What's Going On, Carolina?

Finally, after a two year drought, my beloved Carolina Hurricanes made it to the Stanley Cup Playoffs. In Round One, the Canes defeated the Devils in a 7 game series. Ditto in Round Two, in which they defeated the Eastern Conference Champs, the Boston Bruins. Both were very entertaining series. 

So what happened? Right now the Canes are playing the Pittsburgh Penguins, and they've dropped the first three games by multiple goals. None of them were even close. We're down to one game left before being swept by the Pens. Can we not show a little pride and win at least one game so that we can  prevent being swept before going to the golf course? 

Granted, I'm impressed that the Canes made it this far. I'm less than impressed at the past three games. It's looking like Detroit and Pittsburgh will face off again in the Stanley Cup Finals. So, the big conundrum is this--who do I pull for? Detroit, a team made up of Scandinavian beasts who can put the hurt on someone by looking at them? A team that has an impressive showing of Playoff Beard? Or do I pull for Pittsburgh, the team that looks like it will beat mine, and filled with young superstars? A team which has Sidney Crosby, whose playoff beard looks like a chocolate milk mustache, and Evgeni Malkin, a resurrected Neanderthal with a really awesome first name? 

This is going to be a big decision, with a lot of soul-searching in the coming days. 

True Love and Other Disasters by Rachel Gibson

Rachel Gibson has been an auto buy for me. I loved Simply Irresistible  and adore See Jane Score. (That last one is one of my favorite books.) I couldn't wait for her next book about the Seattle Chinooks hockey team, and I went through four books and her entire backlist waiting for it. 

And I got it. There are not a lot of women's fiction based around the sport of hockey, and Deirdre Martin is the only other author I've been able to find. I'm not as big a fan of Martin's work, because I have a huge issue with a fictional New York City team that claims to be part of the Original Six teams in the NHL.  (Make it more believable, please.) So far, Rachel Gibson had managed to avoid a lot of the mistakes by not having the hockey rink the center of her plots. 

She deviated from this with True Love and Other Disasters. Faith Duffy inherits the Seattle Chinooks from her late husband, Virgil Duffy. Their marriage reminds me of Anna Nicole Smith with her billionaire. Faith had once been a stripper and then a Playmate before a marriage of convenience with Virgil. Faith wanted security, and Virgil wanted a trophy wife. His son, Landon, hates that Faith received the hockey team and will do what it takes to get it from her. 

In her dealings with the team she runs into Tyson Savage, the captain of the Chinooks, fondly known as "The Saint." His sole goal is to win the Stanley Cup and doesn't want uncertainty about the team's ownership to get in his way. He fights his attraction to Faith, but before he knows it he has to fight with her to acknowledge their relationship. 

I was going great with this book until the last few chapters, which focus on the NHL playoffs. Knowing about hockey as I do, there are a few glaring errors that grated on my nerves. For example: 

Game One of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Seattle Chinooks was played on Seattle's ice...

Game Two was played in Mellon Arena on Pittsburgh Ice.

Excuse me? This is such an easy thing to look up! In the best of 7 series, the first two games are played at the arena of the highest seeded team of the two, then the next two games are played at the other team's arena. Game Five and Seven are played at the first team's arena. I know better, Ms. Gibson! 

The second thing I read was this: 

All four players were given three-minute penalties and sat out the last few minutes of the second period in the sin bin.

I can't recall of a single instance of a three-minute penalty. There are two-minute minors and even a four-minute if blood is involved from the penalty, but not a three minute penalty. Then she mentions that the teams went 3 on 3, which I have not heard of ever. I have witnessed many 5  on 4s, 5 on 3s, and 4 on 4s, but I can't think of a single time when both teams were depleted to that extent. 

I really wanted to give this book a higher score, but I can't go above a C. These are mistakes that are easy to look up. If Ms. Gibson is using an old edition of Hockey for Dummies, she needs to upgrade to a version written after the lockout. 

A Shout-Out to SportSquee!

I love Margee's website, because as a relative sport neophyte, she makes sports hilarious. And since I regularly make snarky comments about just about anything I can, I love it.  

Today's installment is one of her regular That's Entertainment! With the Staal Brothers, this time reviewing the movie Twilight. I have been waiting for this with bated breath. 

The next time I watch a Canes game, I'll be cracking up over that line about Rod Brind'amour reading the series aloud to Eric Staal. Oh, and Evgeni Malkin-Staal's constant Russian prattle. 

