Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Its the wost wonderful tiiiiime, of the year!!!!


What seems like many years ago, this time of year was the best!
Spring was here, Summer was coming, school was ending, and more importantly hockey playoffs were starting! Being a devoted Maple Leafs fan, it was also exciting because Toronto would have just added some overpaid free agent that we couldn't wait to see with them win the cup for us.. Brian Leetch, Doug Gilmour Rd 2, or Phil Housley just to name a few (Even just remember us adding Housley still makes me laugh.. He had the least amount of impact ever... ever..).. It was a great time to be 22 years old and at University..

Although Exams got in the way, your only job was to study for 4 or 5 exams, and the rest was spent watching hockey, talking hockey, chirping others about their picks in fantasy hockey playoff pools. Meanwhile, Girls were slowly shedding their outer-wear for more revealing items, and also deciding to walk, stroll, run or rollerblade in front of our porch at school! Oh, what a time to be alive! When the weather changes for the better, sometimes the simplest thing is cause to party.. "Hey, the suns out, Let's get f-ed!" When free of Life's responsibilites, its much easier to get away with this lifestyle.. I guess thats why unemployment does have some appeals..

Flash foward 5 years later, and so much has changed.. Maple Leafs are resigned to the role of spoiler (although playing better than most projections), we no longer add A-list free agents but add guys I've never heard of.. and I have a hard time getting pumped up for Hockey.. Gone are the days where I can count on cheering rabidly against my loser Ottawa friends during the Battle of Ontario, and the Leafs winning! Despite anything that happened during the regular season.. It was truly amazing.. But like most of the fans, we know our role, and are pretty much used to the disappointment by now.. Its amazing what a couple years out of the playoffs with do.

Don't get me wrong, the weather changing still is cause to party.. Until Global Warming alters the weather and it no longer gets warm ever, I'm still going to say things like, "Hey the suns out, Let's get F-ed" or "Whats wrong with you, I don't care its a tuesday, Lets get f-ed", so that side of things hasn't changed.. But the events surrounding the partying have changed. Blue Jays home openers have replaced the weeknight Leaf playoff games. But its a totally different dynamic, because there is no drama in Baseball until the fall.. Well, unless someone in your group is trying the 9 dogs and 9 beers in 9 innings and you're waiting with bated breath until the moment where they are literally full, and they puke over some poor family sitting nearby.

Plus the fact that we all work and are responsible for things these days, it does have a very different feel.. Its not a bad thing.. but its not the same..

So I can't help but feel a little worried for my Habs fan friends. At the start of the season hopes were very high.. Finishing 1st in the East last year, and a great playoff run, you couldn't help but feel this season might be their year.. And now, they're fighting for a playoff spot.. As "Dave" commented, Playoffs are not the same without the Habs... You're right, welcome to our world.. I find myself pulling for the Habs in way, because I did get behind them last year, and it was exciting.. Yeah, I could cheer for Vancouver, or the Flames, but i really don't know any fans.. Thank God Ottawa is worse than Toronto, which for sure is a victory in itself for Leaf Fans..
So my hopes of even slightly being excited for playoff hockey rests on the slumping Habs.. Goalie issues, coaching issues, booing crowds.. It could be a perfect recipe for an amazing playoff run, but it could just as easily spell for missing the whole big show..

The time of year is still great, but cheering for your favourite hockey team in the playoffs, when the weather is great, you're excited for summer, and everything else thats great (patios, cottages, tuesday nights at Big Bucks), there is no better time!! I'm convinced, it was easily some of the happiest moments of my life..

So for you Habs fans out there, I'll hope for the best.. And continue to bet against the Habs with Grimes

Tonner
First time Blogger, Long time Reader, Big time awesomer

Are We Done?


That seems to be the question on everyone's mind, and by everyone i mean no one. Well if i had to guess....i would say no, at least not me. Kitzy often gets extremely jazzed up on a pet project, and then owns it for a while, then finds something new to get pumped about. I admire it because it means he is an enthuisiastic young go getter who is passionate about many different things, but at the same time i feel like it's left me alone in the duties of maintaining this blog. I will attempt to keep it going though.


So what to write about then? Well it's certainly been a long while since we've posted, since Nicaragua which was a few weeks now, so let's just see what the world has been up to since then, shall we?


By the world i mean the small and pathetic world that exists in the miniscule bubble around my life, but there have been alot of recent changes. For example are you all aware that the magical household of Favre, Maxfield, Pearson, and Galloway has finally broken up? Sad but true. Julien and Anna have already taken residence in a new apartment up Bloor and Bathurst way and i've heard but not seen, that it's a nice little love nest. So what about Pearson then? Well he's already put first and last down on a fancy little condo with his own gal pal Boozan Davis around King and Spadina. So that just leaves Winnie The Stu. Well he lowballed his way into a condo in the Citiplace complex. I'm sure you're all enthralled and enraptured by these recent developments.


