Hawaiian Champions

Championship game was bright and early at 8 AM ... the team that we were playing was Prime Evil (Alberta) . We played them in our first game and had won 7-2 . We knew they were going to come harder this time as they did alot of whining after losing the first time . Once the game began we all put our game faces on .

Now i have to let you all know i had a stacked team in front of me with 3 of the biggest defenseman i have ever been blessed with having in front of me . Dom , Paul and Martin St. Amour were my defense ... all over 245 lbs. , nobody had an easy path to the goal . Our forwards were awesome too with Vooch, Tim , Tanzer ,Matt, Jay , and Pineapple ( LOL ) . All the games up to this point were won by my teammates and i had little to do in helping . This game was going to be different!

We came out flat , the first period was really close . Prime Evil had a breakaway quite early that i stopped with a glove on the ice near the post :) , not too shortly after that we scored our first goal . A nice tip in ( i think ) .... Going into second period we had a 1-0 lead . Throughout the tournament we had avoided having the ice cleared between second and third periods because the rules say that the game has to be within 2 goals and we were determined to keep our streak in tact. After the second it was 3-0 ....

The third period was hectic and i had to make yet another breakaway save . We had to kill alot of penalties as we were all tired and the refs were calling everything . They broke my shutout with about 4 minutes left in the game but it did not bother me , i was determined to stay focused ! Almost immediately we went down the ice and scored again to bury them :) .... final was 4-1 ... ECG Scanning Hockey Club A Division Champions !!!!!

After the game i had to rush to my hotel to dry out my equipment and pack my bags. I hung around the hotel until 1 PM and checked out with my bags and left the car in the hotel parking lot .... shameless plug , check Aqua Hotels if you are ever in Hawaii ... best prices and service !!!! After i packed car Toby and myself went to our favorite bar in Honolulu , Legends . We grew to really like it there and had to have one last beer there and visit the regulars there .

We went for lunch at Duke's on the beach and then went to meet the rest of the gang at the Sheraton hotel to go to our banquet . The banquet was totally uneventful , basically said bye to the guys on the team and gave Terry a ride to the airport with us as he was on our plane .... thanks for pitching in on gas Terry !

The person above is my guardian angel , his name is Daniel Laplante ! Basically i am in LAX now confused lost and pissed off beyond belief ( again ) . When Toby and myself arrived here we knew he had to catch flight early and i had later flight . Toby is gone and next thing you know someone at the front desk here asks me to wait then they tell me i am being put onto another flight in a middle seat in Economy . I said i am Business , i was tired and have not slept in over a day now .... basically they failed to tell me my flight was delayed and were trying to move my bags . I said no unknowingly .... when i got to gate and checked about my bag the agent said i was on standby for another flight and my bags were going onto that plane . WELL i went to get onto that plane and they did not let me on ???? I am going to be really blunt about this so close your ears children .... the people working here for Air Canada must be inbred or something , WTF ! They won't confirm my seat and i couldn't even get into the Lounge ??? policies changed in the last week apparently , and the bitch at the front desk really was no help and turned her back on me ... right now i would love to hit her with a shovel or something ...... back to the pic above, Daniel saw me in disarray and came to the desk and said hi to me and pretended to be my friend to get me in :) yes what a great gesture . I wish i could buy him a beer but it is free in here HAHAHA.....

Anyways my flight is delayed by about 4 or 5 hours now and not scheduled at all for now ... so i am in limbo , i don't know when i will arrive and i will be lucky if my hockey equipment makes it with me . Next thing i am doing is filing a complaint as today is not exactly in line with the term customer service.... if you are playing in Summit Tournament this weekend then don't expect to see me at the Hootenanny , so tired . Hope all of you are having a better day then me .... i miss Hawaii !

Quiet Last Night in Hawaii

Woke up really early for another game .... picked up Andi and Vooch and headed to the rink . So far i can say that this tournament is pretty good aside from the awful hours that we have to play hockey . Usually at tourneys we play 2 or 3 games in one day , but for some reason at this one we play once a day at an ungodly hour . Sure we have the whole day after our games to do whatever as long as it does not mean getting loaded . Every night i was forced to turn in early so i could wake up at 5 AM like i just did today ... yes it sucks to be me LOL .