It Really Is a Small World....

When I was three, my parents took my to Disney World. I may have been two, but how would I know? Any memories I have are either a)nebulous or b) entirely made up. There are pictures. Anyway, like any good tot, my favorite ride was It's a Small World. So much, in fact, that the guy running the ride told my parents not to get off the boat. That's not likely to happen today, given the long lines and crush of baby strollers.

But it really is a small world. I also learned that I CANNOT LEAVE TOWN WITHOUT THE INTERNET. Or at least find free internet. I went to a conference on Monday and in two days, a rug has been pulled out from under my feet. And had the hotel I was staying at had wi-fi access that was free like most hotels AND McDonald's, I wouldn't have been shocked in between checking out the Carolina Hurricane's schedule and researching Taba questioning for my high school classroom.

So, I am at the Carolina Hurricanes website and the first thing you see is this rotating headline complete with pictures. I see something that says Paul Maurice is the new head coach? What? No, that must be old news. Really. So, I advance through the headlines and....

Paul Maurice is the new head coach.

O. M. E. G. Oh my effing gosh. (My students could find this, and I have to put forth a good example. Ha ha. Be quiet.) Why such a big deal? Well, the coach he's replacing replaced him a few years ago. Hence the "It's a Small World" reference.

Am I upset? Eh. Not really. I want my team to win. I know that winning isn't everything, but sometimes it just is. I want my boys to go to the playoffs again. I want them to go far into the playoffs. We haven't done that for two years after winning the Cup, and November was a crappy month for us.

So, good luck Coach Maurice. At least Obama has a harder climb ahead of him than you do.

I Wanna Barf

One thing I like about the Carolina Hurricanes--okay, I vow to keep it to one because I don't want to induce boredom, and I can't list them all--that isn't Time Gleason, their great team colors, and the fact that they are three hours away from me, is that they always put up really great wallpapers up for the computer after every home game. 

Until yesterday, that is. The picture from the Atlanta game--which we lost horrendously--was of the Storm Squad. I don't watch the games because of the skinny chicks that do I-don't-know-what. No, I want a picture of the team. This picture drove me insane. 

I'm not putting that up on my desktop! Boo!

Knit-stravaganza

I like knitting. Sometimes, depending on the mood, I can get through a project really quickly--why I like scarves. Usually, though it takes me a while, especially when I get in a mood where all I want to do is sew (the final product comes more quickly). But lately I've been knitting a storm, especially for the Christmas season and my upcoming nephew, Riley. 

This scarf I've started countless times, only to have frogged it just as many times. I tried crocheting--single and double--tried the "My So-Called Scarf" pattern I found on Ravelry.  I tore them all out and ended up just using a regular old ribbed pattern. I call this my "Carolina Hurricanes Scarf. 

And here is me wearing it, at a Carolina Hurricanes game! Had a wonderful time, even if my boys didn't win it. The scarf is very warm. 

I started this scarf a while back and meant it for me, but one of my former students wanted me to make a scarf for her. I thought this would be a great pattern for her, and the colors are so pretty. (Yarn Bee's Mosaic Twist in Dahlia, which has been discontinued.) I added extra long fringe to the end of it. I finished it just in time, too, because she wants it before Thanksgiving! 

Since I'm making a his and hers set, a scarf similar to this except in a different color (for her boyfriend) will be up here soon! 

I wish I could add the baby blankets I'm making for my sister, but I want them to be a surprise. She pops in here from time to time, so we're going to have to wait until January! 

Power Play by Deirdre Martin

I searched high and low for this book. I went to all two bookstores in town the day it came out, the day after it came out, and two days after it came out. I gave up on Books-A-Million because they didn't have any in stock, which doesn't surprise me considering they can't even alphabetize their books. Barnes and Noble at least bothered to look in the back for me. I suppose that since the book didn't go on one of the tables or an end-cap, shelving it was not a priority. Never mind that the romance genre is a billion-dollar industry. So, this book better be pretty good in order to justify the gas and time spent searching for it. 

Power Play is the latest book in Deirdre Martin's New York Blade's series, following the events in Chasing Stanley. (I'm not sure if Just a Taste really qualifies as part of this series, even if it does include Michael Dante from Fair Play.) The book follows the budding romance between Monica Geary and Eric Mitchell. 

