A trip to the United Center

Well, not really. I haven't been in there in many, many months. Hope to soon for my first Chicago Bulls game (which is not a lockout-related thing; I'd meant to go to one anyway, as that's the only major Chicagoland pro team I haven't seen yet). But besides the obvious task on Election Day I had library books due, including some at the Manning branch of the Chicago Public Library, just a couple blocks from the UC. I should go there more often as it's a decent-sized library with Bulls and Blackhawks stuff on display. I believe it's officially sponsored by the former, but the "About" page on the CPL site is blank as of this post--sorry I can't give more info (and I didn't have time to go in this visit).

I biked past the UC, a few hours before a Magic-Bulls game, and thought as long as I'm making this several-mile trip in cold and drizzly weather, I should reward myself by finally seeing the new-ish Dunkin Donuts location east of the stadium. A new Dunkin store wouldn't be much of a big deal (in a city that has scores of them; I know St. Louis-area friends would be excited to get more), except there's virtually no place to grab coffee or food in the vicinity. It'll be nice to hit this before or after a game, someday.

It's a small store with signed Bulls and Blackhawks items. Took me an embarrassingly long time to realize why Duncan Keith would be the jersey up there.

Hockey under $5

So I have to start thinking about getting to more hockey games this season. I've seen Chicago Wolves at home once, Chicago Steel at home once, and the Blackhawks-related charity game. The early-season schedule's been a bit sparse for those teams, and I haven't yet started planning visits to Milwaukee, Cincinnati, and other cities I try to hit at least once a season.

Bloomington, IL is on my list as a hockey city I haven't visited yet. In the time I've been wondering about the best way to get there (going on my own to some cities means finding day games because there often aren't options to get back late at night--also why I never go by myself to Rockford), the team has changed from Bloomington Prairie Thunder to Bloomington Blaze, still in the CHL. I would be all over this deal if I lived there! Best I can do in Chicagoland is 12 Steel ticket vouchers for $70 (and I might, if I can find people to bring along to some games).

Sunday football

I noted yesterday I haven't looked at the NHL.com site in months, after checking it multiple times a day during an actual season. And while I'll get into NFL football a bit more with no NHL going on now (and the Bears being the biggest sports hope in Chicago currently), it's not really my sport, and the sites just don't have the NHL.com-type puns and bad headlines.

Seeing the Bears get FOUR touchdowns in the first quarter--a team record--before I headed out for a sunny afternoon of biking was fun, at least. Just like my previous Sunday, I didn't learn the final results of the Bears' noon game until 5:30 pm while in a great independent coffeeshop after a day of biking Chicago neighborhoods (different coffeeshops and neighborhoods each week, but out with the same friend, less of a football/Bears fan than I). 51-20?!!!!

I do love charts and tables, so I looked at the NFL site's version. I was saddened to learn there's still no team that hasn't won a game this far in. But there is still one that's won every game, and Chicago comes in pretty nicely on here:

Hockey results for November 3

 ...2011. I said I wasn't really missing the NHL season and it's still true while I have many other things to occupy me this fall (...winter? ...spring?), a random look through what was happening exactly a year ago in the NHL does hurt a bit. I'd grab a few screenshots from every game I watched online, and the NHL.com posts at the end of the night. I haven't looked at NHL.com in months now.

Chicago Blackhawks were at Tampa Bay Lightning, and it was an uneventful game until the second:

Then...too eventful. Damn, I'd forgotten this one. Eight goals in one period, including a hat trick for Steven Stamkos:

And Lightning won in overtime, 5-4. Wait, no goals in the third either? That doesn't sound like a good game exactly, but it's the kind of ridiculous one I miss.

Meanwhile in St. Louis, it was the game with an appearance by recent World Series champion Cardinals (a World Series that was actually exciting, unlike the final series in 2012):

The NHL.com headlines. There was a 7-6 OT game too? Damn.

And the little thing showing the top video highlights. There's a typo, not uncommon, but I was always impressed everything was up so fast on the site:

I'd always screenshot the three stars of the night. Two hat tricks!

I also liked getting screenshots of the standings at the end of the night. Yeah, 2011 started off very strangely. The top of the table shows many teams that didn't make the playoffs, and defending Stanley Cup Champion Boston off to a rough start:

And this was from the night before and concerns the offense struggles of Islanders and Red Wings, but I winced. I'm sure those fans would prefer that to the extremely dead NHL October we just had.

