At 4 EST the Memorial Cup final game between the OHLs Windsor Spitfire and the WHLs Kelowna Rockets goes down. The Cup needs to stay in the W. Plus it’s what Our Luke and Saviour would want. I am thinking of the memories of last season again and I am missing the Chiefs. I miss David Rutherford, Chris Bruton, Judd Blackwater, Curtis Kelner, Seth Compton, Kevin Armstrong and Justin Falk. I think of what a great and scrappy crew of dudes they were and their genuine surprise and enthusiasm to be making it to the Memorial Cup. Dustin Tokarski showed he was serious business making an astounding 53 saves. And of course, I am thinking of the now famous Cup incident;
Last night I walked into a meeting with the Puck Huffers, Kim and Zoe and Lori of Hockey Football and Stiletto Shoe. They totally tricked me. The intervention went on for half an hour, I checked the AIM timestamps. I did my best to select the best bits of the meeting as the whole thing is beyond too long to post. So I am hiding it after the jump. Also, Lori felt bad about the meeting and sent me this;
In an economically applaudable, but highly ironic touch, the two teams flew in from Kelowna on the same league charter. One group entered at the back of the plane, the other at the front, with WHL officials acting as the baloney in a rather awkward sandwich.
“Is that a serious question?” responded Lowry, when asked who’d been assigned the front seats on the return flight late Thursday night. “There’s always one joker in every crowd.
“We’ll sit where we’re told.”
On the flight in, if you want to know, the Hitmen entered via the back of the plane.
This is real life. This is happening. The Chiefs are done with their run for a third Memorial Cup. I am nothing but proud of them considering there were quite the snags along the way. The team was constantly fighting through injuries as well as some suspensions and that whole food poisoning fiasco. I had my doubts in the team throughout the season. I threw a fit when they went captainless for so long. I wasn’t pleased with James Reid not seeing more minutes he deserved. I lost my mind when the Chiefs got lazy and would rest on Dustin Tokarski. I questioned the chemistry of the team more than I wanted to.
I knew the magic of last years team was going to be difficult to replicate because really, how do you best Chris Bruton? You don’t. He had so much heart and was the quintessential captain and Chief. The team was a scrappy bunch this year who had the talent and experience to go far, but ended up being beaten by the fierce Vancouver Giants.
This game was more tension that I could handle. Scoreless in regulation and the penalties in favor of Spokane but it just didn’t happen. There were several near goals and I was screaming and shrieking at my television. Hoping that I could will the puck into the net. It needed to happen. A hat tip to Dustin Tokarski, it was a fine performance. Tokarski was just pounded with shots and I started to have a sinking feeling when I saw the numbers and just how far ahead the Giants were on scoring attempts. And then in the first overtime, a bouncing puck ended up in the Chiefs net.
I winced after the first period when Jared Spurgeon was interviewed and basically said the Chiefs were lucky to have Toka in the pipes. That isn’t what I wanted to hear; he shouldn’t be propping the team up. Len Barrie, of the Tampa Bay organization, was interviewed during an intermission as well and was rather flippant about Tokarski. Who is drafted to his fucking team. Barrie said the Lightning are deep as far as goalies go. But you know, that doesn’t mean they are deep with solid goalies. So it remains unknown if Saint Tokarski will be returning in a Chiefs sweater or will be jumping into the blue and black Bolts.
I am putting off thinking about the potential over-ager situation of the next season. We can dwell on things later. For now we will thank the Chiefs for another great season while I am wondering what to do with my (junior) hockey void. I have projects lined up for the summer that you darlings will love. I will be going to Montreal for the NHL Draft because I need to see in person if my darling Maple Leafs take our Cow Cow. I will find other things to write about. What will we do without hockey? We have baseball (Griffey is back!) and footie matches (Go Sounders!), not to mention my usual brand of silly girl fun (oh heyyyy). Before you know it, it will be August and we will have new babeh Chiefies to coo over.
I recommend the Midnight Truffle Blizzard at DQ. Seriously divine.
Stay tuned I will have some nostalgia posts up here in a few days, so we can relive the better bits of the season.
