I'm still a' buzzin'

Vancouver beat the Wild, sitting pretty back at the top of their division

Wildcats had a passionate home win that felt like waaaaay more than 2 points

and I'm still waiting to take the PERFECT hockey photo, but in the meantime I'm pretty damn pleased with this one :)

Sports fans have short memories

I know I do

After four straight losses for my beloved Canucks (hard fought, but not hard enough), and a nul point weekend for my cats last week, I’ve forgotten what winning feels like.

That adrenaline from the week before, when both teams were riding high in their respective leagues and seemed unbeatable, has left my bloodstream now. After the buzz there is always the downer. It’s chemical.

And like any self respecting junkie, I want to feel that chemical in my blood again, I need to.

Which is why I won’t be jumping off any bandwagons any time soon. I won’t let myself believe that the sky is falling as fast as our placements in the respective rankings.

I have faith in my boys to give me that feeling of joy again, that winning buzz. More faith than is warranted, probably. And in the case of the Wildcats, more faith than the new coach* has, maybe.

And the reason I have so much faith – is that I know they need it as much if not more than I do.

Vancouver NEED to prove they are still a team without Luongo. They NEED to get some of that beautiful momentum back that carried them through the last road trip, even for a game or two post-Luongo. That tasted like nectar from the gods for them, and they want to taste it again, I know they do. They need to get their self belief back, not to mention their rightful spot at the head of the North West. And I KNOW they can do it. Tonight.

Swindon NEED to rally together after all the upheaval of the past fortnight. They need to get behind their new coach and new on ice leaders (HUGE congrats to new C Lee Richardson, by the way, I’m so pleased with this appointment). They need to get last weekend out of their systems. They need to get back into an effort --> win --> reward cycle. Starting tomorrow.

I really mean it, you have to win me a game or two, PLEASE, boys, get us all a fix of that winning feeling. Because cold turkey SUCKS, doesn’t it?


* Actually, the jury is still out on this one. On one hand I think that this could be demotivational for the squad, especially the younger guys who, implicitly, are the ones Mr Aldridge wouldn’t necessarily have chosen for his roster. I am hoping that the youngsters (many of whom have been playing brilliantly so far this season, IMO, especially Long and Hayes) will read this and think “ok, let’s show the new boss what I’ve got” not “he doesn’t rate me anyway, so I might as well coast”. And on the other hand, I applaud Ryan’s realism and honesty. I like straightforward. Mike Gillis is straightforward. I think I like him too. Anyway, I digress.

Looky here - my photos in the programme - yay!

The bottom 2 pics are mine, from the Romford game last weekend.

Chuffed :)

And handily Sitko was on autograph duty after the game so I got him to sign the photo with him in it, an added bonus

We won, by the way, and we won again tonight - 4 point weekend, just what we needed :)

My baby

I snapped these in 2 seconds in poor indoor lighting yesterday while getting ready for the hockey game - my awesome new ice hockey lens is an awesome portrait lens too, it seems!




I especially like the ones of him practicing his rock star moves with the Guitar Hero geetar :)




As for the hockey game, I took a trillion photos, but I'm still yet to get that killer shot that I am 100% pleased with. Good job I get to at least a game a week - plenty of practice!

I do quite like this one, though - from the point near the end of the game when Sitko had lost his stick and decided that without it his best move was to grab onto the opposition for dear life :)



It was a great night of hockey for me - Wildcats beat the Romford Raiders 7-2, and then I came home and watched the Canucks similarly trump the Leafs 4-2. It just doesn't get better than that. Boy I wish we could play the Leafs more often, it was one of the most entertaining games I have watched in a long time.

The first 5 minutes were intense - we were outshot from the off, and Toronto got a virtually 2 minute 5 on 3 which was terrifying! They were coming down on us like a ton of bricks and then Lu lost his paddle. And like the miracle worker he is he managed to save at least 2 more good hard shots after that with no stick. It was amazing to watch, mindblowing, really! Wellwood got the first goal in traditional stick-it-to-the-team-that-traded-you stylee, and Kes the second on the powerplay if I remember rightly. Willie Mitchell - yes Willie Mitchell - got the game winner with a cute little tip in that looked like it surprised him as much as the rest of us - he has already been getting stick in the locker room for his little streak of assists, this is going to have finished him off :D And Dank put in an extra one for insurance. Demitra was back in the line up after a while off with injury, and it looks like he's better - three assists - THAT's the playmaking king we thought we were getting - good stuff. All in all, we looked OK out there (not perfect, in fact far from it - but good enough to stuff it to the East - yeah!!!)

