Game 8 vs. Thrashers

Can you say the trip from hell? Say it with me nice and slow like the traffic on I-76. H-E-L-L. What was only supposed to take about an hour and a half ended up being over three hours to get to the rink in Bethlehem, PA. I left my house around 3:15. I sped down the highway, not breaking the law too badly by doing five miles over the speed limit in some spots, to get to Michelle's house. There I was greeted by the sounds of her three boys running around, screaming gleefully in a chocolate induced frenzy.

Michelle was a bit frazzled as she's going non-stop doing a million things for her family, then she has to come home and get ready to leave for the game amidst this. It's kind of funny to see her asking her husband what kind of chocolate did the boys have and have him deny they had any. How he kept a straight face when he lied I have no idea. Mitch grabbed her youngest son by the face and gestured at the ring of chocolate around his mouth and then the twins ratted dear old dad out by blurting out that they had Oreos. :-D

Pam arrived and we finally left Mitch's house around 4:00. That meant we should make it to the rink by five-thirty giving us plenty of time to relax and get ready for the game at six-thirty. Circle false with a honkin' big sharpie. I-76 was crawling. We didn't seem to go over thirty-five the entire time. It took over an hour just to get to the Northeast Extension. So we hopped on that and thinking we'd still make it there with plenty of time to get dressed. Noperoonie.

It started to magically snow. Nice and pretty. Except the assholes in PA don't know how to drive in the shit. People were still flying by doing eighty. I'm guessing those kinds of people were the ones causing all of the accidents that backed the traffic up the rest of the trip to the rink.

309 was ice and slow. 368 was a log jam. We moved at a snails pace all the way into Bethlehem. Mitch started getting dressed in the van. Once she was done the basics, I hopped in the back and did the same. She and Pam switched spots at one point when the traffic had come to a stand still. By the time we finally go to the rink all of us were partially dressed for the game. Grabbing the rest of our gear we ran in and finished, getting on the ice with seven minutes left in the first period.

There's nothing like sitting in a car for over three hours, then jumping onto the ice with no warm up. You feel shaky and out of sorts. Lucky for us our team held them to 0-0 until we got there. To make it worse, three of our other players still weren't there. Two were stuck on the other side of the mountain and gave up when they saw cars turning around because they couldn't make it up the ice hill. The other couldn't get the address for the rink to show up on her GPS so she could get there. We had seven forwards and four defense once the three of us got to the rink.

Lucky for us the other teams grab and trip style of play didn't work and we snuck in a 2-1 win. There were some really nice plays on our team in key moments that helped. I didn't understand the goal that the ref allowed for the Thrashers. Our goalie had the puck covered. I was on the ice where I was pulled down by one of there players so I had a great view of it all. He kept letting the other team stab at Dena until they finally shoved it in. He wasn't like that with the other goalie. As soon as her hand was near the puck that whistle went off.

And speaking of hands. If all you're going to do is slap the opposing players hands in the handshake line after the game, don't bother getting in the line. The goalie and a number of their other players were doing this. Is it really necessary? I hate the stupid handshake line anyway. It should be reserved for playoffs and tournaments, not every freaking game we play.

Adding to the fun was the three hour ride back home in the same shit ass traffic and iced up roads. Pam had the van slide a few times. I know it wasn't funny to her, but I had to hold back from laughing when she started freaking out about the van sliding. She got the slides under control every time which impressed me, so I felt safe with her behind the wheel.

By the time we got back to Mitch's it was waaaaay late. I didn't get home and in bed until 1:30 am. And to top it all off I overate. Badly. Between the three of us, we almost polished off a bag of peanut M & M's on our drive to and from the rink. I also had a pack of Reese's cups, and a Grilled Stufft Burrito at Taco Bell. I went to bed feeling sick as a dog from all that crap.

So starts the fun of holiday eating and trying to win the fight against fatty foods.