Last game you've seen live?

Garden Dwarf · Post by **Garden Dwarf** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 5:17 pm

Oh man, i wish i could see an NHL game!! I'd love to go to the Garden to see the Rangers!!!

Last live game was more than 10 years ago!!

V4ND3RP00L · Post by **V4ND3RP00L** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 6:12 pm

Last NHL game was back in 1999 when the Stars won the Stanley Cup. I didn't see it and I didn't watch a playoff game either, watched a game sometime in March. I think it was against the Blackhawks.

But I did see an AHL game a few months back. I live in San Antonio, so I see the Rampage here and there, but they suck so bad I can't stand to waste my money on them.

Post by **inSTAALed** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 2:50 am

Every Hurricanes game since October 4th, still...

eme · Post by **eme** » Wed Feb 28, 2007 10:23 am

As promised, my highly anticipated report from yesterdays HIFK vs TPS game. Don't be too disapointed though since it's pretty short, i'm on a lazy mood AND ill. Enough with the excuses and on with the report.

HIFK got off a good start, we dominated the game and only after 2:39 we got ourselves a first goal of the night. TPS took 3 penalties in the first period, but we couldnt really capitalize on them. We did however score another goal around 10min mark.

Second period started around the same way as the first one. Only this time it took only 36 seconds to score a goal for TPS goaltender Jani Hurme. Game was 3-0. After this there was a black minute in the game. First there was Nathan Barret to slip in an easy goal past Jan Lundell, and only 50 seconds later Joni Yli-Torkko scored another one. We even took a penalty after this, and it didn't look too promising. Luckily they did the same a while later, and our really promising junior Janne Keränen scored one in 4on4 game. Jere Karalahti did a great set up for this goal. After this TPS had no chance in the period. We went on to score 2 more goals in the period, Kimmo Kuhta with a nice shorthanded breakthrough goal and Lennart Petrell who directed Pasi Saarinen's shot from the blueline.

Third one was a bit less entertaining. HIFK was pretty much trying to ensure the win, and the puck was roaming around the center ice. 5mins into the period Pasi Saarinen had a nice slapshot from around the blueline, and it went in. After this TPS went on to score 2 goals, only to notice Lennart Petrell score his second of the night.

All in all very entertaining game, which HIFK won 8-4. Not a bad result in a 6-point game. The game was physical, full of great, clean hits. The last 2 games promise a great play-off run for HIFK, which are only a week or two away. HIFK - Going for the cup!

Joe · Post by **Joe** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 5:15 am

I went to the Detroit vs Chicago game tonight. Typically game between these 2 teams where Detroit dominates. 6-2 was the final score. I got stuck sitting next to a Chicago fan who was annoying me

Lidstrom finally scored his 200th career goal. It took the PA guy like 10 minutes to announce it to the crowd, but when he did everyone stood and clapped. They actually delayed a face off because of it, which I thought was nice.

Post by **inSTAALed** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 5:47 am

Wow, the Canes finally pulled it together and won at home.

Surprise surprise...

The one day I don't get to go...

Post by **Calv** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 1:01 am

Went to Manchester - Nottingham today, and we lost 4-2(although last goal was empty net) Not a bad performance by Phoenix they just just don't apply any pressure when they have a powerplay.

Post by **batdad** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 7:57 pm

Going to see Giants vs Chilliwack Chiefs (edit OOPS--old habit) BRUINS on Friday...Anyone specific you guys want a report on? Tired of Lucic....

Speaking of whom. In Kamloops on Saturday, one of the Blazers called Lucic a hunchback. Yeah, real nice considering the dude was born with an abnormal curvatrue of the spine. There is a real hatred between the Blazers and the Giants. (Keaton Ellerby did a throat slash a few weeks ago to the Giant bench)
Interestingly, no supplementary discipline handed down by the WHL to the Blazers or the two players in these incidents. Absolutely disgusting. Giants owner Ron Toigo said yesterday: "Clearly for some reason the WHL loves the Blazers, and their coach runs the league. For some other reason the league seems to hate us. It iseffing ridiculous." Wanna bet he gets fined?
So bush the attitudes in this league sometimes. Anyway, Lucic seems to be building up a legion of fans in the league. They all seem to hate him thouogh (Mueller, the entire Blazer team, Oscar Moeller, ....)

Post by **archibalduk** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 9:30 pm

Calv wrote:Went to Manchester - Nottingham today, and we lost 4-2(although last goal was empty net) Not a bad performance by Phoenix they just just don't apply any pressure when they have a powerplay.

