It's official: My uterus is under attack

There's a problem with my favorite hockey team being so accessible and personable. Mr. Shea "Freaking" Weber plays for the Predators. Having met him and seen him on ice many many times over the past few years has had an effect on my view of things, namely other men. Today I realized just how much after seeing this picture:


This is when I stole the phrase I've read in a couple places:
Shea Weber is trying to kill my uterus.
I have always found him attractive, but the gun and the ACUs put it over the edge. I have always been told to stay away from the military boys. GI = Gross Intentions Scott was a Marine, so I didn't totally stick to that, but forget him. He's not even on the same planet as Weber. Doubt Shea is that big of a douche. LOL
It has officially happened; Shea has ruined all other men for me. Totally awesome guy in my Business Law class; he's a Cubs, Preds, and Weber fan. However, he's only mildly attractive because Shea has set the bar that high. Yes, I am aware that this will never amount to anything, but women look at and admire famous, or mildly famous, men all the time. He's just that hot. And that talented. For my money, he's perfect.
I wish the guys at Austin Peay were half as good looking as Shea is. I love the eye candy, but I will probably never land a husband that hot, or that awesome at hockey for that matter. Hell, it may be better for my sanity if he's not even into hockey.
Shea is hotter than any guy I have dated or have wanted to date, and I love him. Not love, love, but he's amazing. :)

The only other guy even close to that spot in my heart:


First hockey loves die hard. But this second one sure is a doozy.



Sorry to those of you who read my blog for non-chick, actual hockey stuff. Had to girl out a bit on this one.
Opening night in 14 days. Don't know where I'll find the time to keep up and update this with as fast as the season moves, but I'll make it work.

CLB vs NASH 9/19

Got to attend my first preseason game of the year last night. It felt pretty good to be back in the arena and back at the glass. Me, Jenn & her daughter, and Laury had free seats up at the very top, where I usually am. After the first, it was clear that there were plenty of open seats down low. We ended up sitting by Wendy 2 rows from the ice.
Now for some game notes:
Tootoo knocked this dude out in the first period. I don't think it was one punch, but the last punch and him hitting his head on the ice, was enough to do some damage. They brought out the stretcher, but he was able to be helped off the ice by his teammates. Heard he went to Vanderbilt, but was expected to be fine.
Grant got the most ridiculous penalty I've ever seen in the first period. One of the Blue Jackets came at Grant from behind and the ref assessed Grant with an unsportsmanlike. Umm WTF? That was a really bad call IMO. The refs last night were pretty bad.
There was no scoring in the first.
In the second, Columbus came out really well. They ended up going up on the Preds 2-0. The second goal was a fluke, but Pekka was pulled afterward. It was planned, not because of his play. It was the plan for him and Ellis to split time. Ellis came in and stonewalled them the rest of the game.
Jones ended up scoring our first goal. It was pretty much awesome.
Arnott tied it up in the 3rd with an odd give and go with Dumont, but it was a goal nonetheless.
Just when things looked to be heading to overtime, the Preds got a late powerplay. The Predators have a pretty abysmal powerplay, but with 29 seconds left in the game, Shea Weber released a blast that went past the goalie. There is only one word that can describe how awesome it was to be sitting down low and seeing this goal: AWESOME
Shea ended up being the number one star of the game, so it was fantastic to be down there. Love Wendy for that :)
Santorelli played last night despite having played in Carolina the night before. He didn't click well with anyone like he does Marty and Leggy, so if they send him down based on last night, I'll be pretty upset. (Plus I just drafted him in one of my fantasy leagues)
Sully ended up tweaking his groin and leaving in the first period. He had tweeted about icing his groin all week, so I think they were being safe. Either way, no reason to get hurt this early on. Watching them try to plug someone in with Arnott and Dumont was painful though. Tootoo, Ward, and Jones have no business on that first line. None of them should even sniff above the third line.
I suck at writing game recaps just because I have an awful memory and focus on tons of random stuff, but it's preseason so cut me some slack.
Either way, it was good to see some live hockey, even if it did seem to be moving a bit slow. It's always nice to beat the Blue Jackets.