I know everyone is freaking out because tonight’s game HAS to be a win for the Chiefs to stick in the post season. I am totally freaking. But let’s clear some other stuff out of the way first; If you haven’t done it already, go to rinktology.org and fill out a playoffs bracket. It’s super easy, you just click and the brackets automatically re-seed for each round. Also if you can, donate a few bucks to the Mario Lemieux Foundation. And if you are in need of some new shirts, I ordered this crazy awesome shirt from Pittsburgh Steel Rocks. The shirts are a ridiculously awesome price and some are on sale for playoffs. Tell them the Puck Huffers sent you, because they are two awesome dames. Y’all ready for some some NHL post season action? You can catch games on Versus. I will get a schedule up here soon. But for now here is their sweet promo video;
And for those needing some music before game time, I made a youtube playlist. You can ignore most of the vids and just listen to the audio. I pulled the songs from the 100 Songs, Days and Dances vid I posted a few dys ago. Enjoy darlings.
Chiefs lose in 2nd OT. You know the drill; this will become a longer post later.
Oi, the Chiefs are trying to kill me. It all could have been wrapped up last night but it wasn’t. Instead the Giants won in the 2nd overtime period. On the bright side it wasn’t the 4th? I don’t even know. I think the boyos were a bit exhausted still from the last game and then the traveling. But most of them played through while others were clearly off their game. Mike Reddington in particular was looking a bit sloppy and ended up being minus two on the night. Spokane’s Own Special Sauce Tyler Johnson scored a goal and Stefan Ulmer (ya rly!) smacked in a goal too. Both those goals were assisted by Mitch Wahl and (oh heyyyyy) Levko Koper. The Ulmz goal nearly brought the arena down in the third period. There was screaming, near tears and lots of high fiving. I have no idea why the Chiefs couldn’t get it done in the overtime. So many near goals happened and I am not sure why the kittens couldn’t finish it.
I am not a fan of Evander Kane. Not at all. He is a bit Kyle Beach-esque.
Don’t count the Chiefs down yet. Having to win a game 7 is never the scenario I hoped for, and having to pull it out not on home ice. It can’t be done. I realllllly want to see the Chiefs push off the sluggishness and play their faces off. Get out your lucky rabbit’s foot, game is Tuesday.
Onto things more exciting; The Pensblog has put together a wonderful online bracket. Seriously you just click it sorts the reseeding for you. How rad is that? Also the tPB is doing what they can to raise $10,066 for the Mario Lemieux Foundation. You don’t have to donate money to do the bracket, but I think you can fine five bucks in your wallet to donate to a charity. I filled out my bracket and it took forever. Mainly because I have no attention span and was multitabbing and forgotten I started filling my picks out. I don’t want to share my terrible choice…You can register and fill out the bracket here, do ittttttt.
Most epic game ever. The panel was expanded to included many of the lovelies who frequent here. Instead of a liveblog we decided we needed to watch the game at the Onion. This probably jinxed everything. The game went into four goddamned overtimes. This post will become longer tomorrow when I decide to uhhhh lengthen it?
This is me thinking of making this longer. I am drinking some tea while watching The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, which, interesting tidbit right here; has no effing plot. The WHL site is all confused because the game ended after midnight, so according to them the game was 17 hours long. And you know, it felt about that long.
Getting on the board first was Evander Kane who I will not have a rational opinion about until after playoffs. Then (Spokane’s own!!!!) Tyler Johnson tied it and I was happy. No action the second period. There was an Ondrej Roman interview but since in the restaurant there was no audio, we had no idea what he said but it was probably lovely and charming. Hardy Sauter’s beard is just unreal. I am surprised he didn’t dye the grey out of it.
Dr Dray scores in the third and game stays tied so, overtime. I can’t handle overtime. It’s too much. I stress, I can’t sit still and I say about every two and a half minutes, “I’m gonna die…I’m dying…why are you killing me?” Perhaps it was for the best there was no audio. We could make up what the announcers were saying. What was there to say “hey it’s still overtime and still no one has scored…”
It really became a goalie battle and Toka is just clutch in OT. There were just some really tremendous saves. I just wanted the game to be over because the boyos were tired. I was tired and exhausted from watching. At one point I didn’t know when they were showing highlights and when it was the actual game.
And then, in the forth overtime with the Rookie Line; Blake Gal scores. I don’t even remember the details of it. But it happend. He was interviewed after the game and was so drained he couldn’t even put a sentence together to tell the peeps how he made the goal happen. It just…did.
