Me and Nancy had a long weekend, almost all taken up with a trip to Melbourne with our g'son B. The centrepiece of the weekend was the big game between Canada and USA on Friday night, so we got there late on Thursday so we'd be fit and fine for it. Which meant that we had all of Friday in which to do things in Melbourne. So, seeing as B and I just 'happened' to bring our skates with us, we had the opportunity we needed to set off in search of the Ice House to get a bit of skating in.
For those that don't know, the Ice House is Melbourne's main ice rink and is located on land's edge in the Dockland's of Melbourne. It lies tucked in under the 'Melbourne Eye' giant ferris wheel, down a short street near the end of tram route 35 (Melbourne's free burgundy coloured city loop tram service). So it's easy to get to - if you know how to get there.
We didn't, so had a bit of an adventure walking through the docklands district, trying to work out who to ask for directions as we went. The trouble was, of course, that almost everyone we saw could well have been a 'tourist' like us. We got around it by asking the workers - a taxi driver, a gas fitter and a road worker. They all came good for us and between their advices and our walking we finally found the joint. B reckoned we walked about 5 km, I reckon around three. Either way, we got there with a tour of the neighborhood thrown in.
The Ice House has two full sized rinks, one of which has all the dress ups for high level hockey, speed skating and, presumably, figure skating. That rink was in use for some hockey training when we got there, was empty most of the time, and had a couple senior hockey players warming up on it as we left.
The other rink was moderately busy with skaters, most of them beginners in Melbourne's equivalent of the Ice Arena's blue skates. About a third of it was separated by a temporary barrier, and there was curling introductory lessons (or so it looked) on the other part of the ice. Watching the curling, I felt a little jealous of them because that is such a fun sport to play. I was also a little cynical because I suspect that I wasn't seeing eager fans but some form of corporate team building exercise occurring. I guess, 'whatever it takes,' though. So, we occupied ourselves with some basic skating amongst the beginners. Only really got to speak much to the one other kid, around 12 years old from Montreal who spoke French and liked the Canadiens.
I thought the rink was a bit overpriced for the period that we were there (about an hour and a half) but won't say too much because we could have stayed there a lot longer (public session is apparently 0900 - midnight). In other words, no complaints. The ice was level and didn't have too much snow on it, much smoother than the Ice Arena. I'll have to ask B what he thought of it.
I found a little time to do my basic skills exercises, about all I could safely manage after a week and a half of not being on the ice. Even so, I went over at least twice and found my stops required a little time on ice before was confident enough to commit. I didn't push it too hard in any of the usual metrics, just basically reminding my body what the ice is like.
I didn't want to get hurt before the trip back into town to our apartment before we headed out to the big game.
A good afternoon.
Fridge
Showing posts with label Canadiens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Canadiens. Show all posts
Monday, 28 July 2014
Sunday, 4 May 2014
Sweaters Pt 1
If you play hockey you probably have learnt that you can never have too many hockey sweaters. Team sweaters should only be worn for game days, leaving a lot of practices to wear something else. Odds are they'll get pretty grubby and smelly unless they get washed frequently, so you shouldn't just wear the same one again and again. Add to that the occasional need for someone to change into red/white/blue/black colours to even up the sides in a small rink game or a shinny, and there's need for a few different sweaters.
That's my excuse, anyway, for beginning a bit of a collection of the things. Add to that the fact that they tend to have interesting designs / bright colours /an emotional 'tone' and it then becomes somewhat easy to take them up as a type of regular clothing in their own right.
I started my collection with an Edmonton Oilers sweater I saw at the markets in Sydney a bit over a year ago. To that was added a Canadian (away (white) colours) from the International exhibition game in June last year. I got a Vancouver blue top on my next Sydney trip. Then, gave the missus a shopping list for her next trip to the markets and she came back with Colorado, Montreal (with 2009 centenary epulettes and #11 - Koivu on the back (then time captain before being traded to Anaheim where he remains)) and Redwings sweaters. The Redwings was her idea because she liked the red (more on this one later).
And this weekend, I was in Sydney with the wife again, and again it was a trip to the market stall to see what they had...