Just writing all that has got me all pumped up again lol - gotta love that adrenaline rush....

It inspired me to have a little play in Photoshop :)


Now - if I could get a shot like THIS, then I'd be a happy bunny!


Although, to be fair, I'd have to be sitting IN the goal.

Getting better with my new lens....

I had another practice with my lovely new lens last night at the Guildford game (which saw our boys playing with real heart, fighting for every puck, and basically making me proud, we lost more through bad luck than lack of effort).

And although I'm still having a bit of problem with the depth of field, these are tons better than last week's.

Getting there. By the end of the season I reckon I'll have mastered it :)

Scroll to the bottom for first view of Sitko's new Village People cop moustache. Lovin' it! :D

Full set of pics here

awww he so cuuuute :D

it's the little "hallo" at the start

I am so smitten lol

and what a superb goal by Sitko!

This is uber cool

Local video firm Crazy Dog Media have teamed up with my Wildcats to produce a few game DVDs, complete with commentary and player/coach interviews and all sorts of bells and whistles

It's fab!

Here is a little vid they have put together to promote the three DVDs so far filmed. I'm hoping to pick up the one from the Telford game tonight.



I could watch this over and over :) It's so surreal seeing my team playing, on the TV, with a commentator. HNIC here we come :)

A Twitter experiment

As a way to keep people up to date who couldn't make it to the rink, and also just to see if I could, I thought I would live Twitter the Wildcats v Telford game last night

Never again :)

Unless I can learn how to text without looking at the phone, anyway.

I missed too much of the game by taking my eyes off it to text about it.

I even missed a goal - grrr. Forsyth turned the puck over in the neutral zone and gave Telford a clear breakaway, nobody was anywhere near the Tiger but Sitko zoomed up there like a man posessed, dived half way across the width of the ice and poked it out just in time.

So I leapt on my phone to tweet about Sitko's sweeeet defending, and before I'd got to the 2nd or 3rd word everyone's cheering, because that puck had gone straight down the ice while I wasn't paying attention, Joel had found it and popped it in. Pah. They should check I'm looking before they take a shot :)

I also was so rattled trying to watch and text at the same time that I apparently was under the impression that the game had four periods LOL. I haven't corrected them below - but when I mention the 2nd period I meant the 1st and when I mention the 3rd period I meant the 2nd. (hence us managing to score 2 more goals after the end of the 3rd period) DOH!

Anyway - here are the results of my experiment (and if I ever do it again I will only text in the period breaks) :

• Out come the lads. Both watt bros icing by the look of things. So that doesnt clear anything up.


• And again. Ryan w got the loudest cheer . Hope the p t b are listening.


• Lee r is on fire! Less than 3 mins in and about 3 or 4 shots already and now a goal. Yes! Assist sitko


• Beautiful end to end from sitko! Scrum at the goal to stop him. Got us a powerplay


• Goal! Looked like we were going to concede after a scary telford breakaway. But 24 saved the day and on the way back 23 scored :)


• Last few mins of 2nd we have lost momentum. Forsyth seems a bit rattled and we have lost dominance a little. Eop score 2 0 us


• Dont know why they bothered to dress ryan w. He didnt play a single shift :( guess that is that then :(


• And lots of other rumours flying around too. Including a brand new one. All very odd.


• Less than a minute into the 3rd and we are 3 0 :) sitko from nicky watt. Wish i could enjoy this game properly


• Ryan w on the ice :) huge cheer :)


• When kudrna is on form he is godlike :)


• End of 3rd period. 3 0 cats. Watt the younger iced twice. Both brothers smiling. Even nicky :) no idea what is going on. Good game tho :)


• And its four ! Aaron nell from stringer aka the torch


• Johnny 5 is alive :) long from hayes. And nicky watt just had a short but successful scrap


• And its a shutout :) great game! Very proud of my boys :) no idea who mom was asked pete r he didnt know either :)

For the record, MOM was Kudrna. Couldn't have been anyone else really. Never seen an EPL goalie get that far into the zone. He could have stopped anything last night.