I went to the game too - strangely enough it was with my bro

The first two Panthers goals were virtually identical. The third one was embarrassing because it was a 4-on-3 SHG. We just don't take enough shots on the PP - we try to play it around the zone to find 'the perfect shot' but the puck ends up being intercepted and cleared. I wish we would just barrage them a little more on the PP.

My next game will be at the end of this month (or maybe sooner but I doubt it) when we play Coventry in the final game of the season. I really can't wait. Having gone to a live hockey game for the first time in years, it's reminded me just how awesome it is to go watch a game compared to watching it on TV.

The Hutch · Post by **The Hutch** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 10:10 pm

I ended up not going to the Vancouver vs Tampa Bay game, I let my dad go in my place along with my brother once he offered to buy the ticket. I'd been unemployed for a short while, and that ticket price was close enough to my phone bill to seal the deal

Still went in the morning for autographs though, I go with my friend when her boyfriend is working. It's mainly for him, he has stuff that he collects and then stuff that he trades/sells. I really only do it to keep her company, as he's a tad bit on the ungrateful side whenever he doesn't get something that he wants. Ah well, that's what happens when you're friends with a jerk lol

Post by **batdad** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 5:56 pm

Giants vs Chilliwack Bruins. WHL Game 5 First round playoffs.

Giants 3 Bruins 1. Giants win series 4-1

Tyson Sexsmith--Brutal in games one and two of this series. Yanked after giving up 3 goals on 7 shots in game 1. Barely better in game 2. Last night: In the third period in particular (14 shots) he was unbelievable, as Chilli battled to try and save their playoff lives.

Oscar Moller (chi)---Did not seem to exist, other than to be pasted to the boards by Giants named Festerling, Lucic, Regner, and Franson. However...you can tell this kid is just gonna be amazing. Bounces back from this sets up some nice plays

Josh Asperlind(Chil Captain)-All testicles. Great hands. Too slow.

Milan Lucic-Not much to report. Not his best game, but was tough as nails. Funniest part was watching him try and get the puck at the end of the game. Chased Chilli defenceman Holden (Nick I think) around the arena almost 2 times to get the puck. Finally the horn went and Holden skated away. Sooooo funny.

JD Watt-Not so funny. Chirping the Chilliwack bench at the end of the game, cause one of their players (Glennie) had foretold a Chilli win in this game. Glennie has 4 goals this season. Not a smart move!! Too bad, cause he was awesome.

Spencer Mahacek-Unbelievable.

Kendall McArdle--Even better.

Brawl at the end of the game. and No handshake brought on by Watt's chirping

Post by **batdad** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 6:20 pm

Too bad, cause he was awesome.

Meaning JD Watt.

His chirping started a scrap between him and Patrick Bhungal from Chilliwack. Bhungal is an idiot, who got his butt kicked in the very first game of the year by Lucic. But nothing would have happened if Watt had not chirped.

Sidenote: New playoff beards? Giants pretty much have colored (red, gold, black) Mohawks. BCHL (BC JUnior hockey league) where Kyle Turris plays for Burnaby...the Nanaimo Clippers had the mohawks too. In my son's Atom (9-10) hockey tournament a team showed up with Mohawks as well. So yeah..for those who cannot shave, apparently the Mohawk is in. McArdle did not have one!!!

jackknife77 · Post by **jackknife77** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 7:50 pm

TampaBay vs Montreal. Seat 6th row behind the penalty box.
the place I work owns season tickets.. so i go to the game around 2 or 3 times a year for free

holydogg · Post by **holydogg** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 3:20 pm

Yesterday and the day before yesterday. It was inter-disciplinary tournament against various department in my university. I was Ass. Coach for History

We won 4-3 against Physics but lose 3-0 against Political Science..

Next game is wednesday, pitting versus Engineering

Post by **Shadd666** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 11:22 am

With the different seasons going on here and there, it's time to bring this thread back to life!

Yesterday was the game opener for my local team of the Toulouse Bélougas. After a solid 8-5 win over promoted Font-Romeu in the first game of the season, we were facing the Brest Albatros for our first home game. Brest is the big favorite of the western division. They've won a few elite titles a decade ago, but then have been relegated because of non-sportive events (too long to explain).

