Hockey's Back! kinda...
Yeah, I know I've been gone for a while (well, the whole summer and a good portion of the spring actually), but now that I've been to a hockey game at an NHL rink I can officially say that the hockey season has started...
Last night my brother and I attended the Festival Cup at the ACC. I know it wasn't an NHL game, but there were NHLers playing in it, so that's good enough for me (especially since there were some Calgary Flames, current and former, on the rosters). Besides, the game was set up to raise money for Right to Play, and there were even some NHL caliber plays...
As an added bonus, the teams were also decked out in the old Flames jersey template...
Team #1 (White Jerseys)
Coach: Karen Percy-Lowe
Captain: Doug Gilmour (Toronto Maple Leafs)
Players: Sean Avery (Dallas Stars), Jim Balsillie (Blackberry), Cameron Bancroft (Hockeyville, Little House), Tom Bernard (President, Sony Pictures Classics), Mike Cammalleri (Calgary Flames), Andrew Cogliano (Edmonton Oilers), Jim Cuddy (Blue Rodeo), Mike Green (Washington Capitals), Curtis Joseph (Toronto Maple Leafs), Jason Reitman (Thank You For Smoking, Juno), Robyn Regehr (Calgary Flames), Tim Robbins (Mystic River, The Shawshank Redemption), Graeme Roustan (Bauer), Craig Simpson (Edmonton Oilers, Hockey Night in Canada), Jason Spezza (Ottawa Senators), Jason Thompson (General Hospital), Scott Thornton (NHL Free Agent), Wojtek Wolski (Colorado Avalanche)
Team #2 (Red Jerseys)
Coach: Kevin Lowe
Captain: Mats Sundin
Players: Luc Robitaille (Los Angles Kings), Jennifer Botterill (Canadian Women’ National Team), Tim Connolly (Buffalo Sabres), Mark DeCarlo (Raising Helen), Kris Draper (Detroit Red Wings), Andrew Ference (Boston Bruins), Oren Koules (Saw, Two and A Half Men), Nick Kypreos (New York Rangers, Rogers Sportsnet), Lochlyn Munro (Smallville, CSI, Dead Man on Campus), Gary Roberts (Tampa Bay Lightning), Derek Roy (Buffalo Sabres), Joey Scoleri (Hollywood Records), Sami Jo Small (Canadian Women’s National Team), Matt Stajan (Toronto Maple Leafs), D.B. Sweeney (The Cutting Edge, Jericho), Joe Thornton (San Jose Sharks), Jeremy Williams (Toronto Maple Leafs)
Just from a quick glance at the rosters I knew I'd be cheering for the white team, especially given the presence of Lowe behind the red bench...
Now obviously this is a charity game, so there was plenty of hijinx (including Tim Robbins wearing an Obama 08 jersey for the second period), but some of the celebrities actually had some skills. Now some of the Canadian ones you would naturally expect to be competent, like Cameron Bancroft and Lochlyn Munro, who both had dreams of playing in the NHL until they got injured in their teens, but other guys like Tim Robbins I would have never expected to be as good as he is. Of course, there were also a few guys out there that really shouldn't have been, like Scoleri and Reitman. I think my mom can skate better than they can...
This wasn't really a game so much as it was an organized scrimmage. Sure there were referees and they were keeping score and all, but there was a serious lacking when it came to defensive zone play, not to mention actually following the rules...
During a Tim Robbins penalty shot, the refs moved the net from behind Sami Jo Small and he just shot the puck in the dead centre of the net, as it was in the corner of the rink...
You could actually tell the Tim Robbins was really the centre of attention for the night, as he also beat the crap out of Nick Kypreos...
And Sean Avery was being Sean Avery, which is probably why he switched jerseys with Jason Reitman for the third period, since he felt that he was being unfairly tragetted by the officials...
Obviously with this game being at the ACC, they had to find a way to make fun of the Senators and get the crowd into it. Which they succeeded in doing by using the 'kiss cam' and a guy in a Sens jersey, with a girlfriend that obviously had no interest in being seen with him...
But perhaps the funniest and most notable occurence of the evening involved new Flame Mike Cammalleri. Throughout the third period the crowd was repeatedly reminded that in the event of a tie, the game would go to a shootout. With the scored tied 8-8 with less than a minute left, that seemed to be inevitable. Then Cammalleri came down the ice and potted one with about 13 seconds left, and as the spotlight shone on him, you could tell he knew he wasn't supposed to do that. Which was even more obvious when Bill McCreary waved the goal off, even though everyone KNEW it went it. But the best part of it all was the Cheshire Cat Grin on Cammalleri's face...
Oh, and not that it really matters, but the White team won...