And it was his turn to do autographs too - never seen a signing queue like it, because we all wanted to tell him he's a genius :) And commiserate with poor Oli that he is never going to get any ice time at this rate!

Feisty!

So - we had a bit of a chippy game at the Link last night!

Penalty minutes: SWI 118, WIG 129

eeek!!!



But in between all the fisticuffs we managed to pop 8 - yes 8 - pucks in the net :)

Wightlink managed 2

Result! :)

What happened to the Wildcats of old who go one ahead in the first, then collapse in the second, and struggle back to a one goal lead in the third if they're lucky?

What happened to the Canucks who can't score or come back from behind?

Whoever woke up my teams over the summer - THANK YOU!!

Oh - and those 8 goals? Joel didn't have a hand in any of them - so we're not goalless when we're Joelless, oh no. Poor bloke only lasted about 5 mins then then took a stick to the face and had to go to hospital for stitches. Ouch.

But to prove he was there:



I took my posh camera along for a change and am glad I did as I am pleased with how the pics turned out.

The full set is here

But here's a gratuitous shot of Sitko:



Sing song part 1 - let's all do the conga:



and part 2 - they'll be comin' round the mountain:



And Connor and his heeeeeeeero:



I was going to write more about the game, but it's already been discussed to death on THF anyway, and, well, it can be summarised pretty succinctly: "naughty Gareth, WTG Jamie, that wasn't boarding, lots of goals whoot, Ryan is entertaining, we won"

My new career as a sports journalist is beckoning, huh?



Footage of all the major fights, not for the fainthearted!:

Further proof that the Wildcats and the Canucks are actually the same team leading a double life

just like Hannah Montana!

6. Brothers....both teams have brothers

7. Both teams seem most vulnerable at the hands of recently departed ex teamies who couldn't score FOR us but don't seem to have any trouble scoring ON us. Addie Brittle got a hat trick??? wha???? Nathan McIver gets past Luongo???? what's going on???

Separated at birth?

First of all. Spoiler alert for anyone who hasn’t seen last night’s Canucks game yet.

Wow! WHAT a START to the season!

It’s a lovely feeling to be PROUD to be a Canucks fan for a change, knowing that my team has truly impressed out there, rather than mildly apologetic :)

And I for one am not at all surprised that Roberto and Burr played out of their skins after their central part in Luc Bordon’s very moving tribute – they did it for Luc. And what a way to honour him!

But the point of this particular post isn’t to “whoooooooooooooooot” for my Nucks (you can assume that I am doing one big “whoooooooooooooooooooot” all day in the background though)

It’s more to document, while it’s fresh in my head, something that struck me as I was driving into work this morning.

This is a long post and will be of *zero* interest to anyone who isn’t a fan of both the Vancouver Canucks and the Swindon Wildcats. And I’m pretty sure that this particular cross section of the population is a sample of precisely one :) So , basically, if you’re not me, stop reading now!

What it was that struck me, is that, just as most women have a “type” when it comes to men (you tell me yours and I’ll tell you mine :)) – I also seem to have a “type” of hockey team.

You could argue that I didn’t really “choose” either of my teams. I inherited the Canucks from my Vancouver-crazy best mate and her hubby, and Swindon by geographical accident. But, again, just like with a man, having fallen so hard in love with these two teams, I can’t imagine choosing any other even if I could go back and start with a completely clean slate.

Comparing the two teams, literally leagues apart, feels a little like pitting a minor actor who just got their first walk on part in Holby City up against Johnny Depp. But my struggling actor and my movie star are so similar in personality, I don’t know how I didn’t notice it sooner:

Both teams......