Came back with a St Louis Blues one (royal blues with a stylised yellow note as the front symbol, #41 - Halak on the back) and an oldschool Columbus Blue Jacket sweater (18th Century cannon logo on white roundel in front of a dark navy blue top, with lacework). Also another one which I won't describe here because it's a gift for someone...
Next weekend I'll be picking up my own Vikings sweater (Royal blue, Viking helmet with crossed sticks beneath ala jolly roger on the front), and a Wheelers sweater (maroon, no logo).
I had a chat with the stall holder this time, enquiring at the absence of 'L' sized tops (so it goes comfortably over my body armour) or of 'S' ones (for the kids) and she explained it by the fact that they're all remainders. Hence, no Winnipeg Jets, few of the other 'minority' teams, the old designs that have been supplanted in the most recent season (which is good as I wouldn't wear the stars and stripes design of the present bluejackets top, but I do like the older gun logo), etc. The numbered sweaters become remainders when the player is traded (hence, my Montreal player these day is with the Ducks, and my Blues player was traded earlier this year to Washington, making the sweaters almost worthless on the usual market).
Maybe I'll continue this in another post some time...
That's my excuse, anyway, for beginning a bit of a collection of the things. Add to that the fact that they tend to have interesting designs / bright colours /an emotional 'tone' and it then becomes somewhat easy to take them up as a type of regular clothing in their own right.
I started my collection with an Edmonton Oilers sweater I saw at the markets in Sydney a bit over a year ago. To that was added a Canadian (away (white) colours) from the International exhibition game in June last year. I got a Vancouver blue top on my next Sydney trip. Then, gave the missus a shopping list for her next trip to the markets and she came back with Colorado, Montreal (with 2009 centenary epulettes and #11 - Koivu on the back (then time captain before being traded to Anaheim where he remains)) and Redwings sweaters. The Redwings was her idea because she liked the red (more on this one later).
And this weekend, I was in Sydney with the wife again, and again it was a trip to the market stall to see what they had...
Came back with a St Louis Blues one (royal blues with a stylised yellow note as the front symbol, #41 - Halak on the back) and an oldschool Columbus Blue Jacket sweater (18th Century cannon logo on white roundel in front of a dark navy blue top, with lacework). Also another one which I won't describe here because it's a gift for someone...
Next weekend I'll be picking up my own Vikings sweater (Royal blue, Viking helmet with crossed sticks beneath ala jolly roger on the front), and a Wheelers sweater (maroon, no logo).
I had a chat with the stall holder this time, enquiring at the absence of 'L' sized tops (so it goes comfortably over my body armour) or of 'S' ones (for the kids) and she explained it by the fact that they're all remainders. Hence, no Winnipeg Jets, few of the other 'minority' teams, the old designs that have been supplanted in the most recent season (which is good as I wouldn't wear the stars and stripes design of the present bluejackets top, but I do like the older gun logo), etc. The numbered sweaters become remainders when the player is traded (hence, my Montreal player these day is with the Ducks, and my Blues player was traded earlier this year to Washington, making the sweaters almost worthless on the usual market).
Maybe I'll continue this in another post some time...
Thursday, 1 May 2014
NHL Playoffs - Round 1 done
Well, an interesting First Round of playoffs in North America. In the east, Montreal v Boston and N.Y. Rangers v Pennsylvania Penguins is the result. In the west, Chicago Blackhawks v Minnesota Wild and L.A. Kings v Anaheim Ducks. I'll be going for the Wild in the west and, in the east, the Habs.
Having followed the first round as well as I could (a game a night on Pay Murdoch TV) for my first ever real playoff season has been interesting. My joy at Montreal beating the Lightning 4-0 and going through to the next round before anyone else was great. Sadly, because their series was over so quickly I only got to see one of their games. Hope the 11 day break won't have been too long. The best game I saw was that when L.A. beat San Jose to tie their series 3 all (surprising, as I'm no fan of Kings hockey, but they played lively and crisp and were good to watch). Hats off to LA also, for coming back from being three games to nil down to win that series 4-3. Only the fourth team in NHL history to have done so in a playoff series.
