HELLO, HOCKEY! WE'VE MISSED YOU!

It's 5:31pm and I should be whipping up dinner for the boy and then taking my tired self to bed, after working my usual overnight shift at the TV station. Instead, I'm chugging a Cherry Coke Zero and picking out a top that is NOT red, black or blue, to go with my jeans. At 7pm, I shall be firmly ensconced inside Comcast Arena, letting the chill air seep into my bones but not feeling it when the Silvertips take to the ice and face off against the Tri City Americans in glorious pre-season action!

My hockey fix actually came a little earlier today, when I made it to the Cable Box to catch the 2nd and 3rd periods of the T-Birds/Prince George match up. My laptop died with a minute to go in the 2nd period and my BlackBerry threatened to die shortly after, but I managed to scribble enough notes in my notebook to add to the wrapup I write this weekend.

The T-Birds played fairly well, although I could see a few of the newer boys struggle here and there. It was nice to see some familiar faces (err... names) out there and even nicer to see Lindsay Nielsen sporting a "C" on his jersey. I'm not sure if Coach Sumner has made the decision permanent, but I can't think of a better person to don the mantel left by Thomas Hickey. Neely has some big shoes to fill, but he can definitely do it. I hope Coach leaves that "C" on Neely's chest.

I saw a couple of players sporting "A's": Sena Acolatse, Jeremy Schappert and Steve Chaffin. Again, I agree with these choices and hope the "A's" remain. The returning players I saw played fairly well, especially Jonathan Parker, who had a goal and at least one assist in the 3-2 victory. Did not see Calvin Pickard on the bench. Instead, Jake DeSerres and Kyle Jahraus split the net duties. I hope Picks is having a well-deserved rest and not nursing an injury or something horrible like that.

I missed today's second game between Spokane and Portland because of Mommy duties. And since the Hubby has to work late tonight, I bought Ian a ticket to tonight's game and am taking him with me. (He's making sure his PSP is charged). He informed me, "I like hockey, but not THIS kind of hockey." Oh-kaaay. I don't know what other kind of hockey there is to like. He explained, if Luongo isn't in net, he's not interested. Oh, my little Canuck. I told him that one of the Silvertips (Kellan Tochkin) was actually signed by Vancouver and is going to training camp. He doesn't care. "If he's not on the team yet, he's not a Canuck." Ouch. Harshness as only a 15 year old can deliver it.

Well, It's now 5:47pm and I still need to find a shirt that does not make me look like a Tri City fan (sorry, my Amerk friends- you know it's not personal). I didn't think about the color of the clothes I chose for work and drove to Everett dressed in black pants, red tank top and white shirt. Yeah. I sat amongst T-Bird fans looking like I was cheering on Prince George. #FAIL. And as my friend M. Jarred pointed out, they're also the Portland Winterhawk colors and mentioned that that would constitute #DOUBLE FAIL.

I think one #DOUBLE FAIL hockey fashion faux pas today is enough.