Overdue recap

Once again, I know I suck at blogging. I haven't read, nor have I posted since I got back from the trip last week. I need to post a recap, but I'm sure it won't be worth much since my thoughts are all but scattered at this point. But here goes nothing:
Have I mentioned how boring Illinois is? Until you get to Chicago, there is nothing to look at. Have I also mentioned how much I love Chicago? They have the Cubs, which ultimately is all that matters, but they also have the United Center, which I happen to love. That arena has so much energy, it's insane. From the anthem to the game ops, I walked out thoroughly impressed once again, not so much by the outcome of the game, but whatever. At least this game was better than the home Hawks game the night before, in which the Preds laid down and died in front of the first sellout of the season. We walked out of this one losing by 1 goal that came in the last 40 some odd seconds of the game. The game ended with a scrum because Seabrook, who is now also a douche, crosschecked Erat after the buzzer had blown. Horny and Weber came in to defend his honor, and then Marty started spouting off. The ref literally had to push and pull Erat over to the bench. Watching it again on DVR, Marty sure used some big boy words, and it was awesome. We had these drunk guys in front of us, who were actually pretty funny. My Hawks shirt did not go over too well at pre-skate. I was afraid Belak was going to charge through the glass and kill me! It was all but decided then, that the Blues jersey would not make an appearance in St. Louis.
Milwaukee was pretty fun. We got to see Sulzer, since the Preds had literally sent him down right after the Chicago game. He had a great comeback to the Admirals. It was an exciting game against the baby wings. We got a free cowbell and the Admirals won. I could not keep the Santorelli brothers straight for the life of me. Mike wears 18 when he's in Nashville, but wears 19 when he's there. And Mark wears 11. I gave up trying after about 2 periods. Me and Ciara both caught shirts. I gave mine to some kid, and Ciara gave me hers to give to Jenn. I got sicker than a dog the next morning. Needless to say, do not take all your pills on an empty stomach. Capri-sun and Malibu does not taste as good coming back up.
We went on to St. Louis the next day. The GPS took us through BFE and was totally gay because it was trying to avoid tolls. We did eventually make it to St. Louis. And then we felt like stalkers. We were in the same hotel as the team and rode the elevator with Legwand. I almost ran down Pekka and Andreas in the lobby. Both look great in suits by the way. Sully and Horny were spotted walking to Starbucks and in the lobby. So needless to say, pre-skate was quite interesting. Horny decided to be a douche and make faces and mess with us the whole time. Belak still wasn't over the Hawks shirt because I was still scared out of my mind. Kariya was out for this game because Buffalo douchers elbowed him in the head :( This was a nasty game. Both Klein and Marty went out in the first period. Jackman with a dirty knee on knee on Erat, with no call. Tkachuk crosschecked Klein in the back of his neck, again with no call. Dumont was high-sticked, but this actually resulted in a 4 minute penalty. The Preds had a lengthy 5 on 3, but only scored 1. This game was 4-1 in the third, and the Preds almost let it get away from them. The final ended up 4-3. There was an awesome Preds fan a section or two over from us. He had on an Ellis jersey and was a dancing fool the whole game. It was hilarious. We had Preds fans 2 rows in front of us. On the way out, we talked and I, being a little intoxicated, started a "Let's Go Predators" chant. Hindsight being what it is, that was not the best idea. Now knowing that the Blues had only won 6 home games this year, I feel really bad. They actually fired Andy Murray last week, much to my dismay. I like him, and it's not his fault the team has a whole lot of quit in them. The Westin in St. Louis is the best hotel ever. I got the best sleep of the trip there. Unfortunately, we were only there for one night.
We hit the road to Columbus, after finding out Weber had made Team Canada for the Olympics. This girl was very happy. Go Canada!
After what seemed like the longest car ride ever, because we left so late, we made it. Kelly and Ciara decided to go walk around and explore, but I needed some quiet time. So I stayed in the room. They came back awhile later and said that they had found the arena district and had probably seen Ryan Jones out drinking. We decided to hit the arena district for a drink or two. Having never been there, I really like the layout they have in Columbus. The arena was nice, and the area around it was pretty cool too. We went to some sports bar and caught part of the Sharks game on the big screen. John Glennon and another writer for the Preds were there too. Some guy came over and chatted us up for awhile. Kelly got trashed and we had to leave. That night was not particularly fun, and my buzz quickly wore off. When we finally got Kelly in bed, Ciara and I stayed up till about 4:30 just talking. Forgot how much I had missed that girl. We slept in the next day, but did go explore and find a Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts. It was our chill day, with nothing to do until dinner and the game. We went and met Aubrey for dinner, which was an experience. The place wasn't at all what I expected, but they had yummy drinks :) We had some fun with the paper cover on the table. That's why you carry pens in your purses ladies. I would have loved to see the face of whoever cleaned off our table. We finished dinner a little early and had to stand in the cold for a little while before the doors opened. We saw some Nashville folks we recognized, and promptly avoided them. Some people you just don't want to be associated with. We made it down to pre-skate, which was filled with familiar faces. Seems a lot of people from Nashville made the trip for New Years. We mocked some of them, just because they deserved it. Aubrey discovered just how big of a person Shea Weber is. Hopefully she didn't drool too much over her new second team.
-Aubrey, it was a pleasure to finally meet you, and I hope you can make it to Nashville one of these days. :)
As for the game, we had pretty good seats, but it was a bit of a snore. The Preds looked sloppy, and Ellis got caught over-committing on the Jackets only goal of the game. It was 1-0 well into the third period. Eh yo Andreas beat Garon and tied it with about 6 minutes left (if my memory serves). If Steve Mason the douche had been playing, I'm sure the Preds would have been dominating. Garon was on his game and really kept the Blue Jackets in it. As has been the case between these two teams this year, this one went to overtime. Unlike the previous 2 games, the shootout was not needed. David Legwand took about 28 seconds to score on a very similar play to the one Andreas scored on. Both goals were completely because of Joel Ward and his work behind the net. Props to him. Nice to see the boys so happy after this one because it easily could have gone the other way. As good as Chicago and St. Louis are with their in game production, I was disappointed with Columbus. As much as a lot of Preds fans hate Krazy Kyle and the organ, it is a million times worse there. And they played that God awful tic tic boom song a million times, and not the good tic tic boom like I had thought. All in all, the arena was really nice, and the fans were not as bad as I had expected, but we were around mostly families, so I'm sure that played into it.
We were smart enough to go back to the hotel and change out of jerseys before heading out to celebrate New Years. Unfortunately, the team was on a plane back to Nashville and didn't get to celebrate properly. But we're pretty sure we saw some drunk Blue Jackets players. We celebrated the new year in this Irish pub across from the arena. It was a good time. We watched the end of the USA vs. Canada world junior game, which was exciting. Ran into Ryan from Nashville and had a chat. I probably had a little too much to drink, but it was one heck of a New Years. I had a blast and can't wait to go back to Columbus.
The drive home always seems so long. And me not bring able to drive the whole trip about killed me. I had a sprained ligament in my neck (as diagnosed at the ER the day we got back), and was in a ton of pain the entire trip. I could hardly turn my neck to one side. Other than that, the trip was a big success. The Preds got 4 out of 6 points, and I had a blast. I can't wait to be out of college and have a big girl job so I can take plane trips instead of car trips though. That was a lot of driving, and even with my Blackberry, I got bored.
It was nice to meet a fellow blogger, and hopefully the game pushed her closer to being a full on Preds fan :P

