I would like to tell you that St. Louis skated off victorious, but – spoiler alert that I’ve already spoiled – they did not.  Texas scored on a weird rebound and broken coverage in overtime, making the local fans ecstatic, and leaving the Bandits empty.

I’ll let the photos tell the tale.  First, the mustaches.

Don’t let the Stars player fool you.  He’s still a junior.  Yeah, right.

ACTION!

Again, do they need the body suits?

My favorite part of this is the kid behind the mascot whaling away.  So much carnage. So much fluffy carnage.

Back to the game.

The guy on the ice is number 8, Lucas Whelan.  He blocked a shot in the last seconds of the final period, and had to be helped off the ice.  He couldn’t put any weight on his leg after that.  I was surprised that he came back for overtime.  Yes, hockey players are tough, but this was a brutal block.  I was surprised he didn’t break his ankle.

As I said, the game went to overtime, and the Tornado took advantage of a rebound that didn’t go the way the goalie expected, and some blown coverage.  Here is your game winner.

That was it for the Bandits.  So here is what I would call the agony and ecstasy of a finals.

The winning coaches consoling the losing goalie.

There are no white gloves with this trophy.

Handshakes.

This might surprise you, but in the NAHL, they don’t boo the commissioner like he committed a crime against humanity.

Think that’s rough?  How about watching the winning team hoist the cup?

Most of the Bandits left the ice at this point.  Most of them.

To me, this picture just says it all.

The captain of the Tornado came over to talk with that last player, the captain for the Bandits.

And that does it for the NAHL season.

And that does it for me for live hockey games this year.  It was a great time, seeing so many places, and some new teams.  It’s one of the best parts of hockey for me.  Next season, as things in my life change, I probably won’t get to see as many games on the road.  But you never know, maybe something will make that happen.

The Robertson Cup format is a bit like the Memorial Cup of the CHL.  6 teams (5 division winners and the host city team) are invited, play a round robin, and the top 4 go to the semifinals.  Those were today.

I will say that the first period of the first game (St. Louis Bandits vs. the Amarillo Bulls) was some of the hardest hitting hockey I have ever seen, while the overtime period of the last game (Texas Tornadoes vs. the Fairbanks Ice Dogs) was some of the sloppiest hockey I have ever seen.  And the Tuesday final game should be a good time.

On to the photos:

This is what they are playing for.  No, it’s’ not as pretty as the Stanley Cup (note some of the dents on the top), but it’s what they have, and it’s what they are playing for.

First up, some of the images from the St. Louis vs Amarillo game.  The players for Amarillo had these blonde mohawks that looked…. douchy.  I have no other way of describing it.

I didn’t have a favorite team, but between the mohawks and the fans constantly beating on the glass, I was pulling for St. Louis pretty early.

They used pucks and rings to make the most noise possible.  This guy was double-fisting it.

Scary moment when a big check kept one of the Bulls players on the ice for a while.  He eventually skated to the bench, and played a shift soon after, which drew heckling from the St. Louis bench.

Action.

St. Louis pulled it off, ending the Bulls season.

Lots of sad faces.  Oh well, on to the next game.

I got very few pictures of the second game, as I was talking to a guy who played in the Federal Hockey League.  And you don’t pass up a chance to find out how crazy that is.  But the Tornado pulled off a surprise victory over Fairbanks in overtime.

Sending the Fairbanks, AK fans home sad.

Also, I’m not a fan of this camera.  Back to the other one tomorrow.  And… more tomorrow.

The NHL already has a broadcast contract with NBC for the next few years. It’s the best deal with the most attention they could get (I haven’t heard a single complaint about hockey not being on ESPN this offseason). Had the league gone with the World Wide Leader, would you have seen as much of the first round as you have? No way.  There isn’t the room for the kind of attention NBC has paid the NHL.

If the league actually were sweating the ratings, I would be concerned. Why worry about things you can’t change? Instead, the best teams playing in the finals is all the league should want. One that’s free of stretchers and controversies, one that showcases talent and speed, and one that writers a new storyline, something that isn’t a repeat of the old ones.

