
At least the outdoor games at Yankees Stadium in New York you can see the coaches breath on the benches. It is cold in the east! The New York Rangers took on the New Jersey Devils winning 7-3 and then beat the New York Islanders 2-1 in their battle during the Outdoor Stadium Series.
Then you have the epic fight between the Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames, which had 8 players kicked out of the game including Kellan Lain 2 seconds in! It was Lain's first NHL game. After the first period Torts heads to the visiting teams locker room, Flames players and security try to keep Torts out. What follows is a lot of heat and a Canucks win 3-2 in the shootout with Chris Higgins scoring in the 5th round. Over 200 minutes in penalties and possibly the best quote ever post game from Tom Sestito "Torts told us they were starting there idiots over there so we had to match that". Torts got a 15 day suspension from the league and Kellan Lain went on the score his 1st NHL goal in his 2nd game a few nights later in Edmonton. Now if the whole line matching thing confuses you, and you don't understand why Torts did what he did, well it works like this. Since the Flames were the visiting team they had to submit their starting lineup to the NHL first. The Canucks then get to pick what line they are going to send out to match it. Usually the Sedins plus a winger start a game but I suppose Torts didn't want to risk putting the Sedins out vs the 4th line grinders from the Flames. So as a push back Torts threw out his 4th line (including Lain). You could say there is an unspoken rule between players "don't go after the stars including Crosby, Sedins, Ovechkin" and anyone in that category but you can't always depend on that in the heat of the moment. So Torts kept the Sedins on the bench. I am not saying what either team did was right or wrong but it made for some heated ice time and who knows what will happen next time these teams meet up!
Besides NHL hockey you have maybe the 2nd best hockey in the world……... the Olympics just around the corner. Total 12 teams are competing in the Men's Tournament:
Pool A: Russia Slovakia United States Slovenia | Pool B: Finland Canada Norway Austria | Pool C: Czech Republic Sweden Switzerland Latvia |
Pool A: Canada Finland Switzerland United States | Pool B: Russia Sweden Germany Japan |
Now that I have finally been able to catch everyone up here in the hockey world, let's talk about where I have been. I was cast in a play back in December and rehearsals started in the New Year. It is called "A Particular Class of Women" by Canadian Janet Feindel. Inspired by a 1985 court case, after a stripper was raped and took her attacker to court the judge said to her "you come from a particular class of women, whose job it is to promote lust" The play is a series of 8 monologues by different dancers over the course of an evening. I saw the production back on October and knew right then and there I had to be involved. I went in and auditioned when they were recasting a few roles, booked it and the rest is history. It has been a crazy wild ride so far and I can't wait for opening night next week. If you are in the Vancouver area please come! You can get tickets at http://www.neveryoumindproductions.com Enjoy the show! X
Below check out a few videos 1) Gretzky dropping the puck at Dodgers Stadium, Vancouver and Calgary's brawl and Kellan Lain's 1st NHL goal. Besides the goal my favourite part of the video is Canuck #6 Yannik Weber grabbing the puck from the net so Lain can keep it. A true hockey tradition! Video 4 is an Episode of Hockey Talk with Courtney where I explain "home ice advantage" and line matching.