nyc: the nhl store boycotts cool flames stuff

this is definitely overdue (as is my arena report on MSG, i realize now) but the beauty of hitthepost is that we only write when we feel like it.... so i'm gonna try to hammer out a few entries over the holidays. starting today.

for the record: i totally understand the lack of calgary flames stuff at the NHL store on manhattan's avenue of the americas; it's not like merch sporting flaming Cs would be flying off the shelves in a market where half the shoppers probably couldn't find calgary on a map. heck, one of the ushers at the flames v. devils tilt last year in jersey asked me if calgary was in the the same league (ie: the NHL !!!), cause she'd never heard of it.... so yeah. you can definitely buy a jersey, and there are a few different options in tshirts, but what stunned me is that you can't buy a single "cool" item with a flames' logo (aside from this reebok ---avs and oilers seen in the background-- which comes in all 30 team models).


i asked an employee if there was any "good" flames merch available (maybe in the back ?) and he brought me a mug, an ugly banner thingo, a jarome action figure, and a mini-stick. just in case you thought you read that wrong, it was a shitty small mug, a banner, an iggy figurine, and a mini stick. no toques, no glassware, none of the basics, and certainly none of the AWESOME stuff:

(left: flyers zamboni nightlight !!!)

(right: habs hockey bag shaped toiletries bag/purse)

a brief (admittedly not-thorough) look over on nhl.com doesn't have these items with a flames logo, either. i think it's totally bunk. the good news is that my east coast team is the rangers, and there was obviously an exorbitant amount of cool stuff with the blueshirts' logo. except i couldn't bring myself to buy any of it.... so it's not really that good news.

anyhow, it's xmastime and i would have loved it if one of my friends or family had the option of some cool flames stuff to get me. instead, i'll probably get something lame (cause that's all there is). ah, well. i've already got two signed gio jerseys so it's not like anyone could top that anyways... ;)

Happy Holidays Flames Fans.

Courtesy of my dear friends over at eBay (who I may add are the newest sponsor of my posts here at htp)...I bring you the Calgary Flames Gnome...

Just in time for the holidays, you can get yourselves (or a family member or loved one or that Oiler fan at your office who was so sure the Oil had turned the corner this season) one of these interesting pieces of Flames merchandise. It's not really clear to me what this gnome is used for but it seems to be some sort of garden item. Duh...who doesn't know you're supposed to put gnomes in your garden...especially ones wearing Flames jerseys that appear to be on fire. I'm sure they're supposed to scare rabbits or some sort of vermin away from eating those prized carrots you've been growing for the past few months. Anyways, Travelocity has nothing on this particular bearded little man and your neighbors will be soooooo jealous. Here's the deal...as of the time I've drafted this post, there are two available for $24.95 each plus $4.99 shipping ($30.58 CAD). You know they're gonna get snatched up fast (stocking stuffer for sure) after this post goes live so here's the link...

Calgary Flames Gnome

Happy Holidays Flames Fans!

blogger meetup: DECEMBER 23 !!

(darren helm as todd bertuzzi. editor's note: i'm now in love with darren helm)

hey, remember last year when we held a blogger meet-up at schanks north (cause steinberg was working the game and had to be there) on december 23rd, and the flames beat dallas and then the entire season started to turn around ? yeah, well we're doing that again and hopefully it'll spurn the same results (though a playoff finish, would be nice this year, thank you very much).

where: schanks north, 103 crowfoot terrace NW calgary
when: december 23rd, 2011 8:00pm
who: flames v. canucks
why: to hang, chill, watch, cheer, drink, and have fun with some of your calgary flames blogger brethren. also ? why NOT ??!

i'm fairly certain that the guestlist will be decent. i'll be there, for starters. i know Pstein will be there cause he gets paid to. hitthepost sometimes-blogger mikeH will be there, and jazzyV from M&G. if any of kent wilson from flamesnation, hayley from M&G, and our very own duncan are in town, they'll show up for sure. maybe dph will come if he can free himself from the new family. newsboy says he'll make the effort from mackenzie town (hopefully he brings the wife cause she's outrageously hot), and wilhelm from edmonton has pondered the journey.... are YOU coming ?!?