Imagine the other side: the league gets to showcase teams that don’t get as much attention, perhaps helping build a fan base for them. How much of a boost did winning a Cup give to Carolina? Now how much would a Cup win help the Coyotes? Or the Predators? Or the Blues?  The national attention teams like Nashville and even Florida are getting are only going to help make the league healthier.

If I were the league, I wouldn’t worry about the ratings at all, and look forward to whatever comes their way. The timing couldn’t be better.

I keep hearing about how four sets of eyes missed the Torres check last night, but this is a misstatement.  Two sets of eyes missed the play, and two had no influence on it.  Like it or not, the job of the linesman is to call the lines, not penalties like this.

Coming out of the lockout, the director of officiating at the time, Stephen Walkom, and the league told the linesmen to stick to calling the lines, and a few other penalties, like too many men on the ice.  They can stop the play for a premature substitution (like a skater getting on the ice before the goalie is off the ice), or consult on the delay of game puck over the glass, but other than that, they don’t have a voice on these penalties.

Part of this is because of the increased speed of the game.  You have to get the lines right, or else you have situations like the Briere goal in game one of the Penguins – Flyers game.  And yes, they don’t always get it right, but they are not being pulled away from the lines by other things that the refs are supposed to be covering.  To err is human, but to be doing someone else’s job is unprofessional.  The linesmen have their job, so they do it.

You may not like it, and I understand that.  I mostly of like it, but in situations like this, some consultation would be helpful.  The linesman next to the Torres hit saw it, and was protecting himself from getting blown into (although he doesn’t seem to be looking right at the hit, like the snapshot from the video above shows).  It would have been good if he could have gotten the ref to call the penalty.  I’m sure they discussed what had happened while Hossa was being attended to.

But a ref can’t call a penalty that they didn’t see with their own two eyes.  They can’t have someone else’s judgement be their influencing factor on this stuff.  So the questions are, where were the refs?  Were they in the right position?  Were they too far away from the play?  The speed of playoff hockey and the way turnovers in the neutral zone have been happening and transitioning may have pushed the refs further back into the ends of the rink than they want to – or should – be.  So where were they?  If I could zoom an image of the rink out to see where they were, I would be able to say if they had the best shot at making the right call.

But just so you know, don’t blame the linesmen.  They have their duties.  The league asked them to stick to those duties.  They are doing their job.  As for the other two guys, it’s hard to say.  They certainly missed this one.

I’ve talked about what bugs me about Dater’s approach to the team and reporting before, but today’s wrap up of the woes and the end of the playoff push (or lack of push in the end) neatly sums up what I don’t like and fail to understand about his writing about the Avalanche, and it does it in one word:

We.

From the All Things Avs blog:

We’ll give the Avalanche players, coaches and management one last moral-victory, we-tried-hard-but excuse. Really, arguably, they didn’t deserve another one this year. They had a very good chance to make the playoffs down the stretch, but let’s face it: they blew it. All they really had to do, in hindsight, was take care of business against the worst team in the league, Columbus, at home. But the Avs lost twice to the Jackets in the final 20 games, including Thursday’s dismal 5-2 loss.

And in the last paragraph:

We’ll buy into the excuses one more time, and look for better things next season. But the clock is ticking…

It’s not the negativity.  It’s not the accountability question.  I agree with him for the most part – even if I tire of the same tone post after post.

Who is “We?”  Who is this we he is lumping himself in with?  That’s the part I don’t get.

Dater tends to stand on one side of the fence, wagging his finger at the fans for not showing up, for not being excited, for being jerks, for anything the fans do, then climbs over the fence and stands next to the fans to yell at the team.  Dater is or isn’t a fan of the Avalanche, but I can’t actually tell which one he is.  When he is a blogger, he is acting like a fan, but when he is reporting as a beat writer, he acts like a reporter.  And never the two shall mix?