The biggest surprise, though, was how my attitude to several of the teams in general shifted. You might have gathered I'm not particularly fond of Boston and their angry bear style of play. But at least they do it with style. What got me, however, was how much I didn't particularly enjoy a bunch of other teams that play the monster game with their size. Namely, the loser teams of St Louis Blues, Colorado Avalanche and Columbus Blue Jackets. So, my heart wasn't where my original wishlist predictions had originally put it going into the series. The other team that played the rough house style was the Philly Flyers, but there was enough teamwork class with them to make it entertaining (as they went down to NYR in a seventh game).
We'll see how my predictions stack up before the Conference Finals.
Paid up for Winter Vikings Inline Hockey season today. Go Wheelers!
Having followed the first round as well as I could (a game a night on Pay Murdoch TV) for my first ever real playoff season has been interesting. My joy at Montreal beating the Lightning 4-0 and going through to the next round before anyone else was great. Sadly, because their series was over so quickly I only got to see one of their games. Hope the 11 day break won't have been too long. The best game I saw was that when L.A. beat San Jose to tie their series 3 all (surprising, as I'm no fan of Kings hockey, but they played lively and crisp and were good to watch). Hats off to LA also, for coming back from being three games to nil down to win that series 4-3. Only the fourth team in NHL history to have done so in a playoff series.
The biggest surprise, though, was how my attitude to several of the teams in general shifted. You might have gathered I'm not particularly fond of Boston and their angry bear style of play. But at least they do it with style. What got me, however, was how much I didn't particularly enjoy a bunch of other teams that play the monster game with their size. Namely, the loser teams of St Louis Blues, Colorado Avalanche and Columbus Blue Jackets. So, my heart wasn't where my original wishlist predictions had originally put it going into the series. The other team that played the rough house style was the Philly Flyers, but there was enough teamwork class with them to make it entertaining (as they went down to NYR in a seventh game).
We'll see how my predictions stack up before the Conference Finals.
Paid up for Winter Vikings Inline Hockey season today. Go Wheelers!
Tuesday, 15 April 2014
NHL Playoff Picks
Just for the fun of it, I'll post up my end of season playoff picks before the puck drops.
Western Conference
Round 1:
Colorado over Minnesota (despite the underdog status of the Wild in these games, Colorado is young and new to their present success, and big and solid),
St Louis over Chicago (Because the Blues are the blues, because they're playing Chicago, because they play a pretty mean game),
Dallas over Anaheim (underdog status, Anaheim's still a bit shaky in my opinion (even though Saku Koivu plays for them these days)),
San Jose over Los Angeles (because they're LA, because they have Quick in the goals, because the Sharks have a fluid style that's not weak because of that).
Round 2:
Colorado over Dallas (simple)
Sharks over St Louis (anything but simple, I'll go with the theory that offence wins out over defence, but therefore subject to the injury count)
Round 3: Would favour whichever of Sharks and the Blues makes it versus Colorado (unless its the Sharks and they're really beat up).
Eastern Conference
Round 1:
Boston over Redwings (much as I hate to say it as I like watching the Redwings and the Bruins are, well, the Bruins, baaaah).
Montreal over Tampa Bay (so I can wear my Canadien's sweater, they're the only Canadian team left, I like Subban and Gionta and Markov, they have Carey Price, Wayne goes for the Bolts. This will be a close run thing, if Montreal tries to dig in the Bolts will cut them apart).
Columbia over Pitsburgh (I don't know a lot about these two, and even though the Penguins have Cosby, they're a bit arrogant and I suspect their roster is not overly deep. Also, the Blue Jackets are the underdogs nominally speaking, with everything to play for).
New York Rangers over Philadelphia (tough choice, but Rangers home ice and Vinegt as coach with St Louis under him, versus the broadstreet bullies. How could I go for the Flyers?).
Round 2:
Montreal (or the Bolts) over Boston (Anyone but the Bruins!)
Rangers over Blue Jackets (because class and physicality will win out)
Round 3: If Boston has come this far they'll be hot favourites, though I'll be cheering for the blueshirts (Rangers).