Fan Relations Fail

I'm not one to complain often, but I'm irritated with the Preds fan relations lately. For starters, it took until the day before the first pre-season game for the tickets to arrive in the mail. It has never been that late before. Usually I get my tickets a couple weeks before the pre-season games. I saw on the website that the meet the team party is on Oct. 6th. Again, just 2 days before the regular season home opener. Granted, I didn't get a full season, so I can't go anyway, but it's always been earlier than that. Now, none of the young guys will be there. Honestly, I don't care to meet anyone else on the main roster. I've met all I care to meet. The rookies and new guys were the only reason worth going to that. I don't know if whoever does the scheduling for stuff took the summer off or what, but the way things have gone so far has been pretty piss poor. The thing that pushed me over the edge is the fee that will be charged to additional purchases. They are going to charge $5 per order for buying additional tickets. That's just about as bad as getting tickets through Ticketmaster. I am a season ticket holder; shouldn't there be some sort of incentive for me to buy extra tickets and bring more people to games? They are getting enough of my money as it is, and now they want to tack on more? At this point, I'm honestly not sure it's worth me buying an additional 6 tickets. That's another $30 in fees. Now, I haven't had my season tickets as long as some people have, since I'm just 20, but I have been loyal for 3 years now. This year, I know of at least 2 people who had their select a seat times before me. That is unfair. It was supposed to go by seniority. If they had gotten seats that I was interested in, I would have been pissed. Granted, I didn't move, or plan on moving, but it's the principle of the matter. I also found out that first time season ticket holders are getting all kinds of perks. This is total BS. If that's the case, I'll start canceling my account and making a new one over the summer. Fan relations is driving away the people who have been loyal just for the new accounts. Now, I'm not saying that new accounts shouldn't be given some sort of incentives, but those of us who have been around for awhile should get some of these things too. The 2/20 plan was a good idea, but there have been so many others things handled wrong that I'm starting to get frustrated with the whole thing. I don't want to be that bitchy woman who calls and complains all the time, but seriously, this is getting ridiculous.

NHL training camp

I went to the Preds training camp today for the scrimmage. It was refreshing to see NHL players back on the ice. It was Team Blue vs. Team Silver. The rookies and vets were split between the two teams. There were a lot of people there watching, which I was surprised at because it started at 10am, but whatever. I got to see Wendy and Lisa again, which was nice. And Jenn came a little later. The Blue team started out strong with 2 goals from Mike Santorelli (the older one). He looked really good with Erat and Legwand. Ellis was in goal for Blue, and Rinne for Silver. Dumont was noticeably shook up on a few plays. Didn't really look like he trained too hard this summer, so hopefully he won't end up injured all season. He, Arnott, and Sullivan were all over the ice setting up gorgeous plays for the silver team. Really love them together. Weber and Suter looked sharp on the blue team. They were paired for a little while, and then they weren't. The D pairings varied throughout. The one pairing I would have liked to see was impossible. I wanted to see Weber and Franson together, but Franson was on the silver team. Klein and Blum were together for much of the game, but they weren't really noticeable. Not sure if that's a good thing or not. Maki was skating around hitting everything that moved. Same with McKenzie. Yonkman is still huge, and still sucks. He's too slow, and was on the wrong end of more than a few decent breakaway chances. The blue team ended up losing 4-5, but Mike Santorelli was a bright spot. He will challenge for a spot this year. Spaling was also really good, but it didn't show up the same way on the score sheet. After the scrimmage was over, I stuck around to watch the goalies run some drills with Coach Korn. A few of the rookies helped out too. Ellis looked really strong. I think he's worked on fixing whatever it as that plagued him last year. So here's hoping we have an awesome goalie tandem in him and Pekka.
It was nice to get to catch up with Wendy and Lisa, who I haven't seen all summer. But more than that, it was nice to have professional hockey back. Over the summer you tend to forget how fast the game is. But being in the Sportsplex today brought me back to that, and it was awesome. Only a couple more weeks until the opening game, but my first pre-season game will be this Saturday. And my tickets finally came in the mail today. And yes, they are hot.

A few notable countdowns

22 days until my 21st birthday. Finally!
26 days until opening night vs. Colorado
32 days until I fly to Tuscon and get to see my BFF Sarah :)
33 days until Sarah and I sit 3 rows from the ice in Phoenix to watch my other team, the Blues
105 days until myself, Ciara, and Kelly invade the United Center in Chicago
106 days until the group of us gets to watch the Admirals in Milwaukee
107 days until we invade the Scottrade Center in St. Louis (Part 1) Honk Honk Honk!
109 days until we finish it out in Columbus. The first time there, should be a good time. And we'll be meeting a fellow blogger, and new Preds fan, Aubrey. Ringing in the new year in Columbus. Still haven't figured out how I'll manage to get of work on New Year's Day, but we'll see. If they all think I'm hungover, then so be it.

