Hockey?! Hockey.
Last June I was watching the news coverage of Colorado's wildfires and the thing that came on immediately afterward was game one of the Stanley Cup finals. I've vaguely been a fan of hockey since way back - an ex-friend of mine was big into hockey even in middle school and I remember watching the Avs both times they won the Stanley Cup. I had nothing better to do so I decided to keep watching. And man what a game that one was! Triple overtime was not a thing I thought would happen when I started watching but I was glued to the tv the entire game. I ended up watching all but one game of the series (I think I missed game 5 for a family thing?) and though I wasn't much invested in either team I enjoyed the games a lot. Proof of how uninvested I was in either of the teams? it took me 'til around game four to figure out that one of the Bruins' players last name was Peverley, not Beverley like I thought I was hearing.
Like most sports fans in Colorado I was thrilled when Patrick Roy was named the new head coach for the Avs. Since that happened before the finals even started you might be surprised I knew about it since as I said I was only vaguely a fan but it was HUGE news around here. Fast forward a few months and I improbably managed to catch the first regular season game. Improbable because, though I can't remember for sure, I'm pretty sure I thought to myself 'Huh, I wonder when the Avs start playing?' and when I looked it up the game started in just a couple hrs.
I've really gotten into it and I don't know if it was because I watched the Stanley Cup, if that first game was just that awesome, or more likely I guess - I needed another sport to be into besides women's soccer. I've watched the vast majority of their games (though with the scant amount of time I tend to get in front of the tv I dvr the games for the most part instead of watching live). And the games I missed were early in the season before I figured out that Altitude (the local sports channel) immediately re-airs the games and I could then record the games around everything else we dvr.
When I first started watching back in October there were things about hockey that reminded me of soccer - the passing, the movement on and off the puck, even the checking a little bit. That's mostly faded into the background for me since then but might be part of why I got sucked into hockey so easily, how it evoked parts of what's always been my favorite sport while being awesome in it's own right.
It's been awesome watching the Avs this season and getting to see how they've improved thru out the season. It must be crazy to anyone who was watching last year to see the changes from last year to this year. I'm both a bit of a cynic and from a town who's sports teams are notorious for choking (*cough*broncos*cough*) so I don't have my hopes up too high about how far the Avs will make it in the playoffs. But I'm proud of how well they played this season and excited to see just how far they will make it.
I'm so into the Avs right now that I'm starting to save up to for a ticket to a game next season. I was hoping to go to a game this season but ticket prices are ridiculous. Tickets for most of the concerts I go to are less expensive than even the cheapest seats at a hockey game! In fact, there's a concert I'm thinking about seeing this summer where the most expensive seats are equal to the cheap seats for a game and I'm hesitating because of the price. I've been to the Pepsi Center a handful of other times for various things so I know the general layout. The most affordable Avs tickets are the seats that are highest up on the third level and last time I sat up there three or four years ago I got a pretty good case of vertigo when I looked down. And it's been so long since I sat on the third level balcony (2001 - BSB Black & Blue tour, baby!), which is the next price up, that while that was an awesome seat at the time I'm pretty sure I'd get vertigo there too. So I need to aim for a seat somewhere on the first level and that definitely necessitates saving up.
(and yes I'm not mentioning the stuff about Varlamov because it gives me RAGE and I can't even be coherent about it in my own head let alone outside it.)
Like most sports fans in Colorado I was thrilled when Patrick Roy was named the new head coach for the Avs. Since that happened before the finals even started you might be surprised I knew about it since as I said I was only vaguely a fan but it was HUGE news around here. Fast forward a few months and I improbably managed to catch the first regular season game. Improbable because, though I can't remember for sure, I'm pretty sure I thought to myself 'Huh, I wonder when the Avs start playing?' and when I looked it up the game started in just a couple hrs.
I've really gotten into it and I don't know if it was because I watched the Stanley Cup, if that first game was just that awesome, or more likely I guess - I needed another sport to be into besides women's soccer. I've watched the vast majority of their games (though with the scant amount of time I tend to get in front of the tv I dvr the games for the most part instead of watching live). And the games I missed were early in the season before I figured out that Altitude (the local sports channel) immediately re-airs the games and I could then record the games around everything else we dvr.
When I first started watching back in October there were things about hockey that reminded me of soccer - the passing, the movement on and off the puck, even the checking a little bit. That's mostly faded into the background for me since then but might be part of why I got sucked into hockey so easily, how it evoked parts of what's always been my favorite sport while being awesome in it's own right.
It's been awesome watching the Avs this season and getting to see how they've improved thru out the season. It must be crazy to anyone who was watching last year to see the changes from last year to this year. I'm both a bit of a cynic and from a town who's sports teams are notorious for choking (*cough*broncos*cough*) so I don't have my hopes up too high about how far the Avs will make it in the playoffs. But I'm proud of how well they played this season and excited to see just how far they will make it.
I'm so into the Avs right now that I'm starting to save up to for a ticket to a game next season. I was hoping to go to a game this season but ticket prices are ridiculous. Tickets for most of the concerts I go to are less expensive than even the cheapest seats at a hockey game! In fact, there's a concert I'm thinking about seeing this summer where the most expensive seats are equal to the cheap seats for a game and I'm hesitating because of the price. I've been to the Pepsi Center a handful of other times for various things so I know the general layout. The most affordable Avs tickets are the seats that are highest up on the third level and last time I sat up there three or four years ago I got a pretty good case of vertigo when I looked down. And it's been so long since I sat on the third level balcony (2001 - BSB Black & Blue tour, baby!), which is the next price up, that while that was an awesome seat at the time I'm pretty sure I'd get vertigo there too. So I need to aim for a seat somewhere on the first level and that definitely necessitates saving up.
(and yes I'm not mentioning the stuff about Varlamov because it gives me RAGE and I can't even be coherent about it in my own head let alone outside it.)