Monica is a popular soap star whose star may be eclipsed by a younger, less talented actress. Monica isn't very sure about her profession, thinking she'll work in the soaps until something more "professional" comes around. But now that she may not be the number one star on the show, she's realizing her job's worth. But is it too late? In an effort to give her profile a boost, she agrees to a fake romance with Eric. 

Eric Mitchell is the newest player on the New York Blades, a professional hockey team in New York City. Eric's pretty unpopular because he was traded from Jersey (that enough should damn him) for a popular Blades' player, Guy Le Temp. Not only do the fans not like him, but the team doesn't like him, either. Oh, and his play sucks. He's not living up to the hype from the trade. He jumps on the chance to up his profile by dating Monica, that and because he thinks she's hot. 

I like the whole idea of the plot. How many hockey players in reality date models and pageant queens? (Yes, I'm speaking of you, Willa Ford. Eye roll.)  The plot is completely believable, and the fact that Martin used to work for soaps makes for an interesting look at the behind-the-scenes of a soap. The backbiting, the gossiping, the casting couches... But what the book needed was better execution. The dialogue was often wooden, and I had a really hard time with the character of Eric. I had a hard time to like him, and if a reader can't like the hero of a romance novel, then the romance is not believable. It's like watching your best friend date a jerk. 

While the soap opera part of the book was believable, the locker room bits with the Blades was a bit harder to read. Her writing of game plays read like copy from a newspaper article. 

Eric could hardly contain his excitement as he and Monica headed uptown toward their respective apartments in her hired car. To say he'd slaughtered out on the ice tonight was an understatement. He'd scored on the power play two minutes into the second period, and he'd orchestrated the team's other three power plays as if he had the puck on a string. They'd scored three out of four chances on the power play, in addition to their two even-strength goals. He'd excelled in his own end as well, skating the puck and making crip breakout passes.

That paragraph completely threw me off from the rest of the narrative. 

This book earned a solid C. 

Are We Back in the 1980s?

The NHL is stuck in the 1980s, from the preponderance of mullets worn by current and former players to last night's entertainment on Versus.

It was Def Leppard. Now, I love Pyromania, and they've done some great stuff--in the 1980s--but last night's gaffe proved how out of touch the NHL is.

Yeah, dat's right. He put the Stanley Cup back upside-down and then says, "Oh, never mind."

But my big question is this: Why the hell did the NHL choose Def Leppard, a band that apparently knows nothing about hockey? Why not pick another band that knows hockey, or at least heard of it and the Stanley Cup, to do the entertainment?

Why the NHL Must Hate Women

The NHL really needs to employ at least one woman in its merchandise development office. For years I have lamented over the fact that there is no jersey for women in team colors. There's the stereotypical pink and white jersey, which you can wear with your pink and white team hat. WTH is up with this? If I'm a fan of a team, I want to wear the team colors. For some reason, the marketing geniuses think that women will only support their teams with "girly" colors. (Way to ruin a Black-out, my friends.) 

So, two Christmases ago, I got a Carolina Hurricanes jersey (# 26, Erik Cole) in a men's medium. (Two months later, they started selling smalls. Hate that.) It's huge, but I love it. There was nothing comparable in women's sizes, not for lack of trying. My only other option was the hated pink and white. 

Today I got my NHL catalog in the mail. Inside, there are women's jerseys in team colors! Yay! They look great, and are cheaper then the men's Rbk Edge jerseys. (Of course they're not authentic, but whatever. At least it would fit.) And on the page next to them, I found this: 

What? A "Fashion Jersey?" Isn't that an oxymoron? This particular model is the "Silver Ice Jersey", "frosted with silver metallic foil graphics." Gee, thanks! Make me five years old again when some metallic and sparkly shirt was all that made me happy. 

Then, if you look down the page, there's the Rbk HerShield Jerseys. I couldn't come across a picture, but there are versions that exist for the NFL. This "Fashion Jersey" is gray with baby blue or baby pink accents. And to top it all off, it is "Ultra fun with sugar glitter." Ooh, shiny! Must buy. 

Thanks NHL for continuing the stereotype. 

Doll Geek Love

Anyone who knows me or has checked out this blog knows that I love dolls. My aunt started me at the age of four with porcelain dolls, but the problem with them is that you can't play with them. Then it was the Barbies, which I collected for a good while. I still have most of my collection, though most of it is hardly MC-NRFB. I liked to take my dolls out of the boxes. And then I got the American Girl dolls, first Samantha, and then Molly. Lately I've been making doll clothes during my summer vacay, using up random material in my stash. When browsing through the American Girl website, I noticed that their limited edition 2008 doll, Mia, was a figure skater and a HOCKEY PLAYER! ! !  