Blogs are nothing more than a publishing platform.  They aren’t one style of writing or another.  Much like mp3s, that the music industry tried to paint as evil when they didn’t have control over them, are simply a file format.  There is nothing inherently anything about them.  That the Denver Post uses the same blogging software I do may be ironic, it isn’t an indicator of any similarities in tone or style.  To say “well, this is a blog, so…” should be meaningless.  Dater can blog from his parents basement just like everyone else (and as I said on twitter, if you bring up a blogger in their parents basement to win an argument, you might as well have played the Hitler card, because you just lost).  That you are allowed switch hats when you switch platforms, all under the banner of the Denver Post, is ridiculous.

So the two questions I have are, who is the “we” Dater is including himself in, and what are the consequences he alludes to?  What happens if this “one more time” doesn’t pan out?  Is there something Dater will do?  Is he going to pull out pictures of the Avalanche in compromising positions from a manilla folder?  Do they even make manilla folders anymore?

And let’s say things don’t go well next season.  Will Adrian Dater get mad at the fans for not showing up for what he calls:

- A tired game-night atmosphere that employs horrible music, uses horrible lighting, has really lame stops-in-play and between-periods entertainment and insults today’s tech-savvy, modern fan with 1999 scoreboard technology.
The Avs can hide their heads in the sand all they want and their corporate lackeys can pretend like it doesn’t exist, but the team continues to have a BIG problem with the local fan when it comes to going to games and really feeling entertained. The bad attendance of the last few years doesn’t ALL have to do with the product on the ice.

Because I totally agree with him on this.  TOTALLY.  But as a paying customer, all I can do is not go to the games and vote with my wallet.  And that is a problem as well for Dater, mad that we as fans don’t show up to support the team.  That I would rather watch the game on a big screen TV than go to a game for the exact same in-game entertainment year after year is a problem as much as going is.  We can’t seem to do anything right.

I don’t know who ‘we’ are, but I can tell you, I don’t hear a clock ticking.  No matter what the Avalanche do in the off season, they will be around, they will play games, and they will make the decisions.  The actual “We” are going to be along for the ride.

Dirk’s comments are two-fold, so I’m addressing them as such:

1) Good luck on getting accreditation for bloggers. From what I understand, it was Colorado which led the charge to restrict credentialed bloggers in various cities from having access to visiting teams.

I don’t know if this is exactly the case or not. I know that I have heard the same things, and I know I have heard from people that have talked to the Avs that they don’t seem to keen on the idea. That said, I don’t know how it has been presented to the Avalanche, and I don’t know if there has been a group effort to do so. That said, it doesn’t hurt to try, and it might lead to all of the bloggers here upping their game. Which never hurts.

2) What would media credentials do for bloggers that would truly enhance their ability to counter what you see as failings of the Denver Post? Do they really need ‘we need to work hard and take it one game at a time” quotes to do that?

This is something I’ve heard from plenty of people, and I don’t buy it. Looking at the Washington Capitals experience, they have a rich field of content that goes beyond the stock quotes. I recently discovered the work done by Media Chameleon, and I would say their audio documentaries go beyond what most of the MSM would consider worth doing.

To address the specifics of the Denver Post, You would diversify the tone of the reporting,which is essential to any medium. We don’t just have Law and Order as the only crime drama on TV. We don’t just have on 24 hour news station. But in Denver, we have one newspaper, with two guys. That’s it. Terry Frei was the best of the hockey writers, but he doesn’t do as much Avs writing anymore. Just to spread the coverage out would help. How was the hockey media in Nashville before bloggers were introduced to the press box? That’s where Denver is right now.

I understand the concerns, but I would rather see the chance taken that things will change for the better than not at all.

I read yet another sour-puss post in the Denver Post today, which I usually avoid at all costs.

Aside – I want you to think about that for a moment.  I’m a  fan of the Colorado Avalanche, and we have one newspaper in town.  And I try to avoid reading it because of the content.  One source with press credentials, and I TRY not to read it.  Isn’t that kind of telling?

There were parts of the post that bugged me, but none more than this:

When push came to shove, the Avs couldn’t win the big ones – again. It was right there for them: two out of three wins against Phoenix, Vancouver and San Jose, and they would have been in good shape for the playoffs. But they got one out of six possible points. Let’s face it, the Avs choked away a win the other day against Vancouver, the one game that stood out to me as proving these guys still aren’t ready for prime time yet.