(you should)
:)

pocket gaudreau hits the dome !!!

pocket gaudreau watches the flames beat the avs 3-2



pocket gaudreau looks for the fleury banner

stay tuned for the continuing adventures of pocket gaudreau...
:)

the pocket gaudreau project

in conjunction with arik from M&G, i present to you: the pocket gaudreau project. born out of pure flames-loving giddiness and a penchant to over-adore prospects (....beer MIGHT have been involved...), arik and i stumbled on this bit of fun during my sojurn at his pad in puerto rico last month. why ? because the flames blogosphere needs a mascot, and because john gaudreau (drafted 2011, 4th round, 104th overall) is unquestionably the CUTEST !!!
:)

my backyard, december 8, 2011

anyhow, it goes like this: when/if you receive the pocket gaudreau in the mail, you must take some photos of him travelling gnome prank style before sending it on. if you would like to participate in the pocket gaudreau project, you can email me or arik your street address (walkinvisible@gmail.com, arik.jamesk@gmail.com), and we'll try to get the cuddly little guy headed your way... please email one of us when/if you find the lovable wee dude in your mailbox so we can track his journey. i've definitely got enough of the current nerdy blog buddy mailing addies to get this party started....the adorable mini fella's making his first trip to the 'dome tonight (along with the inaugural game for the signed gio captain jersey) and then he'll be off to the warm beaches of aguadilla.

and, john ---if you're reading this ? i'm sorry about the harassment you're gonna get from your teammates forevermore...

:)

Stajan, so hot right now. Stajan.

It never gets old.

arena report: first niagara center

first thing's first. buffalo gets a bad rap...

after attending the nov3 game at the joe louis, my buddy zak and i packed up the car and took off on a mini roadtrip: via fort erie through canada to the peace bridge into buffalo to catch the flames play the sabres nov4. i never consulted a map on this beforehand (even though the plan had been in the works for eons), so i was somewhat surprised at the distance and route. but no matter, we got there and only fought like a married couple for the last hour-or-so.

admittedly, i can be difficult. i'm pretty sure zak's a saint. ;)

we started at the pearl street brewery for a pregame pint. zak had some kind of gouda soup that looked amazing (when you mix two of the world's most wonderful things, cheese&soup, how can you go wrong??) but i opted to wait for the arena snack... pearl street brewery is awesome, and about a block and a half from first niagara, so we were obviously surrounded by blue sabres jerseys. still, there was the occasional spot of red (mostly IGINLAs but the occasional FLEURY and one, special, solitary GIO retro captain jersey). flames fans represent.

our seats for the game were by the glass and we got a good close-up look at enroth's heroics and karlsson's height. it was nice to see reggie front and centre, too, and i think we were on the telly once or twice. the arena itself is on the newer side, like the excel or the prudential, with a nice windowy & wide open concourse. i wasn't such a big fan of the green floors, though, and i couldn't come up with a good reason why they'd do that. it was also quite a massive leap from the more storied, older joe louis we'd been to the night before... still, we found and photographed their mascot, sabretooth, whilst on a beer run (we were slamming labatt king cans, since our "good" beer options were non-existant).


the arena snack was a bit tougher to find. most people suggested hotdogs or nachos (the nachos actually looked DAMNED fine, with rice and other interesting toppings ---see them in the background) but the information booth dude pointed me towards the fried bologna sandwich. it was essentially a 1/2" thick slab of grilled hotdog meat with fried peppers and onions and topped with fake cheese; SO wrong but actually not that bad tasting.

midgame, i hit the ladies and the girl in front of me had a signed tyler myers jersey. it was rad, but i couldn't help but notice that myers had signed a little extra something that i can only assume is 100% legit (and 100% embarassing):


postgame i met a dude in the concourse sporting a giordano jersey. he REALLY liked the gio captain model and wanted to take some pix of it, then surprised us with the fact he was gio's first cousin and invited us to meet the man himself. the whole giordano mafia was there; gio's bro, dad, uncle, and cousins since the rink is only an hour from toronto. i got the captain jersey signed (gio says sheepishly, "oh, i don't know about that" but his pops looked pleased as punch!) and nabbed some killer photos of this episode, but they're not for public consumption.