After the new year, things look pretty tame. But knowing me, that could change.

Rookie Camp

I had no plans on attending any of camp, rookie or training, this year. My work and class schedules didn't mesh. Honestly, I was fine with that. For some reason, I woke up this morning and did not want to go in to work. I was laying in bed thinking about getting ready and hockey thoughts jumped into my head. I looked up the schedule, and on a whim, decided to skip scholarship work and make the trek to Nashville. I can always make up those scholarship hours. After all, I have until December to get them all done.
This was a new way to watch camp. I didn't have a roster, so the only way I knew guys was by the names on their backs, half of which I hadn't heard of. I had my planner with me, so I took some scattered notes. Some hockey related, and some not.
Best names:
Vandall
Latta: looks like a mini Sidney Crosby, but certainly does not have anywhere near the same skills
Sheahan: Pretty much just funny because it's almost "Shea hand" which for some reason, I found very funny. He stretched in front of me, which was also fun, just given my training camp and practice experiences with Shea. He played pretty rough, but I wasn't too impressed.
Some things I noticed:
Blum: Plays a physical game. He's pretty big, but I'm not sure he can beat out Franson for one of the D spots. Guess we'll see how training camp plays out next week.
Smith: When I first got there, he was having trouble with his 5-hole. It looked better as practice went on, so I don't know if one of the trainers said something to him. If it's a constant issue, it's something he needs to work on. Mason had the same problem a couple years ago, and we don't need a repeat of that. On the plus side, he had a pretty good glove save.
Ellis: The new draftee, not the goalie He is TINY. I knew he was small, but I wasn't expecting that. Yay for undersized defensemen! /sarcasm He had a staring problem. Looked like he was checking out the stands during some of the trainer talks. Maybe he was just trying to take it all in, or maybe he's training to be the next Tootoo. Who knows.
Pickard: One word- Baller This guy is awesome. If something happens, and we trade Ellis (Danny) for a forward, I think Chet would be a good back-up. If not, he should do pretty well in Milwaukee. He's also pretty darn adorable.
Brannon: Noticed him standing around a lot. At one point, one of the trainers yelled at him to move it. He reminded me of Arnott, minus the size.
Spaling: This kid is amazing. He plays hard, skates fast, and has a great shot. He seemed to be having a lot of fun, and I really like to see that. He might just be a call-up this year. If not, I can see him in Nashville in a year or two.
And because I'm a girl and it's natural, some non-hockey musings:
Beck is good looking. Reminds me of a mini-Josh Hartnett. Makes some weird faces though, but killer smile.
McKenzie is pretty big and pretty hot. He didn't skate too incredibly slow, despite his size.
Mark Santorelli: Not sure if I've blogged about it before, but I love both of the Santorelli brothers. I expect Mike will be in training camp next week since he's not really a rookie. Both brothers are pretty. :) I was really excited when Mike was called up last year, but he didn't do too great. But it was his first NHL experience, so you can't hold it against him too much. Anyway, back to Mark, besides looking adorable, he had a pretty good day. He's a good skater, and was going around today like he had something to prove. Maybe it's got some brotherly rivalry to it, so he wants to look good next week. Regardless, I think he and Spaling did pretty well today, and I was impressed.
Colin Wilson does not look like Colin Wilson with his helmet on. I barely recognized him. But he had a pretty good day. Needs some work on his one-timers, but again, would love to see the kid in Nashville if we don't bring in another second line forward.
Martin Gelinas was on the ice today. He was helping with the training and on ice stuff. He's a good guy, but his hair was killing me. It looked like he had rolled out of bed. Either that or he gelled it up trying to look younger. haha
Saw Trotz and Company for a little while. They looked to be in good spirits, laughing and carrying on.
Anyway, it was good to be back in the rink watching "professionals." Watching Mike's game with Mutiny don't even compare to watching even the rookies. I missed the whooshing and freezing my ass off for a taste of hockey. It was totally worth it. Work sucks anyway, so I'm glad I skipped.
Maybe I'll skip again next week for some actual NHL skaters.