The number one thing that bugged me was not the word ‘choked,’ but the word ‘again.’  Yes, again the Avalanche were not good enough to make the post season (most likely, as there is the mathematical possibility that they could sneak in).  It isn’t the gloom and doom of that word or that sentence that bugs me.  It’s that we have seen this before.  We have seen this perspective over and over.  It’s copy / paste every few games.

It isn’t that the Denver Post (and to be honest about it, Adrian Dater, the most visual of the Post writers) needs to be fans of the team.  That isn’t their job, and isn’t the way their writing should be structured.  But at this point, the emo message is that you are a fool to think this team was anything but losers.  You would be a mook to be a fan of this team.  And it was all inevitable, and is going to continue.

The Post needs to do it’s job, and that is report the news.  And they need to be given the leeway to state their opinions in the appropriate places.  It isn’t that the Post needs to conform to us, the fans.  But we don’t need to conform to their output either.

The overall issue here is a lack of choice on the part of the fans.  The Denver Post is the only credentialed media outlet that consistently puts out Avalanche material.  They don’t have to do anything other than what they are doing, because they aren’t pushed to do so.  They are the only game in town, and that’s the choice made by the Avalanche themselves.  The Avs are traditionally very closed off to the media.

But tradition has a way of falling when confronted with new successes, and as the blogoshphere has proven, success is available.  Examples like the Capitals, Predators, and Islanders have shown that bloggers can be healthy additions to the media availability.  They can provide what the papers can’t, won’t or don’t have time for.  They can be a positive addition to the ranks of the press box.  And now, more than ever, it’s time.

This summer, I’m asking for an Avs blogger summit.  A meeting of the bloggers who want to be granted credentials or given access to the Avalanche.  This would be an initial first step in collectively seeking to work with the Avalanche to get in the door.  I’m asking for this in the spirit of inclusiveness, to get many perspectives.

This will not be an overnight process.  Bloggers of many stripes have been around for years waiting for the opportunity.  But if the mountain won’t come to us, it’s time for us to go to the mountain.

If you’re interested, please let me know in the “contact me” link up above, or click here.  Lets do this.

So I’m asking you for your thoughts and conversation. The comments are open. What mainstream media outlets do you like? Which ones do you have respect for? What reporters do you like, and what do you like about them?

Tonight was a strange night for Fort Worth hockey for two reasons.  First, it was Star Wars Night.  We will get to that in a moment.  The other reason it was strange was that the game was played at the old home of the Brahmas, the Fort Worth Convention Center.

The Fort Worth Brahmas used to play at the FWCC until the 2006-07 season, when they couldn’t work out a lease agreement with the Convention Center.  They suspended operations for the next season, and came back in the 2008-09 season as the Texas Brahmas, playing at a rink in the suburbs that isn’t much more than a rec rink with more seating.

The first Brahmas game I went to was in the 2005-06 season at the FWCC, and I’ve seen one at their new home.  The Convention Center is a bit big for the Brahmas, but the new location, the NYNEX Sports Center is too small.  The Brahmas are popular.  They are very popular for a minor league team, in a way that the Dallas Stars probably wish they were.  They have fans who have been around for a long time, and will continue to be for a long time.  They could use the space the FWCC has to offer, but a lease can make or break a minor league hockey team.  So in a small venue they will stay.

Let’s go to the game!

Walking up to the FWCC:

I mentioned that it was Star Wars night, and that conjures up images of awful rebel themed jerseys, wacky sound effects, and in-game promotions centered around using the force, right?  No, it just means Stormtroopers in the lobby.

Stormtroopers that liked to point their guns at you:

Yeah.  Oh, and there was a ZZ Top cover band in the lobby as well, which just goes perfectly with the Star Wars theme, right?

The lobby isn’t all that interesting.  But the inside of the venue is… not all that interesting either.

There is a certain symmetry to the place, but that weird ceiling makes it feel  open and cavernous, like you could yell at the ref all night and it would just bounce around up there.  Come to think of it, I didn’t hear nearly as much abuse of the officials from the crowd as I usually do.  I wonder why?  No, really, I wonder why.