We'll see how I go with my cheering. I'd like Montreal to win, otherwise I'll probably be cheering for the Western team in the final.
Especially if they're playing Boston.
Western Conference
Round 1:
Colorado over Minnesota (despite the underdog status of the Wild in these games, Colorado is young and new to their present success, and big and solid),
St Louis over Chicago (Because the Blues are the blues, because they're playing Chicago, because they play a pretty mean game),
Dallas over Anaheim (underdog status, Anaheim's still a bit shaky in my opinion (even though Saku Koivu plays for them these days)),
San Jose over Los Angeles (because they're LA, because they have Quick in the goals, because the Sharks have a fluid style that's not weak because of that).
Round 2:
Colorado over Dallas (simple)
Sharks over St Louis (anything but simple, I'll go with the theory that offence wins out over defence, but therefore subject to the injury count)
Round 3: Would favour whichever of Sharks and the Blues makes it versus Colorado (unless its the Sharks and they're really beat up).
Eastern Conference
Round 1:
Boston over Redwings (much as I hate to say it as I like watching the Redwings and the Bruins are, well, the Bruins, baaaah).
Montreal over Tampa Bay (so I can wear my Canadien's sweater, they're the only Canadian team left, I like Subban and Gionta and Markov, they have Carey Price, Wayne goes for the Bolts. This will be a close run thing, if Montreal tries to dig in the Bolts will cut them apart).
Columbia over Pitsburgh (I don't know a lot about these two, and even though the Penguins have Cosby, they're a bit arrogant and I suspect their roster is not overly deep. Also, the Blue Jackets are the underdogs nominally speaking, with everything to play for).
New York Rangers over Philadelphia (tough choice, but Rangers home ice and Vinegt as coach with St Louis under him, versus the broadstreet bullies. How could I go for the Flyers?).
Round 2:
Montreal (or the Bolts) over Boston (Anyone but the Bruins!)
Rangers over Blue Jackets (because class and physicality will win out)
Round 3: If Boston has come this far they'll be hot favourites, though I'll be cheering for the blueshirts (Rangers).
We'll see how I go with my cheering. I'd like Montreal to win, otherwise I'll probably be cheering for the Western team in the final.
Especially if they're playing Boston.
Wednesday, 19 March 2014
Tigers, Rebels, Oilers, Canucks, Canadiens - can you tell me which one is different?
Being, as I am, half Canadian but living half a world away from Canada, I guess I've been aware of ice hockey for quite a while. Even went to a game in Medicine Hat, (Alberta, Canada) as a kid. Can't remember much hockey as such, the problem of being a kid and seeing a game amongst all those standing adults was as evident there as it was in the terraces at local footy games of the time. I do remember watching the game a little, (an impression of size, speed and force still lingers as I write this). My great memory of the night, though, was the great pile up of kids that formed a scrum on top of a puck that had ended up in the crowd. I can't remember the detail, but I ended up with the puck in my victorious hands and a certain swagger in my step for the rest of the evening. And the other kids stopped freaking at my aussie accent. I still have the game puck, complete with almost unscratched Tiger logo on it.
It's strange, therefore, that I kinda support the Red Deer Rebels in the Western Hockey League. Maybe because I like their logo or their name, maybe because I stayed there for a few hours on my next trip to Canada (2012 - albeit didn't know they existed at the time).
At a higher level (ie. the National Hockey League) the choices of team(s) I support is simpler to understand. I'm an Oilers follower because my family are mainly from around the Edmonton area (dim memory of the name 'Gretzky' when I was there as a kid (the year before he went pro)). This didn't change up to being a supporter/fan when I was there two years ago, despite the fact that I was intrigued by ice hockey being on telly all the time (it seemed) just about everywhere, because no one I spent much time with was too enthused about hockey. I didn't realise how depressing it was for them all that Edmonton was (is) seemingly stuck to the bottom of the league ladder, and how this dampens hockey conversations.
