Brahmas!

I'm getting more addicted to hockey. Today's excursion isn't helping my addiction. Well, maybe in a wicked, sordid way it is, but still, it's getting bad.

I have no doubt there are VERY avid hockey fans out there that know waywayWAY more than I do about hockey in general, to include everything from incept to current about all kinds of hockey stats, teams, The Cup. These people in all likelihood know lots & lots about more than just the NHL. There's IJHL, USHL, IHL and the CHL and all kinds of HL's. Keeps a girl's head spinning!

Since my Stars FAILED, I haven't given up on watching the Stanley Cup playoffs. Hopefully a U.S. team will win, but I'm kinda hoping Vancouver does something, too. Not sure why -- possibly because I learned about Mats Sundin and now I have mucho respect for that dude.

Anyway, today, I attended the CHL's Texas Brahma's (formerly Fort Worth Brahmas) game three championship game against the Colorado Eagles. It was much very so fun! Our seats sucked, but one of the nice thing about a venue like where we were is that people are moving around all the time, so we got to scooch over a bit in order to see the whole ice. Literally someone had taken a sharpie marker and wrote 1, 2, 3,.... for the seat numbers on the metal bleachers.

Do you even know what a Brahma is?! No, it's not the Hindu God of Creation in this case. This is Texas, people. What do we have in Texas?? On to other important game notes....

Top Five Things I Liked About This Hockey Game

1. The intimacy. Very close setting. A sign was posted on the outside of the door to our seating section that said "Be Careful of Flying Pucks". When I read that, I was so wishing I was wearing a goalie's mask or had brough my baseball glove!

2. Staying true to hockey roots, the world was represented. The fact that the Texas, United States AND the CANADA flags were all represented was awesome. Why there's a Canadian flag in a conference that includes only the states of Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Colorado, and Kansas is rather fascinating to me. Add to the mix that most of the players had last names that suggest non-American born status. Not saying they're not American, I'm saying their names were on the international side of the fence. (I'm crushing on Kuninnen already, and I'm inclined to cheer for 27 since that's the date of my birth. Then I was digging #26....)

3. The fan participation. Whenever the Brahams scored a goal, it appears the tradition is to throw little foam bulls the size of your fist onto the ice. Then the little kids skated out with ice brooms to collect them for later use. I paid $4.00 US for two of them. With that purchase came a raffle ticket to win a game puck. For every goal scored in the game (this one was 6-2, Brahmas), they drew that many tickets. We didn't win. Fans took off their shirts, rang cowbells (how Texan of us, huh? How predictable.), and chanted "you suck" whenever they got the chance.

4. Although I didn't have one because the very thought of what goes into them grosses the holy hell outta me, the hot dogs were HUGE. I mean, these things had GIRTH. And they were reasonably priced. If it were winter, and they were bears, I think the hotdogs shared between my family would likely sustain them for winter hibernation. Most of the food was reasonably priced and a good-size portion.

5. Nice folks. At a Stars game, the crowd can be judged as pretentious. The girls that go there have a reputation of being available for pick up, and dress to the nines. Considering how much tickets to pro games are around here, it's definitely a game for the well-to-do. So the folks at the minor league game are just folks. They might be classified as working class, redneck, mom & pop, yeehaws. My family falls into that "working class" category.

Top Five Things I Did Not Like About This Game

1. Right next to where we were sitting were two game consoles that were very distracting and disruptive. An XBOX NHL game was available to play, and a PS3 motorcycle game was available as well. The effing motorcycle game would rumble even when no punk 10 year old was playing it. Grrr!

2. The seats we had were desperation seats that had a horrible view except if you were sitting right next to that which is described above. The seats were $10 US each, and My Little One got in free because she could sit on my lap. While we were able to lean against the back of the arena for extra back support, there was a small enough crevice between the bleachers and the wall where My Little One's puppy pull over is forever lost to the Under Bleacher Depths of Hell. Even if it could be retrieved, um, no. Not going down there. *I* might never make it back!

3. The lines to the bathrooms are too long! (Isn't that true for just about every major public venue?)

4. The P.A. system sucked balls. The announcer with a burly voice was muffled. The next big investment needs to be improving that sound system.

5. The arena is a shared event arena. A teenager volleyball tournament was going on in the arena across the walkway from the hockey game. It'd be nice if the minor league team could have their own venue and not have to share it with the high schoolers. The high school across the street from the venue is the size of a community college. Certainly they can have their own sportsplex!

Overall, this was a supersofun experience. The drive out there wasn't bad, especially since we got our new hybrid. The metroplex endured quite the thunderstorm event yesterday, so today's weather was lovely. Cool, even brisk. The kids both napped on the way to the game, so they were perked up and not grumpy while watching -- what a blessing!

I'm gonna keep an eye on the rest of this series. Hopefully you'll cheer for the Brahma's, too!