And now for something completely different

February 27, 2007

Like, a whole different sport – hockey! In fact, maybe I should consider switching sports given the baby boom of Nats blogs recently. I welcome new voices and opinions, but honestly, it’s beginning to feel a little claustrophobic around here. I think I’ll put my blinders on and practice some yoga or something and mentally get myself back in form shortly. In the meantime, here is the exciting replay of last night’s Washington Capitals Hockey ‘N Heels event, to which I honestly did wear heels, albeit what I call my “tomboy heels” – more than I can say for Agent Steinz who didn’t even attempt to show up in drag! DCSportsChick first alerted me to the event and I immediately signed up. Luckily for me, she was able to request we end up in the same group, so I was right wing to her center all evening. My first impression was that the Caps were going to save a lot of money on the free cocktail hour given the large “expecting club” contingent of pregnant women who showed up for a unique girls night out. One of them even won the drawing for a Salon gift certificate (naturally, I didn’t win anything).

The event was sponsored by Mix 107.3 and Comcast SportsNet. I figured I was definitely their target audience knowing very little about hockey and having only attended one game. I was therefore a bit surprised by how many die-hard fans were in attendance who knew things like regular players names and whatnot (I think I could name maybe 4 before the night began). [Granted, if/when the Nats do something like this, I'll be all over it! Maybe they'd even let me help out with the "teaching how to score a game" part of it :-) ] We were split into five (large) groups and sent off with a guide to different 20 minute sessions inside the Phone Booth. The equivalent area is called the bowels at RFK – does the Phone Booth have bowels? Or maybe a bladder (the pee freezes – get it?)?

We headed to the various training rooms and finally the stinky locker room. Our host began talking about the players putting on their underwear immediately after taking over our group (I was pretty bad about getting names – he was a former hockey player. I’m sure DCSC will have all the info when she finally posts! (Joe Reekie)). Naturally, that caught everyone’s attention. “This is where they get out of suits, into the underwear, and then…” (giggle giggle giggle). It was very cool walking through the inner hallways and locker rooms and seeing all the photos on the walls, the Wizards sign, and even the Capitals brand coffee maker. However, not being a fan and trying to report on this was a whole new experience for me. I have even more respect for journalists who have to make something exciting for fans of an event they care little about. Not that it wasn’t fun – just a different perspective from what I’m accustomed to!

Inside the main locker room hung all of the players uniforms, readied by the equipment trainers for the next day’s game (today). The room was incredibly odoriferous! And that was BEFORE a game! I don’t even want to imagine what it smells like afterwards. Whew! Alex Ovechkin’s helmet was passed around for all the ladies to fondle with the warning not to scratch the visor with sharp nails or sharp anything.

By far, the best segment of the evening was getting to go out on the ice and actually try my hand at passing the puck and shooting goals. Our side of the ice was paired up with Jamie Heward (who’s my age). My first thought was, “Wow, the stick is light!” It was like holding nothing – not at all like the wood field hockey sticks we learned with back in junior high! After a brief instruction on how to hold it (like golf) and curve the uh.. hitting part in.. I passed the puck to Heward. Not bad! I came close to where I was aiming. He passed it back and thankfully, I did manage to stop it, then fire it into the goal net. Woohoo! Once my turn was up, he came over to pose for a photo and asked if I play golf. “No,” I responded. “You should!” Ok, that was a very cool compliment!

I was somewhat dreading the 20 minutes of Rules “Chalk Talk” (more like whiteboard talk, but whatever) because I expected it to be boring and my attention span was waning, but in reality I found it quite fascinating. I’m sure it was totally elementary to people who actually paid attention to hockey prior to last night. The Comcast guy (another former player whose name I didn’t write down – Craig Laughlin?) explained penalties, rules, and defensive formations, at one point equating the defensive zone to home plate. Aha! Something I could understand! Luckily, since I didn’t take any notes, the Caps provided a goodie bag at the end of the night that included a handy handbook with much of the information from this session. Also in the goodie bag was a “Hockey ‘n Heels” compact mirror, which is so totally sexist but ya know? I so totally needed one for my purse, so I’m okay with that! I think the goodie bag itself is supposed to be a makeup bag.

A few more players were mingling during the cocktail hour as much as they could while not being mobbed by autograph and photograph seekers. I actually left them alone, but I think Donald Brashear and Eric Fehr were there as well as the guys previously helping down on the ice. There were a couple specialty martini “Ladies” drinks just for the event and I got my probably one and only look at the Acela Club bar and restaurant (Sweet!).

I’m really glad I went and definitely walked away with a little more hockey knowledge. I’m also very glad DCSC was there with me! A huge thanks goes out to the Capitals for organizing and putting on this unique “behind-the-scenes” look, as well as mucho gratitude to the folks who worked behind the scenes to set everything up and make sure it went smoothly, not to mention all the speakers and the players wife/girlfriend/fiance (all flavors) who took questions. As I said, not being a fan was probably the weirdest part of the evening for me from the perspective of being a blogger!

[More Photos from event (26)]

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