1. Have a miracle worker between the pipes. Luongo. Kudrna. Yes, I know they are at very different levels in the game, but I will stick my neck out and say that both are the best in their league. Neither are likely to be sitting out many games (you gotta feel sorry for Curtis and Oli). Both can pull off impossible saves. Both want to WIN and neither is averse to back chatting the ref! (Captain Lu of course is now almost allowed to)


2. Have added a LOT of grit this year to address softness issues. You will remember that awful game last season where the Flyers came to GM place, beat us 8-2, and beat us up physically too. There was nobody to stand up for Kesler when he took that vicious cross check to the face from spit Boulerice spit.
   The twins and Lu got pushed around too. We were like a class full of 5 year olds attacked by teenage bullies. It was absolutely horrible.
   Swindon’s equivalent could well be the game away in Essex last year which left us down two of our best players, Kaminskas went out to injure us and there was barely a big or willing body to stop him doing just that.
   Contrast that to last night’s Canucks game – not only have we added a traditional enforcer to the roster in the shape of Darcy Hordichuk, but also the toughness vibe seems to be rubbing off across the whole team. Bernier took on Phaneuf when Dion pushed Hank about a bit – when is the last time you saw someone really standing up for the Sedins?? Think of the freedom to produce that protection will give them!!! And Hansen responding to the shove on Luongo? Go Jannik!!! Kes and Burr were in everyone’s faces and still found the time to pop a couple of goals past Kipper. Are you getting the message Western Conference? You can’t just bulldoze through us any more.
   And as for Swindon – Braiths can’t be on the ice for every shift, but finally he doesn’t need to be. We have added so much physicality this season, it makes me go weak at the knees :) First up – the psycho twins – as long as we can keep the Watts under an element of control, I think they are an excellent addition to the line up. Can you imagine someone taking liberties with, say, Joel, and the Watt bros letting them get away with it? Nah, nor me :) Then you have Sitko. I’m going to restrain from making comments about what it would feel like to look up (from the puck! the puck!) and see him bearing down on you (on skates! across the ice!) :D But – seriously – you get ridden into the boards by this guy, you’re going to be in a world of hurt. Even some of our carry overs from last season have bulked up – I barely recognised Jamie Hayes. And we have kept hold of the other members of our squad who are happy to rough it up from time to time – Wheats, Moore etc. Someone on THF said something about us going from a total soft touch to the “Swindon Wildgoons”. We haven’t gone that far, and we won’t, the difference in the team’s attitude on the ice since the Telford debacle is evidence of that, but we sure are going to be harder to play against this year.


3. Have a history of struggling offensively, and have won more games by stopping the opposition scoring than by getting lots of pucks in the net ourselves. But *touch wood* both squads are addressing that problem. Swindon by getting Joel back AGAIN and also making other good additions to the team who can chip them in. Or in Sitko’s case, slap ‘em in from the blue line. (You know even THAT looks like a double entendre to me lol). And Vancouver – yes, maybe it's too early to tell – but it looks like we might have FINALLY found a good linemate for the twins! (and if Bernier doesn’t work out is it too late to get Anson Carter back??). Add that to the return of serious secondary scoring from our D, and the Kes-Burr-Hansen line on pace for a stellar season. Even our 4th line guys can score – even short handed – take that!!! I’m yet to be 100% convinced by line 2 but on paper they look good, and we’re only 1 game in to the season, I am hopeful….


4. Are going to turn heads this year, I can feel it in my water


5. Rock. My. World!!!!!!

I love my teams.

I love my game.

This is going to be a good year.

I'm still loving this song :)

Striiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiipes

You've got to play it at the games

Go on, just for me, pretty please :) :) :)

Just the bit that goes W-I-L-D WILDCATS COME ON COME ON, during a very short face off break, maybe? :)

Of course, personally I want the full on Gabriella and Troy duet segment so I can serenade Sitko as he prepares for an important shootout or something lol (not that he'd probably be taking the shootout seeing as he's a D man, but why ruin a perfectly good daydream with reality? :D)

The hockey gods move in mysterious ways

So here was I, lamenting another horrible away result for my beloved 'cats.

I looked over at my hockey shrine, and wondered why it wasn't working.

It's not doing too bad for the Cauncks - granted - unbeaten in the pre-season baybeee!!! GO VANCOUUUUUVER!!!!!

(and I know, I know, they're just exhibition games and they mean diddly squat, but boy, the view's good from the top!!! :D :D :D )

But for Swindon? Well, my prayers didn't seem to be having the same effect :( Sure we looked great at home last Saturday against Guildford - really great - I loved watching them out there putting so much pressure on arguably the top team in the league. This season's Wildcats have got some real presence and some deep talent.

