State of Hockey

[On location in Minnetrista, Minnesota]
Sigh, Christmas break is over for me. Well, at least the Midwestern portion of it. Now comes the significantly less fun study/cramming phase for the next few days in my apartment back in good ol’ central PA. My brother Aaron’s gonna take me to the Minneapolis/Saint Paul airport tomorrow morning, and then my flight’s slated to depart around 10am, and after a brief stopover in Detroit I should be landing in State College by 4pm. Oh, and do I have New Year’s Eve plans yet? Nope, nothin’ yet. Even though I probably won’t feel like doing it, it’s more likely than not that I’ll just wind up studying tomorrow evening. New Year’s Eve is overrated anyway. 😛
But at least I got in one game night over break with Nathan & Laura, on Thursday night after Bible study when we played a very competitive game of Power Grid until late into the night. I love board games…
Yesterday my oldest brother Nathan and my Mom drove me down to the Twin Cities to my other older brother Aaron’s house (where I am “on location” currently). After they left Aaron & I left for downtown Saint Paul to go to the beautiful Xcel Energy Center for the Edmonton Oilers vs Minnesota Wild hockey game. We didn’t have tickets, so we had to walk around a bit before the game and find someone outside the arena who was selling good tickets for a not-too-ridiculous price (it was still gonna be a major splurge though). There were surprisingly few scalpers selling tickets outside the X though, but we did manage to find a pair of really good tickets — row 14 behind the penalty box, basically right at center ice. Fantastic! First off, I was very impressed with the X. It was the first time I’ve ever been inside the Xcel Energy Center, and while I haven’t been to very many stadiums, I can see why many people regard the X as the best stadium/arena in all of American sport. I mean, it was nice (and I’m not talkin Minnesota Nice, I’m talkin really nice). As for the game itself, the Wild started out playing like crap, giving up a short-handed goal to the Oilers barely before everyone had settled into their seats. The Wild trailed 2-1 at the end of the 1st period, and then about halfway through the 2nd period the Oilers scored their second short-handed goal of the night to take a 4-1 lead on Minnesota, which drew hearty and deserved boos from the 18,500-strong sellout home crowd for their mental lapses and poor effort. The Wild did get one back shortly before the 2nd intermission to draw within 4-2 and get the crowd back in the game. After a would-be Oilers goal was disallowed at the start of the 3rd period, the Wild came storming back, tying the game at 4 with 5 minutes to go in regulation, sending the game into overtime (giving us even more hockey for our money!). Not too long into the extra “sudden-victory” period, an Oilers penalty gave the Wild a power play, and the Wild scored on it! What a great game we picked to go to! A one-goal, come-from-behind victory that went into overtime, what more could you ask for? For them to come all the way back from a 4-1 deficit and win the game after playing like crap for the first period and a half was pretty cool to see. Very much worth it, in my opinion, and a heck of an introduction to professional hockey! I also recorded video clips of the Wild power plays in the 1st period and overtime on which they scored their first and game-winning goals, respectively. Someday I’ll get those posted, either to my website or to YouTube. After the game Aaron & I went over to one of his neighbor’s houses to watch some UFC fights, including a really good fight between Chuck “Iceman” Liddell and Wanderlei “Axe Murderer” Silva. Ultimate fighting is pretty entertaining, I must say!
During the Wild game I was also getting frequent updates from Jeff [Frame] via text message about how both the Patriots-Giants game and the Alamo Bowl between Penn State and Texas A&M, in which the Nittany Lions beat the Aggies 24-17! Thanks for all the texts, Jeff!
Well, I’m guessing that this might very well be my last blog post (except for possibly one or two pretty short ones if I feel like it) until after I’m done with the PhD Candidacy Exam (January 7th and 9th). Wish me luck! Happy New Year, everybody!