THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to the Bulldogs, and "Are you a Leaf fan again now?"

I hope everyone had a good long weekend!

For those of you that had a LONG LONG weekend and you are starting work this week on "humpday" today I am very jealous of you!



Hopefully you have a couple free minutes to read this posting.

Just what the title says- THANK YOU Bulldogs.... And a special thanks to Jim and Noreen Pelk!

Why? Well Monday night The Pelk's hosted a little "sorry we can't make it to your wedding" party for Sarah and myself out at Sproat Lake because no one that works for and with the team will be able to make it out to Manitoba later this month.

My thanks to everyone who attended- Laurie and Norm, Dave and Carolyn, Blair and Marilyn, Tom and Trish, Dennis Shannon and Aiden, and of course Noreen and Jim.

And thanks to Ashley and Chad for the tastiest steaks ever!

The Bulldogs staff as a group went in and got us a great present. I must say a huge huge huge thanks to everyone with the Bulldogs because the present was very very cool. Thank you for being such thoughtful people and being so great to work alongside.

It was kind of funny how it all happened. Noreen and Laurie came and said they needed me to make a little presentation, saying (and I quote)



"it wouldn't be the first time we have asked you to do something for us on very short notice"

(very true)

I was actually thinking it was a presentation welcoming new business manager Blair Noel and his wife to town and to "the club" so to speak.

It was actually for us! We were given two framed pictures- 1 being a panoramic photo of the puck drop from the last ever game at Maple Leaf Gardens between the Leafs and the Chicago Black Hawks.

The other being the same photo of the puck drop from the FIRST game ever at the Air Canada Centre between the Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens.

I actually posted a picture of one of the pictures here on the blog back around the Bulldogs Spring Camp. I went to check things out at the rink and saw Noreen Pelk sitting at the Season Ticket Table with some hockey memorabilia on the surrounding tables. I said how bad I wanted the Toronto pictures...I never believed I would actually get them! It's on the right below.




Thanks for remembering Noreen, haha!


The LAST game at the Gardens is a special one for me because an acquaintance of mine, and Flin Flon, MB native Reid Simpson was the 1st star of that game, making him the last player to skate on MLG ice for an NHL game.

Both pictures will fit very well on our wall surrounding our matted framed and certified "piece of the boards" from Maple Leaf Gardens.

Now all of this actually goes hand in hand with the comment made on the blog yesterday asking "Are you a Toronto fan again?"

Please allow me to explain. This story isn't simple, but I'll tell it as quick as possible...

I grew up a Montreal Canadiens fan. My dad was drafted by them.....His initials matched their logo. I wasn't forced to cheer for them, I chose to.

Being a Hab fan was great in 86 and 93 was great as they won two Cups. 89 wasn't great losing to CALGARY of all teams in the finals. And losing to Boston in the playoffs wasn't a fun time either!

Cheering for the Habs ended when my hero and idol ended playing for them. I still remember watching Patrick Roy getting embarrassed and left in the net against the Wings, finally getting pulled and walking over to Ronald Corey to tell him he just played his last game in Montreal. I believed Roy was mistreated and after he got traded cheering for Montreal wasn't the same anymore. I couldn't cheer for Colorado!

So who to cheer for now? I grew up in Manitoba, so I somewhat cheered for the Winnipeg Jets. That of course ended when they flew to Phoenix. I just couldn't cheer for PHOENIX! The Jets were dead to me!

I started cheering for my "second" team. The St. Louis Blues.



Right now you are probably thinking ST LOUIS??!! Yes, the Blues all of a sudden became MY TEAM. Why? Well back in 1993 I was watching the playoffs cheering for ANYONE but Toronto, because that's what Montreal fans typically do. I still vividly remember the performance of one Curtis Joseph that series. He was heroic. He got his head taken off by Wendel Clark and others. He gave the Blues a shot. The way he battled immediately won my heart as I was a goalie myself and a fan of goalies.

The Blues thing ended pretty early after Cujo squabbled over a contract with Mike Keenan. He even spent time in the IHL with Vegas. I didn't know who to cheer for then. Eventually, Joseph signed with Edmonton and I had a team again. The Oilers of the Cujo era were fun to watch. Never very good, always good for a playoff upset or miracle. Ask the Dallas Stars in 1997 and the Colorado Avalanche the next year.

Exhibit A. Game 7. OVERTIME. I remember running outside around my house screaming when this one ended. Bob Cole at his all-time BEST.


Eventually Joseph became too expensive for Edmonton and he ended up in Toronto. All of a sudden I was supposed to cheer for....THE LEAFS???? WHAT????

In the end it wasn't too hard to cheer for Toronto. They were on TV almost every single night, and on CBC every single weekend. And they had several exciting playoff runs.

I must do a funny back track that leads me to having the piece of the boards from Maple Leaf Gardens on my wall....

During Joseph's time in Edmonton, I managed to buy an autographed Edmonton Oilers team stick at a fundraising auction. I kept it for several years as I was an Edmonton fan. After Joseph ended up in Toronto, my friend Robbie B. approached me about trading my signed Oilers stick for a matted and framed piece of the boards from Maple Leaf Gardens. I was the biggest Leaf fan out there, I took the offer in a heartbeat!

Eventually Joseph left Toronto and went to Detroit....Try as I might, I just couldn't cheer for Detroit! It was about this time I actually started cheering for Vancouver. I was in Manitoba still, but the GM place crowd won my heart with their passion shown in the playoffs when they started singing O Canada. Maybe 2003 or around that?

Now- I cheer for the Canucks, and any Canadian team. And the Washington Capitals, as any blog reader will know.

With Curtis Joseph resigning in Toronto yesterday, I'm guessing it was my good buddy Robbie asking me if I'm a Toronto fan again. The answer is YES because I go where Cujo goes.

I was even a Calgary fan for the first time in my life in the spring (besides their 2004 Stanley Cup run) because Joseph was Kipper's backup!

The fact that the Bulldogs gave me the two Toronto pictures one day and Joseph resigned there the next is pretty cool actually!!

Now if anyone out there is thinking for a gift for us I'm into ANY hockey history stuff.

I have enough Maple Leaf Gardens and Air Canada Centre stuff. Something from the Montreal Forum or Bell Centre would be very cool, and so would anything regarding Chicago Stadium or Pacific Coliseum or GM Place!

No, I'm not canvassing for gifts....Just helping you along if you are having trouble picking something! :)

I'm worried I need a new security system in my house knowing that Bruce Sly (the biggest Leaf fan in BC) reads this blog and maybe he wants some Maple Leaf schwag?

Thanks again to the Dogs staff and Jim and Noreen, and thanks to you for reading!


Hammer