So what's new in my life then? Well it's been a pretty simple existence the past few weeks. My mood has fluctuated greatly, mostly because of the play of the Montreal Canadiens. They've shoved a dagger in my back and a few times a week they twist it back and forth. What was looking like a promising centennial season has slowly turned into a potential disaster. At the point of this writing my beloved Habitants (or the Hawt and Sweaty's as my old pal Peter Drinkwater calls them) sit only 2 points up on the Florida Panthers for the 8th and final spot in the Eastern Conference. With 9 games remaining, they have a pretty favorable schedule but at the same time they have been losing to teams they should be beating, especially ones that are out of the playoffs and relishing their new roles as spoilers. Rest assured if the worst happens (which i don't believe it will because i'm an optimist at heart, and my boys will make it) then you will see the light fade out of my eyes and i will become a listless creature who exists solely to complete daily tasks such as sleep, eat, breathe and possibly masturbate.


However there is one thing that has brought a lot of recent joy to my life. That being the play of my men's league hockey team. We started off the season as we often do, falling to the bottom of the standings. It's a 6 team league, and for the most part we were in 6th or 5th until roughly the halfway mark of the season. Then we started playing inspired hockey, and slowly started to win games against tougher opponents. To finish the season we won 5 straight, beating every single team in our league in succession, and moving up the standings into 3rd place. Last night was our first playoff game, basically a must win game against the 5th place team who we had owned for the majority of the season. Sure it's just beer league hockey, but for anyone who still plays, they will understand that these games get intense and feisty. It was a 0-0 hard fought affair into the second period, when we went on a powerplay. We controlled the puck off the faceoff and fed it back to the point, i planted myself close to the net in an attempt to screen the goalie, slapshot from the point, and i managed to get my stick on it and deflected it into the corner of the net. BOOYAKA SHA! We added another one in the third, to which they responded, and then with under a minute to play and their goalie pulled, one of our defenseman lifted a full length of the ice wrister over their D and into the net. 3-1 victory! If we win our next game we're into the finals. To give you an idea of the hatred between our team and the one we played last night, here are some quotes from my mouth from the game.


"Go Fuck yourself!"


"Suck my dick asshole!"


"You guys are a bunch of diving pussies anyways!"


"Enjoy your time in the penalty box you stupid fuck!"


These were usually in response to someone calling me out. No i'm not a complete asshole, but this was just the way the game was last night, those who play will understand.


Here are some other juicy little tidbits of information from the people surrounding me.


-Derek Mumford recently completed his first stint in Fort McMurray, he was forced to stay an extra couple of days which did not sit well. However it appears that despite Mike Denby's and my own predictions, the job is working out just fine and The Comfort is going to be able to stick it out for the long haul.


-Andrew Wade, who you may remember was a runner up for the MVP award in Nicaragua, dominated St. Patrick's day and made just about everyone's day. I showed up at 5, and learned that Andrew had been shotgunning beers by himself since 1 p.m.. And it showed. Slurring, stumbling, laughing, he was at his finest. Somehow everyone in the bar knew him, and it was packed. Evidence of this was when an older couple was buying me a couple pints, and the wife asked who the other pint was for. I responded, "my friend Andrew", and pointed him out. She said, "oh Andrew!? He's a little prick!"


-Julien Favre and Colin Pearson will slowly disappear over the following months. They are writing their third and final CFA test in early June, which means that their weekends and evenings will now be focused upon studying. They both suck.


-I recently talked to Dillon Casey in L.A., he fired his manager and agent, with good cause. He has found replacements and i'm told as a result his auditions have increased. I feel it's only a matter of time before people will be saying, "there's no way you actually know Dillon Casey, he's a huge star and you're a huge douchebag!"


-As the weather steadily progresses, you can feel the excitement in the air from all last summer's frequent park soccer players. Another month or so ladies and gents and the games will start up again.


-Make Your Exit, your favorite band and mine, recently destroyed all 3 shows they played over Canadian Music Week. They are currently all up at a member's cottage for the week, practicing, writing new songs, bonding (Boner Jam '09 for sure), boozing, and creating. We are all anxious for their next show. And they are anxious to tell us about it by sending out 8 billion facebook invites.


Well that's it for now. I'll try and keep on this blog as often as possible, and write something more exciting or stupid next time. I hope that the few of you who read this, will still come back to us despite our recent struggles.


-Eric William Grimes