after the game, we went bar hopping. first we went back to the pearl and sampled the don cherry cherry ale. generally, i'm not a massive fan of fruity beers but i really enjoyed this one. honestly. probably one of my favorite pints ever (next to the left hand sawtooth i had in NYC, but that's a whole other story). from there we cabbed to cole's up elmwood, but the kitchen was closed, so we ate wings at some other fast food type place, witnessed a Tbone car accident, hit mcgarrett's for a laugh, then the blue monk for some local brews (where we met clutterbuck's cousins), then we cruised down to allentown and tossed back many a brew at hardware. *sigh* it was a fun night but ohmygod i couldn't deal with a 4am last call on a regular basis.... ;)

the moral of the story: buffalo's a pretty fun town.
:)

Arena Report: Nationwide

Columbus probably isn't at the top of anyone's list of place to take in an NHL game. It's a non-traditional market with a perennially struggling team. Getting there is a pain in the ass: the return trip from Vancouver required 28 hours of travel, five airports, and six flights. And what is there to do in Columbus? (Aside from hang with good friends, of course?) Enough to keep me busy for a few days, it turns out.

Columbus has got a pretty great zoo — complete with otters — some kick-ass locally-made ice cream, and of course, The Ohio State University. It'd be pretty impossible to overstate the importance of OSU to Columbus. At least 1 in 10 of the people I saw out in public were decked out in OSU gear. The Buckeyes stores are ubiquitous, massive, and carry everything from the official OSU candy (George, you'd love these; they have the perfect ratio of chocolate to peanut butter) to underwear to expensive jewelry and signed merchandise. The campus is huge and gorgeous, and as an institution inspires impressive loyalty from the populace.

Loyal locals are an owner's dream, but Columbus's struggles as a hockey market are well-documented. And really, who can blame the fans? One post-season appearance, in which they were swept, in 10 seasons leads to a lot of empty seats. I was on hyper-alert for any hint of a hockey fan. I zeroed in on the guy in the Blue Jackets coat when we grabbed breakfast at Panera one morning. Another in a Jackets t-shirt at at the OSU arena. A hockey equipment store in the northern 'burb where I was staying. And...that's about it.

But we hit the (one and only) hockey bar in Columbus on Saturday night, and lo and behold, shortly after the 8pm puck drop the place filled up. R Bar was standing room only by second intermission and, while there were more than a few OSU-clad fans, the vast majority were in Jackets jerseys. They wore hats and scarves and screamed at the TV. Drinks were decent, our server told me to help myself when I asked if I could have a Blue Jackets pint glass, and there was Leafs graffiti in the bathroom. Just like home... ;)

Game day was the Monday to start a holiday week in the US, so I guess it's not surprising that the announced attendance, just over 11,000, was an exaggeration. Still, it boggles me that you can pick up row six seats for $25 on game day.

Not bad for the "cheap" seats.

There were maybe 30 people watching the warmups (which may explain why there was a close-up of me on SN), and lots of empty seats. This was my first game in a non-sellout building, and it's...different. The crowd was quiet, and it felt really tiny because the stands in Nationwide aren't very steep — it creates a cavernous, empty feel. But there are some definite benefits to a small crowd. I never once waited in a queue for the toilets. During the second intermission, I used the bathroom, went back to my seat to finish a drink, trekked back to the concourse for more beer — where I made friends with the guy in front of me by chatting about how the Jackets can strengthen their fanbase (winning was the consensus) — and was still back in my seat before puck drop. Sorry, wi, I skipped out on the food of choice (which is a "cheese coney," basically a chili cheese dog. And since I don't like pie, I'm sure you can all guess my feelings on that). But the beer...