This could all be wrapped up tomorrow.
Now the real question; Tri or Kel? The classic rivalry or Bowman vs Bowman…
I think that might have been the cutest game ever. It was filled with moments that made me go AHWWWWWW. The lone goal was scored by Tyler Johnson in the first. You’d think after that it would be totally dull. AU CONTRAIRE. What a great game. It’s amazing how much can be accomplished when the boyos stay out of the penalty box.
Tyler Johnson after scoring his goal in the first.
During the second period Drayson Bowman’s mouthguard fell out. And onto the ice. And he kept looking around waiting for the right moment to rescue it. He tried to like pick it up with his stick. And then decided to just flop over the boards and snatch it. He held it out for the trainer, “water.” And then put it back in his mouth.
I dropped my mouthgaurd. will you get it for me plz?
Then during the second it was getting a bit hectic in Tokarski’s crease and at one point Reddington just shoved the puck to Toka so he could cover it. It was pretty much “here you hide this!”
Reddington and Tokarski.
I should probably talk about the goalie. He did get a shutout, stopping an insaneeeee 41 shots on goal. Cupcakes, amirite or amirite? It wasn’t like it was a light workload either, he was everywhere and on point, go go gadget arm style. It was like, “Hey babe it’s ok I got this, I am Dustin FRIGGEN Tokarski. ” He was the first star, obvs. I wanted to give him all three stars. Apparently you aren’t allowed to do that. Second star of the night was Trevor Glass who was in beast mode. He broke two sticks and was a complete animal landing hits. Glasser, I love you darling. I love the beard too. It reminds me of last year. Fuzzy, warm, metal memories…
oh hey wassup, i'm trevor glass. i'm in beast mode.
It was a brilliant effort by the Chiefs and I was proud of them. The arena atmosphere was ridiculous. Despite the small numbers, it was just unreal. Standing ovations for saves and screaming triumphantly at the hustle the Chiefs were showing. There was a buzz like there would be on sold out game night with Tri. Kids, we are in post season. This is playoffs, welcome and thanks for joining us.
the Chief celebrating the win.
The Chiefs will be on the road Friday. Can you handle that? And the home Easter Sunday. Wear your Sunday best to the game. Please believe I will.
Sorry about that last double post. I was posting from my phone and each time it said there was a program error so I figured it didn’t even go through. Surprise! They did.
Anyways, the Chiefs found some chemistry. And to demonstrate said chemistry I am going to link a Girls Aloud vid, Biology from their album Chemistry. You see what I did there? Pretty sneaky, sis.
The Chiefs seeme to have gotten back into the swing of things and I didn’t have to throw a temper trantrum. I did however kick the seat in front of me in the first period. Which was a bad idea, because I scuffed my new heels. Que sera. Brady Calla was a sexy sexy plus 3 on the night. Our darling Dr Dray was plus 4. Man I think I need to bring back the Bowman Post Season Point Watch.
The Chiefs win 5-2. There were chalupas. But as usual I forgot to grab my coupon. Whatevs. I was really happy with the effort the boyos put on tonight. They made it clear this is OUR house and were actually playing like ohhhh I dunno, defending Memorial Cup champs. Dustin Tokarski had a light workload, stopping 16 of 18 shots, but that is a good thing. Guys! Baldwin wasn’t in that green shirt! I was soooooo confused. The Panel told me other things to note here and I am totally blanking. Argh. They will remind me.
Tomorrow is game four. It is CRUCIAL that the Chiefs carry the momentum from tonight into tomorrow. And it is crazy important that peeps show up to the game. Tonight’s crowd was totally weaksauce. Not even 5,000. Tell all your friends it’s hockey night in Spokanada and the arena needs people who are excitable and into super enthusiastic high fiving. Like meeeeee.
Lettsy’s parents, thanks for the deep fried Oreos!
I’m going to crawl in a hole. I am going to pretend the last 24 hour or so of hockey have not happened. The Chiefs and Leafs are trying to kill me. I have a sad. I hope you are fucken happy, Chiefs and Leafs. I HOPE YOU ARE FINE WITH MY FALLING TO PIECES AND THROWING A TEMPER TANTRUM LIKE A FOUR YEAR OLD. Oh I am mad alright. You know when a kid is having a fit, and the parent tries to pick them up, and the kid just melts to the floor? That’s me right now. I WANT THE SPONGEBOB POPSICLES!