Things started pretty badly with a giveaway in our defensive zone. The Brest forward took a little wrister just to test the goalie, but Rapahael Vincent (prefered to Thomas Picavet in goal) let a softy. At the half-period, we took a stupid penalty for too many men on the ice, and the Albatros capitalized their chance to take a 2-0 lead. Two goals we should have avoid. The Bélougas still have the same issues than last year: can't get out properly of their zone, can't bring the puck to the offensive zone, and a lack of offensive animation the few times we're in zone. All of this is especially due to a bad passing play and some bad offensive positionning. As a result, the Albatros were dominant and scored for the third time of the period with a heavy slapshot from the point. Raphael Vincent did some superb saves that avoid us humiliation, and it kept the guys motivated, so that they scored by the end of the period. 1-3 after 20 minutes. Shots? Around 15-5 for Brest

As soon as the second period started, the Bélougas shown great efforts, pushing and pushing harder, again and again, and finally paid as Christophe Ribanelli put us within one in the first minutes of the period. The boys continued their effort, and the Albatros seemed unable to stop so much enthusiasm. It woke up the little crowd of 300-400 people who started to cheer harder. Maybe we should make a big surprise against a professional team full of Finnish, Swedish, Russians, Czecs and Canadians with our little amateur roster full of frenchies who just play with their heart! But the game was soon killed by the refs. In 15 minutes, the refs called 10 minor penalties and 3 misconduct penalties against the Bélougas! Yep, 50 penalty minutes called in just 15 minutes! Real number of faults? Maybe 2... 3 if you're harsh. Number of fouls commited by Brest? The same amount. Number of penalty minutes for Brest? Zero. We even seen a slash combined with a hook by a Brest defenseman. No call. 5 seconds later, there's a contact between two players in the open-ice. The Brest forward falls down on the impact, and the Bélougas defender is called for slashing while it was clearly shoulder against shoulder

The coach was crazy, the boys were crazy, the crowd went crazy too and even started to severly insult the refs. Refs can make mistake, but that was more favoritism than mistakes. It just killed the game. Of course, with so many penalties, Brest finally found a way to score on the powerplay, despite many other impressive saves by Vincent, and the period ended with Brest leading 4-2, with about 25 shots to 5 in the period, for a 40-10 overall.

In the third period, the boys weren't really there, disgusted by the poor refereeing. The refs did a normal job in this period, as they did in the first, but it was too late, the game was killed. No ambiance, no real motivation on both side, and a poor spectacle. Brest managed to score again on a good combination to get a 5-2 win, but nobody cared. Vincent made again spectacular saves and made the crowd applause from time to time, but the heart wasn't there. As soon as the final buzzer rang, the whole crowd boo-ed the refs for their miserable performance. We knew we were not favorite, we knew we should loose this game, and everyone in the arena didn't care about the loss, but wanted to cheer for their team and see them fight hard; we just wanted to see some good hockey action. In the second period, we should have tied the game, but Brest would certainly have reacted in the third and win this game anyhow, there was no need for the refs to give them the win and kill the game. We already have those refs a few times last season, and they always over-penalized our team for nothing and under-penalized the opposing team. That sucks

The positive point is that the boys really battled as hard as they could against a strong opposition and might (and i really say might) have steal the game with some normal refs. We have two good goalies, which is always an asset. Picavet was superb last season, but it's the first time i've seen Raphael Vincent, as he didn't play any home game last year. Our defense has progressed a lot in one year, even if there's still things to improve. We lack size and strength, but the boys play serious and do their best. That's all you can ask for an amateur team.

Next week we'll have the first round of the French Cup against Bordeaux. We should be destroyed, as the Boxers are an established team of the upper division. I'll keep ya tuned!

Post by **Tasku** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 12:54 pm

Great stuff, Shaddy, keep 'em coming!

I do have to say, quite often I feel as Team Finland / Espoo Blues would get penalties for no reason, simply because I'm so much rooting for them, and "looking thru Finnish glasses", as they say. So it might not be that the refs killed your team, but more that your team were just playing dirty, but you were unable to see that.

I wasn't there, so I dunno, just a thought.

Post by **Shadd666** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 1:23 pm

I know i should have "missed" some of our faults due to the fact i'm cheering for them, but still... 76 penalty minutes!!! 50 minutes for Brest! 126 penalty minutes in the whole game!!! That's more than 2 games playing time! Both teams had penalties that were totally imagined by the refs, but Toulouse had far more. Oh and i don't say that the refs killed our team, as i think we should have lost anyhow

I just say they killed the game. It started as a very exciting game with a lot of heart on both sides, and ended as a pathetic parody of hockey with both teams fed up of the refs (especially our boys, but even Brest lost their game due to that). I just can't stand that a ref turns a good game into a pathetic one just by his repetitive mistakes and wrong calls.

