Nochnaya huligana: October 2010

Sunday, 31 October 2010

Vodka! - Drinking Game Of The Week

As we all know, watching hockey can be bit frustrating at times. Sometimes the puck just doesn't bounce for your team, sometimes your team just simply sucks. But no worries, there's simple solution to this, vodka. For centuries it has helped Russians to deal with their incompetent rulers, so sure it can remove the pain caused by something you love.

Usually drinking games include drinking if something happens in the game, but I figured why not try something different? Here's a song dedicated to the finest of strong drinks and the lyrics can be found at the end of this post.

So what you need to do when the suckfest is too much, is to listen to this song and take vodka shot everytime they sing/shout "vodka". I guarantee you, you will not care how the game ends. Or how the next game ends for that matter.
But for those with more delicate liver (or who just insist on playing more traditional drinking games) here's rules for that too. And most of them applies to all the games so no fear for soberity.
Take vodka shot* everytime:

your d-man gives the puck to the opponent in his own defensive zone
take two if the opponent ends up scoring
you remember James Wisniewski has more points than your leading scorer
the announcers are being total homers
take two if they also mispronounce European name in the same sentence
one of your players actually gets to shoot the puck at the net
Ruutu does something that makes you wanna punch him
your goalie starts to remind you of Toskala
Ovechkin hits someone
you're dreaming about mustache rides

Sunday, 24 October 2010

Save of the month

I know it's only in the Finnish Elite league but I don't care. This is the sweetest save I've seen in awhile.
Toskala, please take notes.

I don't even like the team in question (HPK) but dear god that save by Teemu Lassila was wicked. Luckily his saves weren't enough to keep JYP from winning that game though ;)

Tuesday, 12 October 2010

The Euro adventures of NHL

This season the NHL sent 6 teams to spread the joy of hockey to us less furtunate with poor leagues. Helsinki got Minnesota Wild and Carolina Hurricanes, Stockholm San Jose Sharks and Columbus Blue Jackets, and the good people in Prague were given Phoenix Coyotes and Boston Bruins.

The Helsinki games were somewhat successful when it comes to attendance but Globen in Stockholm seemed half empty. Or half full if you wish. And the trend was apparently quite the same in Prague. And I believe there are other reasons behind that than just our lack of interest to hockey. Because that's not the case here.

1) NHL games in Europe are great for hockey fans here. Especially great for the kids and youth who get unique chance to see their heroes to play. And how this could become a problem then? The games in Sweden ended way after 11pm. Not exactly the perfect schedule for a family, isn't it?

2) Overpriced tickets. With the cost of, say, 4 tickets to one game you could pretty much have mini vacation in Canaria. Or with the cost of one ticket to said games, the whole family could've went to watch the local team's game. A team they have bond with.

3) Poor co-operation with local league. At the same time with the NHL season's grand opening in Hartwall Arena in Helsinki, both of the two other capital area teams were playing home games. HIFK in Helsinki (close to Hartwall Arena) and Blues in Espoo. That's not gonna bite you in the ass, right?

And now something completely different. The Eurotrip produced some comedy gold moments such as this little information about the Minnesota boys' trip to Sauna Island: "He (Kyle Brodziak) said this was his 'fantasy island, a bunch of naked guys hanging out and sweating in a sauna,'" defenseman Nick Schultz said, laughing. "So, let's just say he hasn't stopped taking jabs from the guys." Brodziak though has apparently replied that his quote has been "taken a little out of context."

From Star Tribune

Sunday, 3 October 2010

Sleza goes Wild

As everyone who follows NHL probably knows, Minnesota Wild and Carolina Hurricanes will start their season in Helsinki with two games. The actual games are played on October 7th and 8th but Wild hold free practice today at the Hartwall Arena. The practice started at noon, so people we're told it would nice if they arrived before that and the doors opened at 11 am. It takes about half an hour drive from my parents' place to the arena so this meant that I had to wake up at 9.30 am ON SUNDAY MORNING and leave a bit after 10.30 am. Oh the things I do for hockey...

Anyways, I'm glad I did go there because it was quite cool. There were lots of kids and they were all excited to see NHL players and especially Finnish NHL players. It was very adorable.

I didn't remember to bring my camera with me so I had to deal with my phone's camera...

I had hoped to see Bäckström in action but happened to choose to sit in the part of arena where the other goalie was. They didn't have names on the jerseys so I'm not sure who it was. Wild's homepage is saying Harding is in IR so I guess it was this Khudobin dude that is listed on the site. He looked quite good so it wasn't it wasn't that bad I missed most of the Bäckström action.

Few more pictures can be found here.