But we just didn't make enough offensive chances, even playing to our strengths, to get that win.

Chants of "bring back Joel!!!" came from the stands, but the word was he was Edinburgh bound.... sigh.....

And then the following night? A horrendous loss at Peterborough, hot on the heels of the equally depressing loss to Telford the week before.

Oh woe was me, and the rest of Wildcat nation. :( Hockey gods - why had you forsaken me????

But then the rumours started to weave their way to the surface about a certain prolific point earner re-routing his plane from Scotland to Wiltshire... could it be true??

And sure enough, this morning, it's official - JOEL PETKOFF IS BACK!

Those HGs, they are clever deities indeed!

How better to persuade Wildcats management to dig deep down the back of the team sofa to find the cash we needed to secure the return of #23 than by dishing us some real low blows?

And now - what do we have? A team that has me salivating!

I just hope that the pressure of being welcomed back like the Messiah doesn't affect Joel's play.

But if he is on form - a team like the Wildcats we saw taking on Guildford last Saturday - defensively sound, intelligent hockey, coupled with Joel's scoring and playmaking abilities - especially once we get Matty back - oh wow - let's GO Swindon!!!!!

This could be our year.

Up and down

Yes, sorry, more Wildcats talk. Arty farty stuff will be back soon, straight after this post in fact. But I need to get my thoughts about the weekend's hockey out of my head first.

First of all, Saturday - what a GREAT day. The weather was amazing, and there was a funfair in the rink carpark - I love it when the fair comes to town :)

Connor and I got up to the Link about an hour before the game (first "proper" match of the season, vs Sheffield Scims) and went on the rides for a bit. We had particular fun with the hall of mirrors, as you can see :) And the pic of Cons on the little roller coaster models his new gap perfectly - he lost his first milk tooth the day before.



We played until the last possible second and got to our seats within seconds of the puck drop. The first period was worrying - we seemed to be almost permanently down a man with powerplay after powerplay for Sheffield. I started muttering about lack of discipline. With good reason, it turns out, but let's stay on Saturday for the moment. Thanks mainly to Kudrna, we got to the end of the period with no score, and Connor and I headed back to the fair for the break, collecting Ben and Michelle along the way.

Michelle then proceeded to make my day BIG time. You remember the BBQ? And Jon Sitko's fetching pinny? Well - Connor and I had to leave said BBQ early, but Michelle and Ben had stuck around to the end - when the Wildcats pinnies that had been in active service were auctioned off. You know where this is going :) She only went and outbid all comers and won the pinny as a pressie for me! :D :D :D

Sits had already signed it, but he added a little dedication for me too, it's very cool indeed :) Totally unexpected - I was, and am still, so chuffed!!!



Anyway - back to the game - we finished the second period a goal down, but I actually think we played better in that period than the first. There were plenty of chances we just didn't get lucky on any of them. I know I'm biased but Sitko had an amazing game, doing everything he should do, using his size, lining up a few great slaps from the blue line, and generally making his presence felt. Lee Richardson was on fire too.

The one decidedly dodgy piece of the puzzle was still Racek. When is this guy going to wake up and start delivering on all the promises? The easy answer to that one is "about 8 mins before the final horn" as he does seem to have an uncanny knack of getting his act together in the final minutes of the game - and indeed he did it again in this game - Ivan the Equaliser evened it up for us in the last half of the last period - and set us up nicely to clinch the game with a second goal from Watt the Elder shortly after. But for the first 50 minutes he is all over the place. I know it's early days but he really needs to start playing a full 60 minutes, because underperforming imports don't stick around for long in this league.

But - yes - the gist is - thorouhgly enjoyable game - our goalie is like a less good looking Luongo and will be saving much Swindon bacon this year - everyone made a lot of noise - everyone looked good out there except Racek - and, most importantly WE WON!!!!!!

oh - and Ryan Watt and Jon Sitko were on autograph duty after the game - and Michelle was kind enough to tell Sits that I was the crazy-fangirl-lady she had bought the pinny for - at which point I blushed beetroot. So there you go - it took Janak almost the whole season to realise he had a stalker - #24 has got it sussed one game in :)



So there I was last night - celebrating, buzzing with the victory.

Tonight? Whole different story.

