Welcome to the 2008/09 NHL Season at hockeyandhighheels.com. I’m Lisa Ovens, and I will be your host for the next nine months.
Like every October in the past, hockey fans are soaked with hockey stories, hockey happenings, the pomp and circumstance of home openers, numbers, stats and hockey culture tidbits. It’s like the collective hockey media has a fire hose, and we fans are clinging to lamp posts while the journalists and analysts take turns spraying us with water.
It’s impossible to keep up with EVERYTHING that’s going on right now and have a life. But here are a few things I’ve taken note of...
Winning and Losing
As of this morning, the Buffalo Sabres, the San Jose Sharks and the Minnesota Wild are all on win streaks, and haven’t lost a game yet. Whose win streak will last the longest?? The Philadelphia Flyers, Anaheim Ducks, Colorado Avalanche, and the Tampa Bay Lightning haven’t earned a single point yet. Which team will shake the monkey off their backs first??
Oops!
During the NHL’s opening night party in Detroit: Joe Elliot of Def Leppard hoisted the Stanley Cup, and then placed it upside down on a table. I know he says he’s a soccer person, but the fact that the wider part of the trophy might be considered the base for the trophy and the smaller cup-shaped part could be thought of as the top...
Didn’t the show’s producer have any kind of a rehearsal, walk though, or at the very least, a chit chat about that portion of the evening?? It’s just another one of those little miscues that inevitably happens to the NHL and leaves fans scratching their heads.
The Most Famous Hockey Mom, Sarah Palin
Okay, I received an email from the marketing/ PR director at College Humor.com – he sent me a link to a funny Sarah Palin hockey mom spoof video, based on a Matt Damon quote. As hockey fan, I laughed at the hockey references in this “Upcoming Disney-like Movie” trailer Check it out here...
The First One In...
On Oct. 4th, I turned on the Rangers/ Lightning game held in the Czech Republic just in time to see new Ranger, Markus Naslund score a beautiful goal from a Scott Gomez feed. Nazzy scored the very first goal of the NHL regular season, and I am sure all Naslund fans hope to see the quiet Swede get back to his scoring ways. He was one of my favorite Canucks, and I will miss him.
Captain Goalie Man
It’s exciting to see Canucks goal tender, Roberto Luongo thrilled about being the Canucks new captain. However, I hope he doesn’t attempt to take on any more duties than he has now. I mean he’s the face of the franchise, he’s the number one goal tender, he wins awards...for his coach, he’s a thief who steals games, he’s the captain with a capital “C” on his helmet, he’s the goalie the Canucks should have had 5 years ago. If I find out he spruces up GM Place with Canucks custom color paint, organizes karaoke night or if he had anything to do with the new arena sound system purchase and installation, I’ll freak!!
Hockey Night in Canada’s new Theme Song
My first review of winning contestant Colin Oberst’s musical arrangement, Canadian Gold,now the official new intro music for HNIC...
It’s a very busy 1 minute and 18 seconds, and it reminds me of one of those fictional TV show intro songs you’d hear in a movie that has a fictional TV show in it. It’s prop like. You know what I mean? I’ll give it some more time and see if the cheese factor wears off. Take a listen here...
Celebrating His Life
The Vancouver Canucks and their season ticket holders paid tribute to the late Luc Bourdon before the home opener against the Calgary Flames last Thursday. The Canucks event planners received plenty of praise for the heart warming and thoughtful presentation that included members of Bourdon’s family and an acoustic performance of the song, Big League performed by Tom Cochrane and Ken Greer. Big League, written by Cochrane, was written about a young hockey player who died in a car accident.
Bourdon, who died in a motor cycle accident in May, was the Canucks first pick (10th overall) in the 2005 NHL entry draft. A permanent memorial is in place between section’s 109 and 110 on the plaza level of GM Place. The Luc Bourdon Wall of Dreams honors minor hockey, and is a reminder of the joy we all feel for this game. Be sure to visit the wall the next time you are in GM Place.
Alexei
Sadly, another young member of hockey’s grand family has left us. Alexei Cherepanov, the New York Ranger’s first pick in the 2007 entry draft, was laid to rest yesterday in Omsk, Russia. He died in hospital on October 13th, 2008, shortly after collapsing on his team bench (Avangard Omsk of the KHL). Officials are trying to determine if his death could have been prevented. Emergency response time is one issue that is being investigated.
Alexei was just 19 years old.
Life is fleeting.
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