Thirty-four seconds into the first period, we had our first fight.  The weird part about the fight was it featured a very familiar name, Aaron Boogaard.

It was startling to realize who we were watching, and for the most part, the fight looked like a hugging match.  But look a the next picture, even though it’s out of focus.  Someone was bleeding.

Boogaard had to leave his jersey at the bench to get cleaned up (you can’t use a jersey with blood all over it), and when he was released from the box, we got a look at his pads.  NHLers have all the latest and greatest gear, all light and fresh.  It probably even smells halfway respectable.  But not in the minors.

Those are old school.

How about some more game action:

I mentioned in the Odessa Jackalopes post that they throw rubber carrots on the ice after goals, and in Laredo, they throw rubber corn.  Here they throw rubber purple Brahmas.  That’s a bull for the rest of you.

There’s another tradition after goals with the Brahmas fans.  I don’t know when they do it, but tonight, after the third goal, some of the fans take off their shirts and twirl them over their heads.  Not a big deal, right?  We’ve seen this happen before at games, it’s nothing special.  But lets just say that this isn’t the demographic that normally does this sort of thing.

Remember that warning I gave at the top?  This is why.

You can not unsee that.  But if you’re going to be a fan, be a fan and don’t apologize for anything.  I was smiling and laughing the whole time, and so was everyone else.  And if you ever go to a Texas Brahmas game and they score a few goals, I hope you do to.

In other news, you can’t go to a damn arena without some tool putting on a body suit.  We get it, enough already.

I tweeted earlier that with all the Stormtroopers around, this was the most dangerous hockey game ever.  It was true for one fan who slipped on the concrete steps and broke her ankle.  I’m no doctor, but when the ankle swells up and turns purple that fast, it’s broke.

Mascot:

Another fight, leading to some game misconducts.  When a guy is down, don’t keep beating on him.

It was a bad night for the officials tonight.  The ref got tangled up in a check and may have a few bruised ribs.  And a linesman took a full slap shot in the back.  They don’t wear that much padding, and it stung him pretty good.   Also, one of the Brahmas took a puck in the Galiardis.  He skated it off, but I know it hurt.  It was also one of the better called games in the minors I have ever seen.

This game was titled the Fort Worth Faceoff, since it was a special two-nighter with the Brahmas playing in their old stomping grounds.  Maybe next time, they can play the crosstown Allen Americans.  The Brahmas wore special jerseys that were auctioned off after the game.  I did not stick around for that.

Your final, Brahmas 4, RGV Killer Bees 1.  You tell who won from the photo alone.

Tomorrow I’m off to Austin and Houston, and then six weeks in New Orleans.  Not a hockey-centric existence for a while, but it was nice to see some of the best the other side of hockey has to offer.  And there are more venues out there to find, more games to see, and more unusual history to be searched out.

Boxscore.

On my way down, I got the nice surprise of a game on one of my bucket list teams, the Odessa Jackalopes.  Yes, you heard me.  Bucket list.  Mind you, there are still a lot of teams on my bucket list, but this was one I wasn’t sure I was ever going to see.  Odessa was on shaky ground before when they were part of the CHL, and along with several other team left the C for the financially friendlier confines of the NAHL.  I would consider the N a step down from the C in that the CHL is a minor league while the NAHL is a junior league.  Most of the kids in this league are playing for college scholarships or to be drafted.  Many will not.  The talent level in the CHL is well below the NHL, but in the NAHL, it’s still mired in development.

Still, Texas was, for a long time, the state with the most professional teams in the US.  These days, it’s lost many of those teams to financial issues, some moving like the Jackalopes, and some shutting their doors completely (such as Lubbock).  As the fortunes of the Dallas Stars have faded into the eventual bankruptcy and sale of the team, the rest of hockey in Texas seems to have followed suit. The junior ranks seem to be the right fit for some of these cities, at the least saving hockey from leaving completely in many of them (and wait to see how many more CHL teams leave next season).

So with that, let’s hit the road.  First, the drive:

This is the World Arena in Colorado Springs, CO.  It’s next door to the offices for USA Hockey.

Don’t get the people of Las Vegas, NM wrong.  They don’t tolerate drinking and driving.  They do make it rather convenient, though.

