never be loud enough as I usually have to strain to hear him, The sound engineer was right on top of things, and he came though loud and clear. As soon as he mentioned Sean Bergenheim’s name, I stopped working and started writing.

Garth‘s Radio Quotes:

On Bergie: “He finishes all his checks and adds energy to the line-up.” Not the most glowing review, but nice enough to make me stop to listen more intently.
Chemistry: “We do some things with our team that are unusual to create chemistry right from training camp.” (Gee… do I really wanna know? And does it have anything to do with Shakey?)
On Kyle Okposo: “He played well in Bridgeport and we’re in constant communication with the coaching staff. He knows the expectation is for him to be the best player he can be.” Whether he will be called up to Uniondale: “We’re taking it day by day. We want to do what is best for him.”
On Bill Guerin: “Bill Guerin has been the most effective player there could be. He has the ability to unite a locker room … it goes back to Chemistry.” “Good people can do great things.” (I like that line, don’t you?)
On Richard Park: “He came to camp on a try out and has gotten a couple of contracts. We knew what a quality person he is.” (He certainly is Garth!)
On Chris Simon: Okay people, hold onto your hats, here goes. “The team, I think, everyone supported Chris to a man. He took it upon himself to get some counseling. Chris Simon is a player who was my first roommate when I came out of the Nordiques. He’s a quality person in the community… reading at schools, visiting hospitals… he’s the first player to volunteer. … When he is ready to come back, we’ve got a spot open for him.” (There you have it. You were curious what would happen? There ya go. )
On the firing of John Ferguson Jr.: “Pressure. Every year there is one Stanley Cup winner and 29 losers. You live by every win and die emotionally with every loss. You have to pay attention to the details.
On Ricky: “Rick wants to be the best goalie on the ice, no matter what.”
I didn’t take note of his very amusing quips, but there were many of them. I’m hoping that ITV will have the audio or video of this up soon.

Chris Dey also had some good air time to promote Project Hope and how it has grown since it’s inception in 2004. When asked what the ultimate goal of this project is, Dey answered, “We started with a small idea - maybe ten years from now we will have our first player from China.”
While Snow and Dey were on the radio, the kids enjoyed the NHL store, which I have yet to see, but Mr. Dey has been there three times already. And after reading the great blog by Jason Lockhart, I’m suddenly jealous of the Chinese team.

CAMPOLI-OLI-OLI-DONE!
The horrible news was actually delivered to me by the Big Angry Man via email. It seems he received his notification before it reached my desk. This is terrible news, but something we sort of expected considering the shroud of secrecy about the extent of the injury. Now he can play cards with Jon Sim for the balance of the season -- Once he gets back from surgery in Cleveland. Get well soon, Chris. You have no idea how much we’ll miss you. (Kinda makes you wonder if we should have held onto Darryl Bootland a little while longer now, doesn’t it??? Ahem, ahem.)

From Expendable to Extendable:
Uh, refresh my memory. Isn’t Freddy Meyer the Owen Wilson look-a-like we sent packing at the beginning of the season, then somehow, we got him back. So, now we’ve got him for two more years. Who’da thought???

GAME DAY:
When I’m home, and the game is at 7 pm, I never get to see it from the first puck drop. I’m too busy doing other things around the house that need to be done. That means that I wasn’t in front of the TV when Sean FINALLY scored his second goal of the season. And YES!!! That DOES make TWO! I did watch the replay and even though I knew he was going to score, I screamed and cheered for him any way. Nice goal! Great smile when he went back to the bench.

Hey! Shortie!:
Did we ever expect to see a game with THREE short handed goals in it? Especially THIS season considering we’re not even used to seeing three EVEN strength goals on our side of the ice! Great work by Sillinger to score two of them (Go ahead, tell him AGAIN that’s he’s old. I dare you.) And Richard Park found a way to do it again. Come on, you know it was exciting.

Peter, Peter, Peter. Don’t you learn?:
Now, speaking of short handed goals, while watching the Canes power play, B.A.M. brought to my attention that Laviolette was doing it again. “What?” I asked. He’s using five forwards. “Oh I said.” And in my head I was thinking “How the heck do you know that? Do you know all the names of every team? Is it the WAY they play? What? I know I’m not astute at the technical details (you may laugh now) but I wanted to know how he could see this. “The numbers on the jerseys.” Oh. But with two minutes left in the third, Peter did what I never liked about him -- he pulled his goalie. I understand they were down by two, but I felt it was too early. I ALWAYS felt it was too early when he did this on the Islanders. He’s still doing it. It’s still biting him in the butt.

We Win!
Two points to keep us in the hunt and one more game before the break. What a day it’s been. And now it’s done for me. Good night all.