schneefink (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
schneefink) wrote2015-04-29 11:22 pm
schneefink) wrote2015-04-29 11:22 pm
Entry tags:
Hockey! Team Austria is looking good
This afternoon I suddenly felt extremely dizzy, like when I stand up too fast only I was sitting down. I managed to stumble over to my bed and lay there for about 15 minutes until I didn't feel nauseous anymore. It was very weird and sort of scary, it's never happened like this before. I didn't drink or eat less than usual and the air was fine. Fortunately it was over in time for me to go to the hockey game.
Hockey games! Early this year the Austrian ice hockey federation announced that before the world championship there would be exhibition games in Vienna against Hungary - and against the US and Canada. Wow. In all likelihood the best hockey anyone is going to see in Vienna for quite a while.
They had special early offers for tickets to all three games and DD, N, L and I decided to go! It was fantastic. We had front row seats! (Behind the penalty boxes, right next to the announcers.)
The Hungary game was the one we thought Austria was going to win, but nope. Not a bad game, but a bad ending and a bad loss. That one was weeks ago so I remember it less.
Yesterday was the game against the US, that was fantastic. It was 1:1 at the end of the second period! Our PK was great (and saw too much action.) In the third period it became obvious that our guys were getting tired and aren't used to the speed of the US team and we lost 1:4. Still a pretty good performance.
In the meantime Sid had decided to participate in World and had come to Vienna. Excitement! Especially in the newspapers. It was... kind of weird? It wasn't so bad with team USA because they didn't have so many players that were big stars and no-one from the Penguins (two ex-Penguins in Bylsma and Arcobello), but with team Canada I suddenly realized that these people that I only ever saw through a TV screen were suddenly in my city. And with Sid it was especially prominent because he's from "my" team, he's one of my favorite "characters". I didn't seriously consider going to team Canada practices or waiting around the arena to try and get an autograph, but I not-seriously thought about it, and even that felt odd. I probably would have considered it a bit longer if it was anyone else but Sid, who I already feel sorry for because it looks like he's getting stalked by fans so much. (Including, according to a newspaper, off-duty Viennese cops who suck into the arena in uniform to get pictures...) He ended up not playing, so I didn't even see him! I was sad about that, I'd have loved to see him play live.
Players who did play in the exhibition match: Tyler Seguin, Taylor Hall, Matt Duchene, Nathan MacKinnon, Claude Giroux... It was strange seeing them in person, being able to recognize their faces. And wow, can they play. Taylor Hall is very fast, Duchene can shift into extra speed, Spezza was very good...
Austria didn't do badly though! In fact they did very well, they led 2:1 at first intermission and lost 2:4 (with one empty net goal, and one of their goals was waved off.) It was obvious that the players were smaller and slower, but they made the best of their chances, and our goalie Starkbaum was great. They made the Canadians pay when they thought they didn't have to pay attention, especially in the beginning. (At one point one of the Canadians seemed to play around with the puck just to mock the Austrians and I thought "who's that asshole," only to feel validated when it turned out it was Giroux.) Officially it says SOGs were 18-10 Canada, which seems low, but there were a lot of near-misses.
I was wearing my Pens Geno shirt: I hesitated and wore neutral colors on Tuesday, but so many people wore NHL things that I decided I can too. (I don't have anything with team Austria on it and even the scarves seemed kind of expensive.) I saw merch of nearly every NHL franchise, iirc the only exceptions were the Coyotes, Sharks, Preds, Jets, Canes, Devils, Panthers, Sens, and Lightning. Okay, more than 2/3.
(Btw I considered bringing a print of Captain Canada!penguin!Sid with carrot!Giroux, but in the end decided not to.)
My favorite story of the game: the Canadians arrived one d-man short because they wanted someone who's still in the playoffs and who will join them in Prague. So they asked Jamie Fraser to join them, a Canadian who only ever played one game in the NHL and now plays for the Viennese hockey club. He got to play a game with team Canada! I bet he never expected that. He scored the GWG and the whole arena cheered for him at the end, and he took a picture with his Austrian Viennese teammates, it was adorable.
My least favorite story of the game: a while ago a line in the Austrian national anthem, "mother country of famous sons", was changed to "mother country of famous daughters and sons." The anthem singer sang the new, official & correct version, but some assholes actually whistled and booed. Our own national anthem. Ugh, fuck them.