Yesterday we played a team called Kapakahi and we beat them 5-2 to go undefeated in round robin play .... Really we should have beaten them worse but their goalie stood on his head . I don't ever remember playing on such a dominant squad . I was lucky to have 10 shots on me , with one of them being a nice breakaway save :) After the game we headed back to the hotel .

It was Kathleen's last day in Hawaii so i took her out for lunch at Duke's which is a great bar on the ocean front with good food ! i would suggest it to anyone that comes here .... after our huge meal we decided to stroll around the beach together , then we went back to our room where she had to pack her bags and i had to get ready to go for my catamaran trip with my team . Hope you had fun here Kathleen ;) see you at the airport in Toronto Thursday night ...

The catamaran trip was fun and very boozy .... after the team decided to go to some fancy restaurant , when i got there i was happy but when i saw the menu i lost my appetite and left . Seafood , sushi , YUCK!  so i went to grab some food to bring back to my hotel room , which i hardly touched .... anyhow this morning i have to pack my bags up and get my gear together for our Championship game vs. Prime Evil .... they were the team that got the most shots on me so far , we beat them 7-2 but that can change in the blink of an eye in the game of hockey . Hoping for a great result to come home with ! wish me luck :)

Game 2 : Pearl Harbour

Another early day , this time it is for hockey . Game 2 was vs. Cutters .... kinda embarrassed by the first goal i let in as it was a softie . We were already up 1-0 and i guess i was being way too confident on a shoot in which i played lazily with one hand on the stick , didn't drop down to a knee to control it properly and i feel like an idiot because i shouldn't be doing this on ice surfaces i don't know too well . So yeah the puck hit my  stick and started to do an inward spin and kinda curled itself into the net .... yeah it was a shitty feeling seeing the puck spin in off my stick . Game is now tied 1-1 and i felt like a total heel .

Making up for my mistake was the main concern and not giving up any other goals any time soon . Cutters wanted to and they tried .... not even 5 minutes after the goal there was a breakaway , and yes i stopped it ! We skated down the ice and scored to make it 2-1 . It was a good game in the end as we went on to beat Cutters 5-2 , with the win we qualified for the Championship game on Wednesday as only 2 of the 4 teams in our division will go to final . This morning we play the team which has lost there games so it should not be too hard on the body .i hope.

After the game we decided to go to Pearl Harbour as it is only a 5 minute drive from the arena . Everyone should go pay their respects and learn more about history ! Some people i know gave me the ho hum stories about how boring it is but it isn't if you put it into perspective .

When we arrived there the parking lot was jam packed full of cars . I drove our vehicle around for a good 15 minutes looking for a spot and got one WAAAAY at the end of the lot . Andi , Vooch , Tim ( significant others ) and myself had a great day in the beautiful sun there . For $10 we got to go on a submarine and check out how people functioned on these underwater monsters . Not exactly the life for me as i did not see an ice rink there :)

After roaming around looking at memorial plaques trying to find Vooch's uncles name ( he died on the USS Arizona ) we got into line and waited to get on the ferry to go to the memorial grave site where over 1100 men are buried still to this day in their watery graves . It was an eery feeling knowing all these men were just below me all dead underwater .... i think it really struck a chord with Vooch and we all were very respectful towards his families loss .

When all was said and done we jumped into the rental car and drove back to our hotels . When i got back i ate and relaxed for a few hours then we headed out to our teammate Matt's house here for a team BBQ . Our team is actually 2 teams representing ECG Scanning . I am on the A team and there is a team in the B division , all great guys .... will have to do a writeup on our teams organizer John Nasuti as he has been over the top gracious .

We ended our evening early as we all have to play this morning , our game is at 830 AM and right now as i write this it is 620 AM so i should probably get ready to go kick some ass .... you can bet your bottom dollar i won't be playing any pucks in the lazy fashion i did yesterday ;)

Add Hawaii Officialy to List of Places Played

What a great day it was yesterday . When that light bulb went on at 430 AM and i saw Kathleen getting ready i decided to go to watch her do here Run Like A Diva 5 K run.  I have never went to watch people run around in a big group like this ... something like 2500 fitness freaks running around Honolulu . It was way too early but like i said most of them are freaks ... don't get me into it , LOL ! You honestly should have heard the announcer there i think she said WOO about 300 times and every time the crazy lady did it there was massive feedback HAHAHA.

