| I have three puck shaped ones and an apple pie scented sheep. If I wake up with a strong sense of regret and shame and lots of wool in my bed and mutton snoring away next to me, I'm blaming you and the seductive powers of your sheep soap.
Well, UVM played a lot better tonight, passed better, checked better, shot better, everything better. Outplayed UNH for two of three periods, I thought. Outshot UNH 34-27, and our goalie Joe Fallon bounced back with an excellent game. And yet they still lost, 2-1. Key stat of the game: UNH powerplay - 1 for 4. UVM powerplay - 0 for 7. Seven powerplays, no powerplay goals. They had their chances, they just didn't put 'em away. UNH got a powerplay with about four minutes to go in the game, got the goal to break the tie and win the game. Ugh. Nevertheless, they rebounded quite well from the Friday night debacle, so that's something positive. UNH isn't 12-1-1 in the conference for nothing, they're looking like they're just going to flat-out run away with Hockey East this year. They've already got a ten point cushion in the standings. Yikes. Game was on CN8, don't know if you're Comcast people over there. Next weekend they travel to Northeastern for a pair (the Saturday night game is on TV), then it's back home for the big BC series and MINI2's Hockey Night in Vermont.
It's alway a packed house at UVM. Tonight was the 50th straight sellout (a college team has about 15-16 home games per season), they've sold out 227 of the last 309 games. The season ticket waiting list is currently pegged at about 20 years (I've got mine, my dad put in for them when I was still in junior high). The friendly confines of Gutterson Fieldhouse at UVM only has a lower bowl, the only balcony spots are all pressboxes. The old barn was built in 1963, renovated in 1990, and seats just over 4000 loud fans. The university is in the early stages of putting together plans for a new arena on campus, something more in the 7000-8000 seat neighborhood that could hold concerts etc along with hockey. Plus that would mean there will be two rinks on campus, which would open up some precious icetime, a valueable commodity in these parts. There are currently five rinks right in and around Burlington, and all of them are occupied from around 5am to midnight most every day, icetime is a hot commodity around here. Given that the UVM men's and women's teams occupy the ice at the Gut for about about five hours a day, every day, having a new rink for them to play and practice in would open up a lot of icetime. Which would be nice.
As a joke, at least once in every single UVM game when the goalie goes into the corner to retrieve a penalty-kill dump-in, I yell "he's outside the trapezoid!", and my brother laughs every single time. Every single time.
The perfect cure for what ails a troubled hockey team: A game against the god-awful Flyers. That put the Bruins back on track, even with Big Z sitting out the game with an "undisclosed minor lower body injury". Whatever Patrice had, he played thru it. Good win for the boys. They looked shaky again in parts, but Timmy bounced back to save the bacon when they faltered. Great game for Savard, too.
-Ricardo
"2 minutes by yourself and...you feel shame, you know...and then you get free" | 
