Just so you know, hockey does exist in Vegas. I haven't made any inquiries about the beerleague yet, but am planning on it for the fall. We even have a pro team here called the Las Vegas Wranglers. They play in the ECHL (East Coast Hockey League) and are a farm team of the Calgary Flames. I caught one of their semi-final games at the Orleans arena but will vow to make more of them next year. Its funny that hockey exists as it does here. The fans are real hockey fans but... that is, FANS of HOCKEY. It seemed that if you had a hockey jersey in your wardrobe, the thing to do was wear it to the game.
Going up in the elevator, an older fellow hauled out his Leafs jersey and put it on. I thought that was odd. But then inside the arena, there were a number of NHL jerseys walking around. There were international league sweaters there too, all jammed up with sponsorship logos. Freaky! Kids were wearing their team sweaters too, and there were Wranglers' jerseys of all different kinds. The Wranglers have many, depending on the event or cause, including a Shamrock jersey (for their home bar McMullans Irish Pub), a Girl Guide's jersey with a big brown sash over its shoulder, a pink jersey for breast cancer research, and this santa jersey!?? Wow! The fans were representin' in all kinds of hockey fashion. Unfortunately the beers at the Orleans were obscenely expensive and the game was pretty dull. I think a good university team would give these guys a damn'd good run for their money. The Wranglers went on to the Kelly Cup finals this year and lost out to the Florida Everblades. Next year I'll make a few more games.Speaking of hockey in the desert, I am currently reading a book by Dave Bidini called 'Tropic of Hockey' that has been great poolside reading. Bidini embarked on a worldwide search of the game in some unlikely places, finding that the spirit of the game exists in cultures far from the epicentre of Canadian culture. He journeyed to China where they hold a tournament called the 'Hong Kong Five'. The tournament hosts teams from all over the world, some countries being totally in their infancy in terms of hockey development. His description of the United Arab Emirates National team was pretty funny. Imagine big, heavily bearded, super-serious bunch of Arabians on skates, wearing pink jerseys. They in fact had a goalie who played with them back in Dubai who was from New Brunswick, but to achieve their goal of being the first all-Arab hockey team, had told him to stay home and picked someone else to play the position. Once the Singapore team realized the UAE's goalie couldn't stop a puck, they began shooting from anywhere and everywhere. The Arabs in turn, realized the effectiveness of shot blocking and jumped at every chance to knock it down by sliding at everything, wherever they were on the ice. As Bidini describes, it wasn't exactly your 'traditional' hockey game!
I've been out of the hockey loop and playoffs til this week. I don't have a TV so I missed all of the playoffs and just put it out of my mind. Then I read about the Los Angeles' Kings incredible playoff run and that tweaked my interest. I knew game six was being played monday night, but I had already thrown in the towel on catching any of it. It was Tanya who came home after a bad monday and suggested going out to the bar for some beers to watch it. She'd just heard an ad on the radio to c'mon down and join the crowd at Buffalo Wild Wings for the big game, so we did just that!
I haven't experienced many hockey games at the bar where the game was broadcast over the house sound system and had lots of fans cheering the home team so that was a new one for me. The baseball games still outnumbered the hockey on the bigscreens, but the hockey game had precedence on the loudspeakers and two dedicated bigscreens to watch it on. The medium sized crowd at the bar was into it too, a lot of them wearing their #99's and Kings jerseys! We had a couple beers and supper over the course of the game, and amazingly stayed for the whole thing! Finally, we get to enjoy a late-starting west coast game and be home by 9pm. And thanks to Tanya having a bad monday and wanting to go out for a beer, AND staying to the end of the game. Otherwise I would have missed this one too, so cheers to you Tan!
LA played fierce! I think they would have won anyway, but that 5minute major hit by Steve Bernier on Rob Scuderi in the first period sunk the Devils beyond hope. If I was in that guy's dressing room, I would have had some nasty words for him. Or just raging silence. Stupid fucker. A very selfish act that cost the Devils that game. There was no way they'd come back from that 3-0 deficit, the Kings were just too much to handle and they topped of their playoff run in style with the Stanley Cup.
We're starting to zoom in on what we might consider a good neighborhood pub to frequent. There's nothing really close that isn't a restaurant-proper, or features a patio. But last friday we found 'The Beachhouse' and their rooftop patio about 2 city-blocks away and we think that might be it. We climbed the outdoor stairway and the music got louder as we got to the top. I don't know what 'live' album was playing, but the music was very loud and the rooftop was wailing with terrible singing from a gathering of their patrons who were already in full flight and were loving that song! There wasn't a tonne of people there but those who were were letting loose and gathered in small parties and talking over the music. This bodes well. Tanya wasn't dressed for it at all at 102degreesF. The misters and fans on the ceiling blew a gentle cool mist over us but it wasn't near enough to fight the heat. I ordered us some beers and a plate of chili-fries, but Tanya started melting in her jeans and got cranky very quickly. I ate the whole plate by myself and will never do that again. I estimate The Beachhouse will be a good 25min walk home, so next time we go there we'll be prepared to stay a little longer and dress for the heat and the hike.
Thanks for reading!
TRJ
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