The Leafs were terrible. The Chiefs weren’t much better. I hate everything. Tuesday is so close. I am going to buy more make up I don’t need on Sephora and then watch Seth Rogen on SNL.
Alright y’all ready for another liveblog? The game is at 7 tonight, I even double checked the time. And here is hoping that the feed doesn’t go out again and I don’t start to have a heart attack. Maybe Tom from USA Today will drop in again!
The Leafs tried to kill me today. All of them. Except Luke Schenn. Schenners loves me because he had a Gordie Howe hattie and led the charge for the Leafs to battle back against damn dirty Flyers. They started out as down 6-0. It’s a good thing I decided to not to drink to get through the game. My comrades on Pension Plan Puppets didn’t do too hot. For the fuck of shit, Martin Gerber was pulled, then CuJo played and then GERBER WAS PUT BACK IN. Final: 8-5 Flyers. The only star of the game that matters to me is Luke Schenn. Was he given a star? No idea. I gave him one. And lots of cupcakes.
The Chiefs were really pushing but the Giants were just all over them. Dustin Tokarski really made some great saves. It was clear that Mitch Wahl was on a mission to score a goal and he did. The seemed to get a bit of rhythm as the game went on but the Giants were just FIERCEEEEEEEE. I am confident the Chiefs will be more zen tomorrow night and won’t be resting on Tokarski. Final damage 3-1 Giants, Chiefs lose.
I am now watching The Soup and forgetting how terrible this night of hockey was. Joel McHale I love youuuuuuuuu. Jump down a few posts, I have Chiefs wallpapers there. I am working on making a Bowman one.
M is a genius. I have no idea why we didn’t think of it sooner; DR DRAY. That’s right. It was the Drayson Bowman Show and it always cleverly written with the right mix of drama and lighthearted romps. It’s like Freaks and Geeks. Just sans James Franco. Bows posted a lovely three points for the evening with 2 goals and one assist. I had been wondering just where Mitch Wahl has been since he has seemed a bit…lost. But tonight he got a goal and I was pleased. I think the real treat of the evening which was the Brady Calla goal (Super Calla Special, sounds like a sushi roll). Really lovely stuff. I hope there is vid. He was so happy to score, fist pumping like Jason Blake. Justin McCrae also scored. The seasoned players werethe ones throwing their weight around in this game. Tyler Johnson insists he should fight. I still do not advise this…
I heard Seth Compton was at the game. I never saw him. I haz a sad.
Y’all ready for round two? This post is blah. I might massively re-edit in the morning. G’night.
Many apologies. An impromtu Jason Statham movie bloc (The Bank Job and Crank) delayed my posting. Anyways I think it’s perhaps safe to say the Chiefs got their swagger back. Or perhaps Levko Koper was worried I forgot his name and tossed up two goals and two assists. OW OW OWWWWWW. Oh look, Drayson Bowman isn’t the only one putting up post season points. And I laiiiiike it, I laiiiiiike it a lot. Tyler Johnson put up two goals and not to be left out of the fun Stefan Ulmer was like “you think defensemen can’t score? try me.” Levko Koper posts a saucy plus 3. So CUPCAKES FOR KOPER. He can have some of the salted caramel ones I baked yesterday. Dustin Tokarski stopped 32 of 33 pucks, rawr. The return of Trevor Glass and Ryan Letts was the kick in the ass some of the boyos needs. I love you, Chiefs. And you were 100 percent on the power play! Alright all of you can have some cupcakes, but Lev gets firsties.
If you have any tips, phone numbers, mayhjah issues, Mustache Monday submissions or don't like the flavor of Haterade; wraparoundcurl@gmail.com
On the docket;
Toronto: Spring Break. The TO could use a dame of my caliber.
hockey boyfriend power rankings.
1. Dustin Tokarski, you will probably always occupy the number one slot. Nice job ninjaing the starting goalie slot for the Admirals.. 2 Kyle Beach, we are just like John Bender and Clare Standish in the Breakfast Club and I sorta love you. 3. Milan Lucic, babe I think I am suffering from Lucic Lust... 4. Sean Avery, you scored two goals on the Leafs and all I could do was giggle.