In conclusion, live hockey is awesome. I'll definitely go more often next year. And I'm optimistic that Austria will manage to stay in the top division at Worlds :)
Hockey games! Early this year the Austrian ice hockey federation announced that before the world championship there would be exhibition games in Vienna against Hungary - and against the US and Canada. Wow. In all likelihood the best hockey anyone is going to see in Vienna for quite a while.
They had special early offers for tickets to all three games and DD, N, L and I decided to go! It was fantastic. We had front row seats! (Behind the penalty boxes, right next to the announcers.)
The Hungary game was the one we thought Austria was going to win, but nope. Not a bad game, but a bad ending and a bad loss. That one was weeks ago so I remember it less.
Yesterday was the game against the US, that was fantastic. It was 1:1 at the end of the second period! Our PK was great (and saw too much action.) In the third period it became obvious that our guys were getting tired and aren't used to the speed of the US team and we lost 1:4. Still a pretty good performance.
In the meantime Sid had decided to participate in World and had come to Vienna. Excitement! Especially in the newspapers. It was... kind of weird? It wasn't so bad with team USA because they didn't have so many players that were big stars and no-one from the Penguins (two ex-Penguins in Bylsma and Arcobello), but with team Canada I suddenly realized that these people that I only ever saw through a TV screen were suddenly in my city. And with Sid it was especially prominent because he's from "my" team, he's one of my favorite "characters". I didn't seriously consider going to team Canada practices or waiting around the arena to try and get an autograph, but I not-seriously thought about it, and even that felt odd. I probably would have considered it a bit longer if it was anyone else but Sid, who I already feel sorry for because it looks like he's getting stalked by fans so much. (Including, according to a newspaper, off-duty Viennese cops who suck into the arena in uniform to get pictures...) He ended up not playing, so I didn't even see him! I was sad about that, I'd have loved to see him play live.
Players who did play in the exhibition match: Tyler Seguin, Taylor Hall, Matt Duchene, Nathan MacKinnon, Claude Giroux... It was strange seeing them in person, being able to recognize their faces. And wow, can they play. Taylor Hall is very fast, Duchene can shift into extra speed, Spezza was very good...
Austria didn't do badly though! In fact they did very well, they led 2:1 at first intermission and lost 2:4 (with one empty net goal, and one of their goals was waved off.) It was obvious that the players were smaller and slower, but they made the best of their chances, and our goalie Starkbaum was great. They made the Canadians pay when they thought they didn't have to pay attention, especially in the beginning. (At one point one of the Canadians seemed to play around with the puck just to mock the Austrians and I thought "who's that asshole," only to feel validated when it turned out it was Giroux.) Officially it says SOGs were 18-10 Canada, which seems low, but there were a lot of near-misses.
I was wearing my Pens Geno shirt: I hesitated and wore neutral colors on Tuesday, but so many people wore NHL things that I decided I can too. (I don't have anything with team Austria on it and even the scarves seemed kind of expensive.) I saw merch of nearly every NHL franchise, iirc the only exceptions were the Coyotes, Sharks, Preds, Jets, Canes, Devils, Panthers, Sens, and Lightning. Okay, more than 2/3.
(Btw I considered bringing a print of Captain Canada!penguin!Sid with carrot!Giroux, but in the end decided not to.)
My favorite story of the game: the Canadians arrived one d-man short because they wanted someone who's still in the playoffs and who will join them in Prague. So they asked Jamie Fraser to join them, a Canadian who only ever played one game in the NHL and now plays for the Viennese hockey club. He got to play a game with team Canada! I bet he never expected that. He scored the GWG and the whole arena cheered for him at the end, and he took a picture with his Austrian Viennese teammates, it was adorable.
My least favorite story of the game: a while ago a line in the Austrian national anthem, "mother country of famous sons", was changed to "mother country of famous daughters and sons." The anthem singer sang the new, official & correct version, but some assholes actually whistled and booed. Our own national anthem. Ugh, fuck them.
In conclusion, live hockey is awesome. I'll definitely go more often next year. And I'm optimistic that Austria will manage to stay in the top division at Worlds :)
no subject
no subject
no subject
-J
no subject
Sucks that it's happening to you more often! Hopefully it'll stop soon.