![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Hockey Night In Cardiff!
Mar. 7th, 2009 11:40 pmAs you guys may have grasped from previous posts (heh), I subscribe to what is now called 'ESPN America'; a cable channel that shows American sports and its related debate shows. I signed up in order to follow the baseball, but the football, basketball and ice hockey seasons tend to overlap with the start and end of the baseball season, so I often get a certain amount of exposure to them as well.
Now, it's almost impossible to watch American Football, basketball or baseball in this country other than on the TV from the States *sob*, but we do have our own ice hockey team here in Cardiff called the Cardiff Devils. It's not a major sport over here, but it is possible to name a couple of teams if you read the sports pages.
Anyway, I wanted to take Rowan to see a game, and the Devils have been doing a fair bit of promoting this year; we've had a number of emails at work announcing special offers, and this week a couple of the players (Canadians or Americans by their accents - and both countries are represented on the team) were in the staff canteen selling tickets at a really good price. So I bit the bullet and bought a couple, planning to take Rowan to watch tonight's game against the Belfast Giants. Normally the offers are for weeknights, so this was perfect and Rowan was delighted by the idea.
We got there in plenty of time, despite having to get all the way across town to the Sports Village on the other side of the Bay area, and managed to score some pretty good seats right above the Devils' bullpen. I took some pictures while they were warming up, 'cause I is a good girl and didn't want to disturb them during the game (Photography is allowed, it turns out, but flashes are prohibited) and I filmed the bit where they played the national anthemn - I may post them up tomorrow.
The game started off really well; there were a lot of fans in attendance, who were all pretty psyched - especially when the Devils scored the first goal of the game within the first five minutes. Unfortunately, that was the last time the Devils scored, and the mood of the crowd had soon turned by the second period. There were a few reasonable goal attempts, that Belfast's goalie still managed to deflect quite skillfully.
I should state at this point that I know bubkiss about the rules of Ice Hockey, and couldn't recognise any of the fouls or the ref's bad calls - of which there were allegedly many... All I do know is that there were many, many times when the Devils seemed to be phoning the game in - they spent so much of the game on the defensive, and whenever the puck was near Belfast's goal there were hardly any Devils players there on the attack. And the number of times the players shot the puck out into open space, when their teammates were nowhere near close enough to get it, just beggared belief. Everyone around us was very pissed off by the end.
The one thing that really amazed me, though? I have no idea if this is right, but for the last two or three minutes of the game (during which there was a lot of stoppage time), the Devil's goalkeeper was in the bullpen! Leaving the goal completely undefended! So it came to no surprise to me when, with seven seconds remaining, Belfast scored their fourth goal.
It was very disappointing, and we didn't get out of there till almost ten o'clock after a seven o'clock kick off. So Rowan was also getting very crabby and tired, wanting to go home in the middle of the third period. He grumbled a lot during the cold wait for both the buses home, but once on each bus I managed to pacify him with my MP3 player; we watched Sports Night on the journey through Grangetown into the town centre, then listened to John Barrowman on the way out of town. He was asleep by the time we got to Albany Rd! Awww :-)
Anyway, I'm now relaxing in bed - with basketball on the tv - before I call it a night. I was surprised at how much I was able to follow the hockey game, as I can't normally cope with games that move that fast. And I don't like how much of a full-body contact sport it is, but meh *shrug* I don't know if Rowan'll want to go to another game after tonight, but I don't think I'd mind it too much once in a while. Provided we stop sucking of course! Why is it I always pick the rubbish teams...*chuckle*
Now, it's almost impossible to watch American Football, basketball or baseball in this country other than on the TV from the States *sob*, but we do have our own ice hockey team here in Cardiff called the Cardiff Devils. It's not a major sport over here, but it is possible to name a couple of teams if you read the sports pages.
Anyway, I wanted to take Rowan to see a game, and the Devils have been doing a fair bit of promoting this year; we've had a number of emails at work announcing special offers, and this week a couple of the players (Canadians or Americans by their accents - and both countries are represented on the team) were in the staff canteen selling tickets at a really good price. So I bit the bullet and bought a couple, planning to take Rowan to watch tonight's game against the Belfast Giants. Normally the offers are for weeknights, so this was perfect and Rowan was delighted by the idea.
We got there in plenty of time, despite having to get all the way across town to the Sports Village on the other side of the Bay area, and managed to score some pretty good seats right above the Devils' bullpen. I took some pictures while they were warming up, 'cause I is a good girl and didn't want to disturb them during the game (Photography is allowed, it turns out, but flashes are prohibited) and I filmed the bit where they played the national anthemn - I may post them up tomorrow.
The game started off really well; there were a lot of fans in attendance, who were all pretty psyched - especially when the Devils scored the first goal of the game within the first five minutes. Unfortunately, that was the last time the Devils scored, and the mood of the crowd had soon turned by the second period. There were a few reasonable goal attempts, that Belfast's goalie still managed to deflect quite skillfully.
I should state at this point that I know bubkiss about the rules of Ice Hockey, and couldn't recognise any of the fouls or the ref's bad calls - of which there were allegedly many... All I do know is that there were many, many times when the Devils seemed to be phoning the game in - they spent so much of the game on the defensive, and whenever the puck was near Belfast's goal there were hardly any Devils players there on the attack. And the number of times the players shot the puck out into open space, when their teammates were nowhere near close enough to get it, just beggared belief. Everyone around us was very pissed off by the end.
The one thing that really amazed me, though? I have no idea if this is right, but for the last two or three minutes of the game (during which there was a lot of stoppage time), the Devil's goalkeeper was in the bullpen! Leaving the goal completely undefended! So it came to no surprise to me when, with seven seconds remaining, Belfast scored their fourth goal.
It was very disappointing, and we didn't get out of there till almost ten o'clock after a seven o'clock kick off. So Rowan was also getting very crabby and tired, wanting to go home in the middle of the third period. He grumbled a lot during the cold wait for both the buses home, but once on each bus I managed to pacify him with my MP3 player; we watched Sports Night on the journey through Grangetown into the town centre, then listened to John Barrowman on the way out of town. He was asleep by the time we got to Albany Rd! Awww :-)
Anyway, I'm now relaxing in bed - with basketball on the tv - before I call it a night. I was surprised at how much I was able to follow the hockey game, as I can't normally cope with games that move that fast. And I don't like how much of a full-body contact sport it is, but meh *shrug* I don't know if Rowan'll want to go to another game after tonight, but I don't think I'd mind it too much once in a while. Provided we stop sucking of course! Why is it I always pick the rubbish teams...*chuckle*