They sell local microbrew in Nationwide, from Columbus Brewing Company and Great Lakes Brewing, among others. It's not cheap, but arena beer never is, and it was worth the extra dollar or two to avoid the Bud. And like I said, no queue :)

They have their own strange rituals at Jackets games. The crowd tried to get the occasional "Let's go Jackets!" going, but after the first one to start the game, they never got any momentum. Later, a few loud patrons went with "Let's go Clitsome!" and, when that died off, "Get some Clitsome!" which lasted even less time. Sorry, wi ;) After Columbus's third goal, everyone in the place stood up and started chanting "CHILI!" in what was the loudest goal celebration of the night (Apparently a ticket stub gets you free chili at Wendy's if the Jackets score three or more in any game.) No one sings along with Locksley after a goal. Maybe they're still getting used to a new goal song? Or maybe they're just recovering from the cannon. Because the Jackets have a CANNON! And while I heard it too often for my liking on Monday, that's pretty cool :)

(Thanks for inviting me to join the team, wi. I'm very long-winded, so I hope you aren't regretting this already ;) I even have an anti-Canucks post all ready to go in my head for...next week or something.)

hit the post grows again !!!

without consulting my hitthepost bretheren, i've opted to grow the brand yet again by inviting our favorite flames fan from canucksville to join us in the blogging arts.... (hey, it's not like any of duncan, mikeH, jafi OR myself write anymore anyways).

so, sarah ? welcome. write as much as you want, sister.
make us look bad.


PS: we are gonna kill the SHIT out of the arena reports and all sorts of flames-related baking.

;)

arena report: the Joe

three months ago, my friend zak took a trip to detroit. amongst the decay and hardships of the rustbelt, he felt an underlying potential and a true sense of community, and that the city's eventual rebirth would be something truly incredible... he wanted to be a part of it.

within weeks he had an immigration lawyer, a house, and season tickets to the red wings.

november 2nd, i flew into windsor and made it cross-border on public transit's "tunnel bus" in one hour flat. i would've been quicker, but the homeland security agents were (to put it simply) a bunch of fucking douchebags. i don't think they bought my "i'm going to catch the flames play the wings" story until they saw the gio captain jersey in my suitcase.... ;)

the thing with detroit is that it has a pretty bad rap. i'm not saying that there aren't areas to avoid, and i'm not suggesting that there aren't sweeping changes that need to be made or that entire neighbourhoods shouldn't be torn down, but i think zak is onto something. there's a certain optimism in the air and the bittersweet smell of opportunity...

the flames seemed to notice, too, as they took to the ice at the Joe with reckless abandon and a rarely-seen ferociousness, and came away with two well-deserved points. like the city, the redwings fans were hopeful yet beaten-down; acutely aware of the grim desperation of the team's current losing record.

we pre-pre-gamed at the legendary marge's earlier in the day, then we pre-gamed at detroit's anchor bar, and even hit the post (yeah, we did) just before puckdrop. postgame, we wandered to tommy's and had a pint with tommy himself. at the rink, you can get a black and tan for under a tenner, and why wouldn't you !?! who wants to drink bud or molson or labatts when you can get a serious arena pour:


as for the arena snack, well there was lots of talk of the coney island dog being a big draw in hockeytown, but i had myself a little caesar's pepperoni and that certainly felt right on the money. for those unaware: mike ilitch started the pizza company in metro detroit (garden city) in 1959, and used $8mil of his fortune in 1982 to buy the redwings (and the tigers, but this column is about HOCKEY).

[editor's note: i had a great pic of my pizza, the black&tan and the ice surface / lower bowl of the Joe, but i lost my camera in NYC. i apparently lose cameras. it's my "thing"].

the rink is old and storied and dark and, like the other aging arenas in the league, feels like it's all just metal-wrapped concrete. the rafters are dripping with championship banners and the concourse boasts some pretty cool statues (ted lindsay stands out, here) and the pillars are "camouflaged" with player photos that can also be used to recall your section ---i used joey macdonald to find my seat after a quick run to the restroom during a tv timeout.... and while most of the newer league venues have painted their concourses in shades of butters (excel ctr) and creams (prudential), the wall colour of choice in motown is black. hm. go wings.

anyhow... it's a pretty incredible joint, i gotta say. you sortof have to see it to believe it....
:)