We took a cab over to Ala Moana ( or whatever that area is near the mall ) and easily got one back. Once i arrived at the hotel room i contacted John only to find out that he went to scout the competition already . Knowing the other people at my hotel wanted to go for a cruise up to the North Shore i knocked on Andi & Toby's door and we went off ....first stop was the arena as it was on way north . We checked out the other A division game that was going on and then we got back on the road .

We pretty much drove aimlessly . Stopping randomly along the way to snap a few pics . The main place we really stopped at was Waimea Falls . It is a beautiful park with a waterfall in it ... honestly the $13 is a bit pricey to go walk through a park but i guess that is how it is ! I personally did not go into the water there as it was a glorified piss hole for children .... but it was beautiful . We stayed there for a good hour or longer , passing a lizard , a couple roosters and peacocks . The peacocks were absolutely magnificent . But this is not why i came to Hawaii , i came to play hockey !

We were hungry and everyone raved to me about stopping on the side of the roads to eat up in the North Shore ... well lets just say the people that told me must not know that i don't eat fish and every spot on the route was basically selling shrimp YUCK ! I was driving which meant our choice was McDonalds ;)

   I was getting kinda tired of driving as i had started the trek around 9 ish and we did not get back to our hotel until around 3 or so , which is when i shut it down and went to sleep .

I should have taken more pics at the rink and i will today ! When i woke up from my nap i got dressed and went to play our first game which was apparently vs. the team to beat . I THINK they are a bunch of firemen from Alberta with the team name Prime Evil . Finally i got to meet the rest of the team and see Tim & Vooch again , i met them both in Fussen, Germany this past year at yet another tournament . Pretty sure the other team had around 15 skaters to our 9 , but we had the better team . We beat them up pretty good with a 7-2 score :) i had the shutout until the 3rd period when i gave up a tip in goal that barely squeezed by me , followed closely by another nice goal that went off my blocker . The games here are long ! Periods are 20 minutes run time and there are 3 periods .... games take up most of 1.5 hours with flood between 2nd and 3rd periods . I don't want to say too much about what is going on as the tournament is continuing today and i don't want to jinx anything . It is almost 7 AM here now and we will be leaving for the arena in just over one hour for our second game which is vs. Cutters which i think is a local team ... game time 10 AM . Wish me luck ;)

Another Day in the Sunshine

What a beautiful day it was yesterday .... we started our day by going down to the Apple Store and Kathleen and i both bought Ipod Touch(es) . Great little machine .... Andi took off snorkeling and we did not see him until the evening while Toby slept , due to his soreness in the neck . It was a very chill day .

So so hot ... i had to go out and buy a ball cap as my forehead was taking a beating . Red as a lobster i got myself a University of Hawaii cap because i was planning to go to the ballgame ... well that didn't happen unfortunately . We had a team meet n' greet at the Sheraton Waikiki in John's 1200 sq. foot suite right on the ocean . Once we arrived we had planned to stay only for under an hour but we ended up getting talked into staying and missing the game ( sorry Tony ) . Tony is the guy we met at the bar that we were supposed to meet to go watch the game . We called you Tony ! And we even called the bar and they said you were not there ? Anyhow we'll probably see him again :)

Wine and beer and pizza overlooking the ocean with a bunch of hockey buddies was not a bad choice but i still would have liked to go watch that game which Hawaii won . Yeah i know it is late in the day back home but i have had a day full of activity today and now just have the time to write this as i am in my pre game downtime .... probably should cut this short and take a much deserved nap , i will fill you all in on today's events tomorrow morning before my second game. Tonight we play the Prime Evils ... lets see what they got !

Hawaii Is So Beautiful

Woke up yesterday after my first decent sleep and i felt good . While i was writing my blog yesterday i was checking my emails and there was an email from our team GM John ... he was wondering if we were here yet , i replied let him know that we were and about to go for a coffee . He invited us to join him and some of our teammates for breakfast ... knocked on Andi & Toby's door but it was not even 630  AM and they were both out cold still . So Kathleen and myself went out to go meet John and the gang at this great breakfast joint called Eggs & Stuff . It is a very popular place here ...

I had mentioned to John that the 4 of us were planning to go drive around the island and he was really into it so we came back to our rooms and made plans to rendezvous with our teammates . John has been here many times and was gracious enough to stop us at all the spots to get good pictures ....thanks John !