This is not racist.

On my way in to Las Vegas, NM (which is not as exciting as the other Las Vegas), I did see a bright streak across the sky.  I did not see any aliens.  At least, not until I got to Roswell, NM.

It’s telling that the name of a mini-mall is The Landings at Roswell.  Also, the most popular restaurant might be the local IHOP.  And I saw a guy clipping his nails at a Starbucks under his table.  Stay classy.

I did learn one travel tip:  if one of the touted features of a hotel is it’s indoor pool, or has an indoor water park, something else will suffer, and it’s usually the service.  If you don’t have a surly front desk attendant, consider it a lottery win.

On the road from Roswell to Odessa, I passed though the saddest town I have ever seen.  And yes, I have been to Cleveland and Detroit.  This was worse.  I will spare you the poor photos I took, since they don’t really do justice to the sorry state of the place.  If you have a batch of plywood to board up windows, you might make a small fortune in Tatum, NM.  But it did have one bright spot:

Moving on…

Oh…. OK….

But they also put ketchup on a chili burger.  And that ain’t right.

I finally made it to Odessa, and was greeted with a rather… large… sight.

To call a venue a barn is somewhat of a complement.  It implies a certain amount of character.  This place is a shed. 

Whoa.  There are times I go to a venue for the first time and I worry about the sight lines.  I don’t know what I’m getting when I buy a ticket.  This place has plenty of unobstructed seating.  Plenty.  I’ve been in bigger places, but they rarely feel this cavernous.

This is the penalty box.  We will get to the penalties in a moment:

The hallways of the Ector County Coliseum, which would not handle a capacity crowd:

There were plenty of framed jerseys sprinkled around the halls as well.  Here are a few, including a WPHL All Star jersey:

A few action photos:

One of the Corpus Christi players was hit in the side while prone on the ice, and was in considerable pain.  It turns out the Rays don’t bring a trainer on the road with them, so the Jackalopes trainer has to attend to both team’s injuries.  The juniors are a different world from the NHL.

I said we would talk about the penalties.  3:27 into the third period, the ref called an interference penalty on the Jackalopes, and sent Tyler Minx to the box.  The problem was, Minx didn’t commit the penalty, Ryan Doucet did.  Minx argued the point until he got an unsportsmanlike penalty as well.  So this would be four minutes of 5 on 4 play, right?  No, the ref finally realized the mistake he had initially made and send Doucet to the box for the interference.  Now we have two penalties at the same time on two separate players, which meant that it was now two minutes of 5 on 3 play.  Of course, were it not for the initial mistake made by the ref, there wouldn’t have been any unsportsmanlike penalty, as there would have been nothing to get ‘unsportsmanlike’ about.  Still, the penalties were handed out, and as you would expect, the Rays scored… the game winning goal.  Of course.

Minx certainly earned the unsportsmanlike penalty, and should have either shut up and gone to the box, or calmly made his case to the ref.  Instead, he let his mouth get him in trouble and cost his team.  I don’t blame him for being upset.  He’s a defenseman who would probably been on the penalty kill, and he had scored both goals the Jackalopes wound up with for the game.  Instead, he was sitting.  Unjustly.  Oh, the humanity.

What didn’t help was that shortly after, a Jackalope player kicked the puck  into the net and the ref immediately waived the goal off.  It was a good call, but after what had happened earlier, the Jacks fans were none too pleased with the ref.  And they let him know.  They even waived money at him, saying he was bought off.

Moving on, is this the creepiest looking mascot you’ve ever seen?  If not, it might be up there.

Sleep tight. Hopefully you won’t dream of this thing chasing you down on an ATV:

Words are said:

At least they care about the environment:

At Laredo Bucks games, they throw ears of corn on the ice.  At Texas Brahmas games, they throw purple Brahmas, the team mascot.  In Odessa, they throw… carrots.

Holy cow, that’s a lot of photos.  Enough already.  The Rays win it 3-2.

Boxscore

Tomorrow, on the Fort Worth to see a game with James O’Brien.  You know there will be more posting.  Oh yes, there will be more.