Spending time in Vancouver, amongst Canucks fans as their team entered the post-season as Conference leaders, watching Johnathan Quick and Cory Schneider battle out a great first game of round 1 playoffs (against the eventual Stanley Cup Champions that season, the Los Angeles Kings), I developed a soft spot for Vancouver. Which was fine, except that they never seemed to do well after I got to know of them. So I'm glad that underneath my continuing support for the Canucks I have a bedrock of oil.
While in Vancouver I also met a cousin's spouse who came from Winnipeg originally and was so obviously bursting with pride at the renaissance of the Jets' franchise in its home town, with all the starry eyed romance that goes with a come-back-kid story, that I got sucked in also. The parting gift to me of the treasured Winnipeg Jets tee-shirt merely guaranteed that I've since taken a fairly keen interest in the Jets.
And my fourth team in the NHL? The remaining Western Canadian team (Calgary Flames)? Of course not! Being an Oilers fan, that would be spiritually impossible, for starters. And, secondly, I just couldn't do it. Sigh. No, but it is still a Canadian team.
The Montreal Canadiens, to be precise. It's taken awhile, but a combination of my missus getting me a Montreal sweater with Koivu's name on it - being the centennial jersey of the Captain in his tenth season with the club (2009), and therefore feeling obliged to wear it occasionally, a more than passing enjoyment of the playing style when I've seen them on telly, and an appreciation of much of the hockey writing produced from its legion of fans, I've gotten interested in their journey this year. And with that interest has grown fondness. And the relief that at least one of 'my' teams will make the playoffs this year so that I'll have a natural team to support!
So, here's my excuse to pose the question of this post's title with a video reference to one of my childhood heroes...
It's strange, therefore, that I kinda support the Red Deer Rebels in the Western Hockey League. Maybe because I like their logo or their name, maybe because I stayed there for a few hours on my next trip to Canada (2012 - albeit didn't know they existed at the time).
At a higher level (ie. the National Hockey League) the choices of team(s) I support is simpler to understand. I'm an Oilers follower because my family are mainly from around the Edmonton area (dim memory of the name 'Gretzky' when I was there as a kid (the year before he went pro)). This didn't change up to being a supporter/fan when I was there two years ago, despite the fact that I was intrigued by ice hockey being on telly all the time (it seemed) just about everywhere, because no one I spent much time with was too enthused about hockey. I didn't realise how depressing it was for them all that Edmonton was (is) seemingly stuck to the bottom of the league ladder, and how this dampens hockey conversations.
Spending time in Vancouver, amongst Canucks fans as their team entered the post-season as Conference leaders, watching Johnathan Quick and Cory Schneider battle out a great first game of round 1 playoffs (against the eventual Stanley Cup Champions that season, the Los Angeles Kings), I developed a soft spot for Vancouver. Which was fine, except that they never seemed to do well after I got to know of them. So I'm glad that underneath my continuing support for the Canucks I have a bedrock of oil.
While in Vancouver I also met a cousin's spouse who came from Winnipeg originally and was so obviously bursting with pride at the renaissance of the Jets' franchise in its home town, with all the starry eyed romance that goes with a come-back-kid story, that I got sucked in also. The parting gift to me of the treasured Winnipeg Jets tee-shirt merely guaranteed that I've since taken a fairly keen interest in the Jets.
And my fourth team in the NHL? The remaining Western Canadian team (Calgary Flames)? Of course not! Being an Oilers fan, that would be spiritually impossible, for starters. And, secondly, I just couldn't do it. Sigh. No, but it is still a Canadian team.
The Montreal Canadiens, to be precise. It's taken awhile, but a combination of my missus getting me a Montreal sweater with Koivu's name on it - being the centennial jersey of the Captain in his tenth season with the club (2009), and therefore feeling obliged to wear it occasionally, a more than passing enjoyment of the playing style when I've seen them on telly, and an appreciation of much of the hockey writing produced from its legion of fans, I've gotten interested in their journey this year. And with that interest has grown fondness. And the relief that at least one of 'my' teams will make the playoffs this year so that I'll have a natural team to support!
So, here's my excuse to pose the question of this post's title with a video reference to one of my childhood heroes...
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