Ice Hockey

The weather was good enough this morning that we were able to sneak out for a matinee ice hockey game at the Gwinnett Arena, or whatever they call it now.  We were there for the Gladiators, and both Maddie and I were dressed up in our Gladiators jerseys, and ready to go!

Also with us, two pretzels and two Cokes for $20.  Yeah, that's a real deal there!

The game was an exciting one.  It was super close, as both teams seemed to have moments where they were just in top form, really executing passes and so forth, and it just looked like the opposing team wasn't going to do well.  And then the momentum would shift again, and it would do this back and forth throughout the afternoon.

Maddie and I had seats at the club level, right there in the front row, and right there at dead center of the ice.  We were all alone too.  As you can see from the picture above, the seats were largely empty.  This may have something to do with the fact that it was a 12:30 game, and also that there was still ice on the roads outside.  It was pretty cold outside too - we were dressed up in layers, and nice and comfortable inside.

In the end, our Gladiators won, and it was actually a lot closer than this score shows.  The Florida Everblades were really good, and even scored once when they were shorthanded.  Of course, that was right while one of our players had broken his stick - the Gladiators broke a couple sticks today, in fact.  But we came right back with an amazing short-handed goal, two skaters breaking free and crossing the ice to drive the puck in there.  That was the score that put us up by one - it was three to two at that point.  The last score was with about 20 seconds left or so, and the Gladiators clearly didn't have the momentum at that point, as the Everblades were attacking in a huge way, our Gladiator goalie just a brick wall for that third period.  One of our players launched the puck across the ice towards the empty net and wound up with a hat trick for the day as a reward, putting the game out of reach for the Everblades.

It was a fun afternoon.  There were some hard feelings between the teams, some really rough plays, and a few moments where players were put into the penalty box for five minutes for fighting.  It wasn't as bad as a previous game, but there was certainly no love lost between these teams at the end.

We had a great time, and we were in such a hockey mood when we got home, that we watched a few movies, starting with "Miracle." I actually hadn't seen this one yet, but it was great to relive those old memories of that game.  I remember going to Lake Placid not long after the Olympics there, and my parents got me a hockey puck that I still have to this day.  I was showing it off to Maddie and Mom.  Anyway, the movie was great, and I learned a few things, and remembered plenty of other things too.

And yes, we started another round of "Mighty Ducks," beginning with the first movie tonight.  So it was a lot of ice hockey today, definitely a theme of sorts.  We got a lithograph of some players of the team, and we were already talking about going back to another game.  It was super fun.

Our snowman is in good shape on the back deck, still a solid guy despite the onslaught of warmer temperatures.  In fact, the birds are quite comfortable around him now - we took some pictures this afternoon, and were delighted to see the sparrows taking up on his offer of free food!

As the sun goes down, the temperature is back below freezing, and he's there, still holding that bird seed.  We were happy to see that the sparrows were glad to sit there in our snowman's hands, munching on the bird seed he was offering.  

Tonight we read more from "The Syndrome," and after that it was time for prayers and for bed.  We had a great day today.  Maddie's back to school tomorrow, so we're off to bed earlier, ready to get back to school and work again.

Although... it was a late night for Nana, Mom and myself.  Nana's coughing got a little more extreme last night.  We were up with plenty of medication and other things to help out.  She refused any trips to the hospital or doctor, and in fact she was able to get back to sleep after we attended to her.  But it was a late night.