Jamayyyaaa

6:50 came and the alarms went off, and before you know it was time for some hockey.  All the support and planning all came down to this day and it was finally here.  Your probably thinking wow these guys woke up at 6:50 ready to go and get to the tournament early.  Well you would be wrong, we missed the shuttle to the tournament by 5 minutes, but don't you worry because we met the coolest taxi driver ever, Jamaya.  I'm completely spelling his name wrong but he was just chilling in his taxi in front of the hotel so we hopped in and he was happy to take us.  The conversation was great, he immediately blamed Chaz for his car smelling.  He also told us he didn't understand why his son played hockey because, "his classmates are all white and he is a black, he should have played basketball but none of the whites play."  We walked into the warming tent and the atmosphere was just amazing.  To see so many hockey players together and seeing where they are all from was something I won't forget.  They opened the ceremonies right with the National Anthem and didn't waste any time getting right to the games.  It's nice to see a tournament ran with organization, no game started late.  Our game wasn't till 11:30, so Tyler, Chaz, and I watched some games and did a little bit of scouting.  Bryan had to fix his skates so him and Doggy went to HockeyGiant to get some gear.  All the teams have talent unlike NJ where you have talent in just some areas.  Everyone could skate, stickhandle, and just had plain knowledge of the game. 

With all the anticipation over with, we got dressed and headed to our rink to find out that our opponent had dropped out.  Who does that?  Carleton College 1 and 2 had dropped out and we had to play Carleton College 1's opponent.  The ref informed us that both teams would be awarded a forfeit win 1-0, which is good because tie breaks come down to points against.  So the team that took our opponents place scrimmaged us and let me tell you, it was good that they did because we were worse then rusty.  The team we played was good.  I love Alec Nicolai and he's got the best hands around but the backhand toe drag that was done to me was better then any backhand toe drag Nicolai has done, and that's saying something.  At the end of the first period we were down 10-5, but hey like Bryan likes to say, "we weren't in tinkle toe mode."  We got our game together and started figuring out how to actually play this game they call hockey and tied the game 10-10.  

Our next game was at 2:30 so we got our lunch and just hung out in the tent a bit.  Carleton College 1 and 2 finally showed up and they were what you call benders.  If you don't know what that means, it just means they were bad.  After watching them play we didn't feel that bad about taking a forfeit win.  As the day went on, the more warmer it got.  it was 40 degrees today and the ice was turning into soup.  Our second game was against Revenge of the Rooster.  They were a nice group of guys who were just looking to have some fun.  Bendog has us going up to each team before hand to introduce ourselves which I think is a nice habit of doing here.  The puck was very hard to control all game,and it wasn't easy to skate either.  I found myself taking off for a play and calling for the puck, but then just falling flat on the ice.  When it's that warm the ice is just so soft and nothing works.  With that said, again we came from behind and won 9-3.  We came into today wanting to leave 2-0 and that's what we did.  

The rest of our night consisted of going to Mall of America.  I wasn't all that pumped to go there but wow that place is awesome. I underestimated their theme park in there.  We got some food and drinks at Buffalo Wild Wings while watching college hockey.  Minnesota  was playing North Dakota and it was just amazing to be in a place that was actually showing hockey.  People in the restaurant were reacting to every goal or close call.  At Pj's in Moorestown we got the Sixers on our Tv and no one is paying attention.  It's just cool to be in a complete hockey atmosphere.  We are all scared that we are going to go broke with all the cool hockey apparel being sold around here.  We have never been in a place where they just sell your hockey team's apparel in every store.  We got back to the hotel after meeting some funny people in our shuttle.  We asked a guy in the shuttle by the name of sideburns to come hang out with us in the pool but I'm pretty sure he was about to pass out so he didn't come.  We had a short but fun time in the pool and then called it a night.  

I made a video of our first day and I'll keep trying to make a video for each day.  We get so much footage though that it will probably be uploaded the next day.  So the 17th is being uploaded tonight and I'll try and get the 18th footage with the hockey upload later today.(I know that doesn't make much sense but thats because all my times and days are mixed up so just expect a day's footage to be uploaded the next day)  I also am not being able to get my phone pictures up right now so I will try and post them up later.

We got a big game tomorrow against the Woodstars.  We have to win, and if we can't do that we got to keep the score down at least.  Wish us luck, we're going to need it against them because they are real good.

P.s. The video is only going to work on computers, not phones or ipads, sorry.  Enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaBxO7J2TbE

-bSmith