Obviously we were all thirsty and John led us over to this great little restaurant that made the craziest Mai Tai i have probably ever had .... 4 different kinds of rum :) yeah 4 oz. of booze, i was driving so i only had 2 LOL .. the place we went to was called Buzz's . Not really sure where we were on the island as i was just following John in our car , basically staring at his license plate most of the ride and seeing John wave us to look at certain things while we were driving .

After Buzz's we headed back to Waikiki to go watch some NHL playoff hockey .... this is when the fun begins ! Basically we went off to meet at John's room at the Sheraton Waikiki , he has this unbelievably large suite there unfortunately no hockey game could be caught on the tv there so we headed to a couple bars and surprisingly they were both jam packed with Canucks fans ... we wanted to watch the Ducks vs. Preds game . So we convinced John to join us back near our hotel at good ol ' Legends , this bar is not anything special but its starting to grow on me as i have been there every day so far .

When we got to the bar it was packed as well , mostly with guys here for the tournament . The refs were trashed as usual ( hahaha) ...it is almost customary that the refs are the guys leading the party charge . These guys were hilarious . The guy in the pic above with me is Tony ! Met him chilling at the bar , he's been living here for 4 months now and we made plans to meet at the bar today to go watch an NCAA baseball game . Should be a great time!

As the evening was ending due to being super drunk ... yes super drunk LOL! This guy comes in the bar and starts doing these cool tricks , kinda like Mysterion back in Toronto. This guys name was Alex .... when we decided to go we went to a food stand to get some food , pretty sure we both had Chicken Shawarmas and then went back to pass out ...today is gonna be another fun filled day ! Peace Out !

Facing Fears : Hawaii

So far i can tell you all that i love Hawaii :) the food , the weather , the people and atmosphere are all great . I am so happy to be here with Kathleen and 2 of my good buddies !!! Yesterday was amazing aside from my waking at 4 AM local time due to jetlag etc.... When we got up Kathleen and myself strolled over to Starbucks for coffees then came back to the room we shared with Toby ( now he is in room with Andi ) . When we woke Toby up we went for a really good breakfast .

After our meal which was so unbelievably filling we went on our " location scout " , just to see things and figure out what is where ... on our wander i was looking for a place to get some nice new kicks (shoes) and to check out an Ipod Touch , yes i am going to buy one shortly :) On our wander we came across some great deals on shoes but none of us really purchased anything aside from me grabbing a sew on patch of the Hawaiian flag for my hockey stick bag !

The weather was amazing yesterday and the sun was beating down on us ... this is my first trip that i decided not to bring a hat so the sun kinda got me abit yesterday LOL .... so we had to go pick up Andi at the airport as his flight came in around 130 PM , i drove there and had no problem finding my way but when we got there it was a tad confusing and we kept driving in circles looking for a good parking opportunity , then Toby suggested i reverse into an exit for a parking lot so i did . Toby jumped out ran across the street and Mr. undercover airport security came over with badge in hand and said " do you realize you made an illegal manoeuvre to enter a parking lot you should not be in " , my reply was " i am Canadian and lost sorry " somehow someway he bit it and i got away with my charm and even got directions from him and was also allowed to wait for Toby to come back .... hoping this is my one and only encounter with  THE LAW here .

Once we got Andi we hurried back to the hotel , and rushed down to Legends bar to watch some hockey .... yes i hate you Montreal Canadiens , i hate you with all my heart ! but regardless we had a good time and got a pint into us to start the day .... then we decided to pack my backpack full of ice and grab beers and coffee mugs and go down to the beach for some public intoxication ! Now i want you all to know that i am scared shitless of open water , this means no swimming in lakes , rivers  , seas or oceans . A few beers in and next thing you know i am dunking my head into the ocean ... honestly i was scared but i went through with it and survived . Now i can say i have swam in the ocean all be it not so far hahaha.

The sunset was amazing !!! Beer in coffee mug we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner , we ate at Chili's which i must say was amazingly fast service . Unfortunately at this point the sun and booze mixed up to make me so tired so i crashed at around 930 PM .

Just woke up , today's plan is to drive up to the North Shore and watch some surfing and eat at some good restaurants we have heard of from friends . Can't wait for this tournament to start , i am itching to get some ice !