Topical hockey bobbleheads

I have nothing to say about the latest NHL news of another major cancellation (except damn, I couldn't have gone to the Winter Classic, but I could have taken a Megabus or something to Ann Arbor and milled around and taken photos while it was going on, at least!) so here's a bit of AHL. And here is why I like minor league sports, regardless of what's going with major leagues...silly stuff like this:

Wow. I knew about the Milwaukee Admirals giveaway and seriously considered going--I'd love to have both bobbleheads, but would be fine with just getting the Obama one to go with the president I already have (Washington), from an Ads game earlier this year. I found out about the Rockford IceHogs giveaway too late to be able to make plans. Results are in are in from Milwaukee.

And an odd bit on Facebook hours before the game. I see the dig at Chicago, I see it!

Oh, hi again.

I'm sure I'm not the only hockey fan blogger who's been somewhat inactive...more than usual...with the NHL lockout going on. All I'll say about it is I feel awful for the people whose income depends on the NHL games happening...but personally I'm mostly doing fine without it. At least for a while. I have other things (and not just other hockey, or even other sports, imagine that) to occupy the fall (and winter if need be). And without the lockout, would NHL players be tweeting about things like THIS?

Devils-Kings Game 6

Apologies for vanishing during the NHL playoffs (and the start of various other seasons); I was even out of the country for an entire round's worth of time, to a country that today won its first game in another championship going on, the Euro Cup 2012. This is working out to be a fantastic sports day. I don't want to jinx the game, but it's looking like all those Kings-in-6 predictions may be coming true. Will the list of NHL teams that have never won the Stanley Cup go from a ridiculous 13-of-30 to a slightly more tolerable 12 of 30?! (And if my favorite--or second favorite--team isn't playing, that's basically what I'm rooting for, a first-time winner.)

It's looking good...

PLAYOFFS

This is my obligatory post to pop in during a fairly exciting NHL playoff season (though the only hockey playoff game I've gotten to see live was Abbotsford in Milwaukee yesterday) and say I'M NOT READY FOR HOCKEY TO BE OVER IN CHICAGO. (Or in the Midwest generally, aside from Kalamazoo and St. Louis, and that's how it's looking now.)

Chicago Steel: didn't make the USHL playoffs, though they did better than their previous season record of winning...9 games.

Chicago Express: missed making the ECHL playoffs because of a tiebreaker. Oh, and then folded after their first season. (I need to break my blog silence to post about THAT. Sigh.)

Chicago Wolves: down 2-0 in a best-of-5 (new playoff format this year) to San Antonio in the AHL playoffs.

And Chicago Blackhawks...arrrgghhh....well, c'mon. I'm not ready to (not) post about other NHL teams, or NBA playoffs, or soccer or baseball...

Hockey Leap Day!

I can't resist posting on this admittedly inactive blog (I save my hockey insights, such as they are, for Twitter, at least the 2 or 3 sports-related tweets I think my non-sports-fan followers can handle per day; I need to restart the Twitter account with this blog's name) on Leap Day (which is also my half-birthday, not that anyone over the age of 5 talks about their half-birthday).

Because, well, last Leap Day, Feb. 29, 2008, I was not a sports fan at all, much less following hockey. I'd lived in Chicago for many years without ever going to any game. In spring 2008 I went to my first baseball games while living in Chicago, and in early 2009 my first hockey game ever. Rest is history, blah, blah.

I have nothing special to offer today except a quick look at screenshots captured from the 4 NHL games on today. (I was barely a minute too late on Twitter to get a chance to go to the Maple Leafs at Blackhawks game free, and didn't go out to the San Antonio Rampage-Chicago Wolves game, so I've still never been to a hockey game on Leap Day.)

(Not just hockey, UPDATED TO ADD late news tidbit I found irresistible: in San Antonio, the Chicago Bulls got their 29th win of the season with 29 points from Derrick Rose, on the 29th, and I believe they have 29 games left in the season.)

(Besides Maple Leafs at Blackhawks, there's Penguins at Stars, Sabres at Ducks, and Blues at Oilers.)

