Draft weekend

So there's some of my photos from the great weekend. I'm a small town girl so LA was completely overwhelming, and that was even before I stepped outside of LAX. Met up with the boyfriend and the boys from the Face Off Hockey Show on Thursday night and actually turned in fairly early as we'd all gotten up early to catch flights.

Friday we all headed downtown to the Staples Center. They did a great job outside the arena with slapshot contests (Ilan was runner up to win a set of tires), equipment displays by Bauer and Easton, some ball hockey for the kids, merchandise booths, and beer gardens. We met up with Greg Wyshynski, THE Puck Daddy, and Jon Press of Japer's Rink at the ESPNZone restaurant (great burger). From there we went into the Staples Center. They had the Stanley Cup there for fans to take pictures with, but the line was ridiculously long. It was supposed to be available from 2-3:30 but some of the crew went down at like 4:30 and were able to get photos with it and the Official Cup Handler, Phil Pritchard.

Our seats were wayyyyy up in the 300 level, while Wazz and the FOHS had media credentials and were on the floor--lucky bastards. The Draft itself was dreadfully boring. It went on for four long hours. That being said, it WAS cool to see all the pomp and circumstance of the kids getting selected, they go up on the stage and put on the jersey and smile for photos. But the time between picks, the time it took for the kids to hug everyone in the 3 surrounding rows, get to the stage and all that...it just dragged on and on and on. It didn't help that the atmosphere in the place was pretty dead. I've never been to another draft so I don't have much to compare it to, but Wazz has been every year since 2002 and said it was dead. There was not even music played between pics, just dead atmosphere. The crowd got into it when LA picked, and got to booo really loud when Anaheim picked, but that was about it. Lots of excitement when Emerson Etam was selected since he's from LA, but also some boos since it was Anaheim's selection.

It was interesting draft as some guys who were ranked high dropped way down--Cam Fowler, Calvin Pickard to name a few. Other guys who were ranked way low shot up and got selected in the first round, like Dylan McIlrath from Moose Jaw who went 10th overall--totally unexpected.

After Day 1 festivities, we headed over to Q's in Santa Monica (we stayed out in Santa Monica) for booze, food, and apparently TV as they had a tower of TVs over the bar, as well as a TV in each booth. Nutty.

Day 2 of the Draft, way less fanfare.  Very sparse crowd, which helped me get better seats, close to the media riser where Wazz was.  I'm not sure what I was thinking but I didn't take my zoom lens on day 2, didn't want to carry it (it's actually quite heavy).  Why it didn't occur to me that Brooksie or other Americans might be taken and I would need it....no clue.  Before things got started, Wazz and I wandered around the empty concourse, got personalized hockey cards made by the Upper Deck people, got our pictures near the Stanley Cup (couldn't get right up with it on day 2, oh well).  Rounds 2-7 also took 4 hours, but it went by way faster than day 1.  There's no fanfare, just teams making their picks from their tables, in like 5 minutes or less.  Not as exciting as day 1, but also better cuz it went faster.  

Brooks Macek was selected 171st overall, in the 6th round by the Detroit Red Wings.  Ugh, I hate the Red Wings, now I'll have to keep an eye on them.  Because he was there, the NHL and Associated Press got lots of photos of him:

Ugh, too bad it's the Red Wings.  Oh well.

As round 7 was coming to a close, I heard Patrick Holland's name called, he was chosen 193rd overall by the Calgary Flames.  I screamed really loud for him, even though he wasn't there (I don't think anyways, I didn't see him).  So really awesome day for Macek and Holland.  I was surprised Messier or Feser weren't also selected.

After Day 2 draft stuff, Wazz and I went to head back to Santa Monica, but got horribly lost.  LA is too much traffic, too many freeways, and absolutely terrible signage.  Thankfully, as we were nearly to Pasadena we remembered we had the GPS and made our way back, detouring to the nearby Hammer Museum so I could get photos.  It's too bad it is an art museum and not a museum of hammers.  

Once we finally made it back to the hotel, met up with the FOHS boys who had skipped day 2 of the draft for the USA/Ghana game and we all got set to do their draft show, a video show, not just usual radio show.  What a gongshow.  We talked draft, talked Caps (since they're all Caps fans), talked minor leagues, salary cap, and a whole shitload of nonsense in between.  So much fun.  The boys then played some NHL 94 on the Wii, it got pretty heated too, these boys take their video games serious.  Frankly, I'm surprised we didn't get kicked out of the hotel.

We decided to head several blocks down to Gabe's the local sports bar that looked totally shady from the outside.  Sure enough, it was shady.  And cash only and no one had cash.  We ended up around the corner at the Hamburger Habit where after several beers, the grilled pastrami with mustard sandwich was absolutely the best thing I've ever eaten.  Also, unlike Q's, it was not a crazy bar so me and my new friends got to just hang out and be silly without having to yell conversation.  For someone who is hearing impaired, I liked that aspect a lot.

My flight back to Tri-Cities left LAX at 7:20 so we got a brief nap before Wazz had to get me to the airport.  What a whirlwind weekend.  I had a blast, even if the draft itself was...meh.  I made new friends and just had a great time.  Will I go to Minnesota for next years' draft?  Possibly, we'll see as the time gets closer.