I prefer seeing a good game where both teams fight hard and we loose 10-0 than seeing an un-interesting game that we win due to the refs. And when the game is bad, the refs suck AND we loose while we were coming back for an exciting finish, i'm just disgusted. And when this occurs everytime we have those refs on the ice, you know there's something wrong somewhere... Interesting info though is that one of the ref is the mum of our goalie Thomas Picavet! Maybe she didn't like him to be just the backup... But even when he was the starter last season, she always made wrong calls all game long and mainly against us

(No, i won't say anything about a woman being the ref in a men game

)

Post by **Tasku** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 1:42 pm

Wow, that is a lot of penalties! I read you, they definately killed the game, no doubt.

I'm not that surprised of a woman ref, although I'm a bit hesitant of the fact that her son plays for the other team on the ice. I would think that could cause a problem, even if he's not on the ice at the moment. We have women coaches in Finland, and once even a woman playing for Mestis team. I'm all for it (as long as they're cute

).

Post by **Shadd666** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 3:30 pm

Tasku wrote:I'm not that surprised of a woman ref, although I'm a bit hesitant of the fact that her son plays for the other team on the ice. I would think that could cause a problem, even if he's not on the ice at the moment. We have women coaches in Finland, and once even a woman playing for Mestis team. I'm all for it (as long as they're cute ).

She's cute

I have nothing against a woman being the ref, they are capable. But this one is not. As for having her son in one of the iced teams, i see it as an issue too. But heh, there's not a lot of people who want to be hockey refs here in France, especially in the South, so the choice is sometimes a bit limited when it's time to select a ref for a game. But heh, she's still young, so maybe she just need more experience to be a good ref. And well, our hockey federation just entered its second season, so everything can't be perfect right now, including the refs formation. It's actually frustrating to see games being killed this way, but heh...give it time...

Post by **Tasku** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 6:00 pm

As long as she's young and cute, you have nothing to worry about.

Seriously though... hopefully due time the situation will improve... former players are quite common site as refs here in Finland, so maybe your former players will also take the job eventually.

laskey 16 · Post by **laskey 16** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 9:58 pm

I went to the Sheffield Steelers - Hull Stingrays game yesterday (Saturday 22nd). My team, the Steelers, won but I can honestly say it was one of the worst matches I have ever been to. No intensity, no speed, no atmosphere.

Me and my mate started to pretend to do commentary on the game just to stay awake it was that bad...

mark_htfc · Post by **mark_htfc** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 10:11 pm

My latest game was this evening at the Altrincham Ice Dome to see the Manchester Phoenix against the Nottingham Panthers. Was a good game actually, expected it to be a tight game, they hit the post in the 3rd and everyone thought it went in, luckily it didn't though and we came out 2-1 winners in the end.

Went last week also to see Phoenix play the Vipers and that was a good game also, a nice solid peformance and a good win.

Ice Hockey live is such a great experience.

Saranis · Post by **Saranis** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 9:48 pm

If scrimages count the last game I saw live was the Caps vs Caps at training camp, if not than it would be the last Caps Home game of last year vs Buffalo (Caps lost)

Post by **Tasku** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 12:51 am

Last game I saw live was Finland - Czech Republic in the European Hockey Tour, Finnish stage (Karjala Turnaus - known as "Finland Games" in EHM).

We go to Helsinki for those games every year, because it's always full house, or almost full at the 13 000+ seated Hartwall Arena, and very good to watch.

GO FINLAND, GO FINLAND!

Tomorrow me and my bro are going to watch a local game: Salo HT - RNK Raisio...

Division II hockey, fourth highest level of hockey in Finland, so nothing special, just something to pass the day.

GO SALO, GO SALO!

eme · Post by **eme** » Thu Sep 27, 2007 8:48 am

Ah, I've forgot about this thread.

I went to see IFK vs. Blues last friday. The game itself was nothing special, few nice goals and that's about it. Although the shoot outs were exciting, since SM-Liiga has made some changes to the system, now it works the same way as in NHL, which is much more entertaining than the sudden death from the first shot onward from the past few years. Anyway, I'd say IFK could have taken the 3 points if only our young goalie Aleksis Ahlqvist had had a better game. He let in a soft goal, and in the third goal he was a little too careless to give the puck instead of giving blues a face off from the point. It's been a week so can't remember that much details, for that i'm sorry.

The atmosphere was great though. This year they built a non-seated stand to the other end of the arena, where the feeling was the best i've experienced in any hockey game i've ever been. It's been a week and i still have a sore throat from all that singing and chanting :p.

Today there's a tv-game Jyp - IFK, the two teams that lead the league in points. Don't know if that count's as a "last game i've seen live" though :p