IT HAS BEGUN

Boston Bruins banner raising screenshot, 10/6/2011, a photo by mod as hell on Flickr.

I liked how the last NHL season ended. (Uh, sorry to leave you like that!) And thus, how this one began, as I scrambled to find a working feed online at 6 pm Central time, as I begin my third season of NHL watching still cable-less. (But now with speakers on my computer. Seriously, I've been using it, what, 4 years, with only the sound that comes out minus speakers. Sometimes I'd use headphones, but it's nice not to be tethered to the computer.) I got to see this entire Philadelphia at Boston game (which did not end as I'd like) and all minus a few minutes of the Pittsburgh at Vancouver game (I liked that one a little better.)

I can now say I've posted every day of the NHL season. We'll see how long I keep this up. Though hockey is still far and away my favorite sport, I'm watching baseball with moderate enthusiasm now as well...hoping to see more soccer and rollerderby and football in 2011 too. I make no promises about what happens with this blog, but I like the IDEA of coming back...

GAME SEVEN GAME SEVEN GAME SEVEN

I'm cautiously optimistic for the Bruins in this. Sorry I didn't get a pre-game post up, nor am I able to live-blog it, or even live-tweet it on my dormant @alittlechippy account. Nor did I do a proper goodbye-to-the-Stanley Cup for the Blackhawks for their last few hours as current champs (if not "defending" champs--I assume that ended when they were out of the playoffs). I'm just trying to enjoy the moment. And hopefully only a few more minutes of the game...

okay. GO BRUINS

I'M NOT READY FOR HOCKEY SEASON TO BE OVER. Even if I've hardly written about it this year, even if I didn't do very much hockey-related travel this season (some pretty great trips though--well, if you follow me on social media, you saw that), even if--eek--I didn't leave a single comment on a single hockey blog all season.

I'm still caffeinated from the coffee in this photo, at Knockbox in Chicago's Humboldt Park (awesome overlooked place, so I'll mention them wherever. Grilled cheese served with applesauce! Lowest price on bottomless coffee of indie places I know!) and I've been wearing my Boston Bruins bag (which I bought in the 2009-10 season, mind you) around town. I wish I could be in Boston watching Game 6 tonight, even just at a bar. Again, GO BRUINS (and man, am I sorry I didn't see the team this year).

a city on edge...

Picasso sculpture with Blackhawks helmet, a photo by katherine of chicago on Flickr.

...AND THAT CITY IS VANCOUVER! Heh, I'm a little excited the Blackhawks managed to pull off the Easter Sunday Game 6 win against the Canucks and force Game 7 (or "a decisive Game 7!" as every report seems to need to say).

Oh, that was amazing. People have no reason to believe me on this (except that I never lie) but I got a feeling well into the overtime of that game that Ben Smith could be the hero with the game-winning goal, and quite unexpectedly to nearly everyone, he was.

Just a few minutes after the game, my Boston-area friend who took me to my first-ever hockey game (Blackhawks) called and we chatted about the playoffs so far. Twenty-some minutes about sports and then he mentioned a family member's wedding at the end of the call. Heh. It's been an exciting few days.

Obviously I'd LOVE for the Hawks to win (almost more to erase the Bruins' playoff choke of 2010 as the most recent, than for them to continue, as I wasn't honestly expecting them to go very far in the playoffs) but I am genuinely okay if they don't. Playing well, not getting swept, giving us an incredibly entertaining series, and putting fear into Vancouver (and much of Canada, even) were great; a win would be gravy at this point.

(I took this photo Saturday, before Game 6, since that could have been the end. It wound up prominently placed in a Puck Daddy post today! Which is nice, as I haven't even tried to have anything on any other sports blogs anywhere all year.)

a note

First I was too busy/lazy to write about the beginning of the 2011 NHL playoffs, then Chicago fell behind 3-0 and it was too depressing, then every game INCLUDING THE ONE TONIGHT became an elimination game and I'm too nervous to say anything. If the season ends I'll be forced to write a real piece! And spend the rest of the playoffs finally posting my photos from the past year! I'm not ready! But I had to say something! Also, Happy Easter if you celebrate it! I wish I had a lot of candy right now but I don't but for one reason or another I'll be getting a lot of candy on clearance tomorrow!