We lost away 4-0 to the Telford Tigers - and by all acounts it was a sorry old state of a game. A ref who wouldn't put a single decision our way. A ten minute misconduct for our goalie for pointing out that fact. A HUGE brawl that got FIVE of our boys removed from the game. And allegations of Crawford/Bertuzzi proportions against our Pete.

We can't afford this lads. There is a line between being hot headed and being stupid. If the ref is already against us, don't wind him up even more, ffs!!!
And how exactly does a player help his team by leaving the bench to fight and getting sent on the long walk?

Pah.

Sore losers? you bet. Well, so am I. Nothing can build up my mood and then batter it back down to earth like this beautiful game.

A 4-0 shut out is hard to take.

Early days, early days.

Whoaaaaa!!!!

Nothing like starting the season with a nailbiter!

I think I experienced every emotion known to mankind during tonight's hockey game :)

I went from excited to wary to fed up to hopeful through excited again and thoroughly entertained to absolutely ELATED when we equalised with 39 seconds on the clock.

I'm hoarse from shouting and so, so hyped for the new season :)

Laaaadiiiisssllllaaaaavvvvv made some brilliant judgement calls and made up for a couple of dodgy loking rebounds early in the first period to completely win me over.

Sitko is a beast.

Racek? hmmmm, not convinced yet. He seemed uneasy out there. Until he got that last minute goal in, anyway :) But then again Janak started off dodgy as hell and ended up pretty solid. Must be a Slovakian thing.

Wheats looked like he was having fun out there and had some great chances.

The Watts bros are very entertaining indeed.

Matty had some chances too.

And bad boy Fiddes took the first penalty of the season :) Tsk! hee hee

(vid courtesy of Rick - who by complete coincidence also shot the vid of the Kings/Ducks at the O2 last year with me in it :))

and another video just added from the game - fiesty Sitko having a little tussle - this was actually quite a sweet little fight, if a fight can be sweet :) At least the aftermath was, they were both chatting away in the sin bin and having a good giggle :)

I've got my hockey back!!!!!

Wildcats party time :)

Our new team for 08/09 was launched today, and I have to say the 'cats ain't looking too shabby this season!

Smart new kit, interesting new players, and a really positive vibe in the air.

I couldn't get down to rinkside to take any extreme closeups, but here are some pics from today's photoshoot and scrimmage.

(Sorry the action shots look a bit garish, I had to tweak the curves a fair bit to correct the Link's nasty yellow cast)

Willie's got his new kit:

Euan Forsyth, one of our new Scots - looks ready for a fight and there isn't even an opposing team in the building yet...
It's hockey, not golf dear:

Nelly the younger - who I think will be a hit with the younger puck bunnies:

Lee "Two Sticks" Richardson:

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeats:

Mikey Farn:

Shane (it's cool we have a Shane and a Wayne :) now we just need a Blaine):

Talk of the devil - this one's for Tracey - Wayne does the striptease - ba da da daaaa, ba da da daaaa....

and here's our fab captain again:

Oli takes a break:

Wheats scores on Oli (that'll teach him for relaxing :)):

Our last signing of the summer, from Kitchener Ontario, home of Mr Toddney Bertuzzi, looking like a cuter version of Russell Crowe, my new crush, Mr Jon Sitko:

Now you know my usual preference would be for defensively minded forwards (ya can't spell Kesler without Selke!), but I might have to make an exception for an offensively minded D-man who can pull a mean spinorama:

And doesn't he have a cute smile:

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww:


And here's me thinking I'd have nobody to crush on now that Tomas has gone - the hockey gods have smiled upon me :)

After the scrimmage we all retired to the local pub for a BBQ - luckily it was nice and sunny - first sunshine we've seen around these parts in a while (hockey gods working overtime....)

Connor was reunited with his hero of heroes, young Mr Richardson - look how happy Connor looks, I think he has missed the 'cats as much as I have:












And I got served some surprisingly tasty Quorn burgers by our Kitchener boy, in a very fetching pinny. I think that really did happen. Or maybe it was just one of those happy daydreams that starts off with Brad Pitt calling by for a cup of sugar :)

All in all, a good day, and I can't wait till Wednesday to see a proper game. The summer has been too long.

LET'S GO WILDCATS LET'S GO