Mission Not Accomplished

I was really hoping for two things yesterday; a chance to watch Rask play live (and up close, because we had AWESOME seats), and a chance to maybe tell him that I think he's awesome ('cause he's never heard that before right?) and maybe possibly have him sign my goalie t-shirt. I came up short on both counts. At least I have good friends though. Toward the tail end of the morning skate, my friend who works at the rink texted me to let me know that Thomas was the first one off the ice and Rask was still out there taking shots. I expressed my disappointment and said I had really wanted to watch him play up close. A few minutes later my phone went off again, with another text from my buddy, and what was it? A short video of some of the guys shooting on Rask. Awww. Now that's a pal.

Eventually I got used to the idea of not being able to watch Rask work his magic and instead watching the beast known as Tim Thomas. Not a bad deal. (Is there a better tandem, anywhere, past or present?) He didn't disappoint. We got a nice flashy glove save in the second period, which is when he was in our end. And although the Bruins played the first period and a half as if they were asleep, they finally woke up and it was like the proverbial sleeping bear (haha pardon the pun). It was a treat to watch a game that close- 10th row, behind the net and off to the left side- and it was great to see the Bruins win. But with the sounding of the final buzzer, it was time to get into fangirl mode. Hkygrl12 had texted to let us know where to meet her outside the rink, and we joined the herd of people headed toward the exits. While we were in a big crowd on the stairs I jokingly said to GoalieHusband "Look for a Bourque jersey".

GH: There are Bourque jerseys everywhere. Look, there's one right there.

Me: Hey... that's Hkygrl12!

GH: No its not.

Me: Yes, it is! (yelling) HEY!!!! HKYGRL12!

And off we went to stalk - erm, I mean wait for- the players. There were a considerable number of people waiting there already, including two separate groups of Slovak guys who were chanting for Chara. We got right up to the barrier though, and .... were mostly ignored. What a letdown. Two guys came over to sign Hkygrl12's stuff: Tyler Seguin and Andrew Ference. Everyone else seemed to be in quite a hurry to get to the bus. Including Tuukka, who was one of the first guys to come out. Thomas at least grinned and partially waved, but he didn't stop to sign anything.

I was actually quite a bit more bummed about it than a sane person would be, but I guess that's probably no surprise. Hkgrl12 did tweet @ Seguin and told him to "Tell Tuukka he broke my goalie's heart". Haha. We're not stalkers. Honest. Maybe at some other point the hockey gods will see fit to allow me to greet Rask in person, but if not, I'm content with watching his awesomeness on TV. I guess.

But, now it's back to reality and back to my own hockey merry-go-round. We QCats have another 3-in-3 this weekend. We just played this morning at the posh country club outdoor rink. Man, is that some fantastic ice. We won, 4-1, despite the fact that I could hardly see a thing. I thought it would be smart to wear sunglasses, since the last time we played there the sun glare in my eyes was brutal. They did cut down on the glare, but unfortunately they cut down on everything else too. I had such a hard time seeing any of the lines on the ice and was totally disoriented. I kept losing the puck in the shadows too. Next time, I'll just suffer and squint.

Tomorrow night and Sunday night we have home games. Hopefully the weather won't ruin tomorrow night's game, because it's supposed to snow and our opponent is coming down from Connecticut. Both games are going to be a pretty good challenge. I'm really looking forward to it. It's a good thing we're this busy, too, because the Cougars got shafted in the scheduling department and don't play again until February 9th. Or maybe it's the 6th, but regardless, that's a whole month in between games, which flat out sucks. So until the next Cougar(hawk)s affair, it's Cats time. Spectators will receive free tampons and deodorant.