There have been 4 home games since we got back. We beat the Ducks last Saturday, lost to Calgary on Tuesday, beat Carolina on Thursday, and lost to the Ducks last night.
Last Saturday is a blur because I was on some pretty good drugs, but I had a DD to and from the game. lol
I worked Tuesday and it wasn't televised, so I have no comments.
Thursday was funny. There was a "snow storm." Bread and milk were scarce. As were the 15,000 odd fans at the game. No way that many people showed up, but those were the tickets sold. If we had lost to Carolina, that would have been embarrassing. We managed to win, and I managed not to die with all the idiot drivers on the perfectly clear roads back up to Clarksville.
Last night sucked. The game was boring, the team showed no effort, and we lost. The score 2-3 is deceiving. It was 3-0 going into the third. Horny was trying to do it all himself. Marty, on his first game back after douchy Jackman took his knee out, looked good, but not great. Our defense was bad. Weber and Suter were bad. It's awful when the pairing of Franson and Sulzer were the best. Bouillon was out with flu like symptoms. Arnott and Ward were both out as well. But that is no excuse. No one was trying, and Anaheim had Getzlaf and Selanne back in the lineup. No one even tried to stop them. Horny and Erat walked away with goals, but I was disappointed with the effort. It was a sellout crowd and the team laid an egg, just like the Chicago game. These third jerseys are just bad news, but again, no excuses. This team has to do better in front of these good crowds. If last night had been my first game, I would not have been impressed.
The team left for another Canada swing this morning. Hopefully the success on the road will continue. They come home On the 18th to play the Maple Leafs, but I'll reserve judgement until after that game. Back to back on Monday and Tuesday. Keep your focus Preds.

At least with the team on the road, Ellis and his tweeting and driving self isn't a danger to Nashvillians :P
If you're curious, follow him on Twitter @dellis39
His tweets are quite entertaining.

Ok, this is hella long and I am so not going back through to proofread, so I apologize for any bad grammar or spelling. But hey, this just wasted 2 hours of my 2 and a half hours at work. Score!