And then I saw Mia's 2-1 Outfit, and I had to have. Since it didn't come with the skates, I had to buy Mia's Meet Accessories as well. Conveniently, my parents gave me money for my birthday, so I went ahead and ordered the two items. 

Here's the boring part of the outfit: 

The outfit has a cute sweater with long-sleeve mittens,  skate blade covers, skate bag, and an iPod style headphone set. It even plays music. Oh, and it came with leg-warmers, too. 

But this is the cool part of the outfit: 

She has a hockey jersey! And a stick with a puck! How adorable is that outfit? And the doll (which is Molly, BTW), even comes with frizzy long hair, just like mine. 

Next up: figuring out how to make a Carolina Hurricane's jersey for the doll. 

NHL Draft '08

Last night I watched the NHL draft, not because I found it interesting and was on tenterhooks to see who the 'Canes were able to pick, but because I was bored and wanted to subject my mom to something she'd never understand. (There's nothing like the filial piety our family shows.) 

Oh, that and to see if I could make fun of the New Jersey Devils. My dislike for them has no concrete beginning but is more of a visceral response whenever I hear "New Jersey". That and my brother prefers Jersey above all other teams. And then there was that event two Christmases ago when I received my Carolina Hurricanes jersey (all I need is a cute belt and it's a dress!) and my Jersey uncle says, "What is that? Some kinda New Jersey Devils shirt?" 

Yeah, the dislike runs deep. 

By the time I turned it on, I missed Carolina's pick of Zach Boychuck, but I did notice a few petty things that I could not let go: 

• The commish, Gary Bettman, is short. Not that I have a lot of room to talk, but next to all those hockey players and former hockey players, the man is the size of a garden gnome. 
• What is the deal with listing one's height at 6' 1-1/2"? At that height, do you honestly need that other HALF-INCH? That's just being mean to all us short people. It's one thing for me to list my height at 5' 0-1/2" because I need every little bit I have, but to add a 1/2" to an already tall frame is just cruel. It's like when a six-year old says she's not six but "six and three-quarters." 

As far as the substance of the draft, I can't explain it. I'm not going to. There are plenty of other blogs and websites that will break down the draft and explain what it means for each team. That means I can just sit back and relax. 

Confession

About two years ago I became really interested in hockey. This meant that I had to pick a team, and I could go with one of the favorites, but that's not how I pick sports teams. No, I'm a girl, so I either pick a sports team for sentimental reasons or because my future husband is on the team (he's just not aware of that fact... yet). 

My team is the Carolina Hurricanes, winner of the 2006 Stanley Cup. My main motivation for picking them as my team is regionality.  A hockey team in North Carolina? Only four hours away from me? Wow! How cool is that? I can't even remember the last time I saw snow, so having a hockey team within a day trip drive was pretty cool. 

And then I found out that Bret Hedican was married to KRISTY FREAKIN' YAMAGUCHI! Once upon a time I wanted to be a ballerina figure skater (I was young, 'k?) until I realized that I lacked that certain something--grace. I fall when I walk. 

So, that little piece of knowledge sealed the deal. And so here's hoping that Kristy Yamaguchi wins the Dancing With The Stars title tonight. 

Miracle

As I've mentioned before, it's the end of the year, so I've had to come up with some new "strategery" to keep the sanity.  My Advanced Placement US History class has taken their exam, and as a reward, we are watching movies with a distinct historical bent to them. 

Like Miracle, one of my favorite movies. Now, it doesn't rank up there with Slapshot, the greatest hockey movie I've ever seen, but it is quite better than Mighty Ducks 3. It's vintage Disney in that one scene, the boys are talking to Coach Brooks about adding another player to the team and they say, "But we're family." Is there a Disney movie that doesn't have that as a theme somewhere? 

So, how can I justify watching this movie? Isn't it about sports? Yes, I say, but I can counter that with two things: Sports is a metaphor for war; The struggle between the hockey teams of the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics was yet another facet of the Cold War struggle. 

And so one of my students, I'll call him.... Dave. Dave was watching it, saw the goalie doing his butterfly, and said, "I can do that!" before banging his knee on the floor. But he came up with a wicked awesome dance and lyrics. 

And now he knows what a puck is. I'm so proud.