Frozen Four Fun

Last night we fought traffic and headed downtown to the Verizon Center, which is playing host this weekend to the Frozen Four college hockey tournament. The Friday Night at the Frozen Four event was a skills competition, as well as some award presentations... most noteably the Hobey Baker Award, presented each year to the best college hockey player in the nation.

We grabbed dinner first and then headed inside to scope out the seating situation. (The tickets were general admission, so no assigned seats.) Three things struck me right off the bat when we walked down a tunnel into the arena.

1 - Our hockey friends who had moved way far away and who we knew were in town for this event were standing at the end of the tunnel. We had planned to try to find them last night, so that made it really easy.

2 - All the Capitals banners that hang from the rafters, as well as the Canadian flag (?!) had been taken down, and had been replaced by all the championship banners since the start of the Frozen Four. That means there was one for BGSU's 1984 championship!! :)

3 - There were lost of Boston University people there. LOTS!

We settled into some good seats, and waited for the Hobey Baker presentation. We saw George McPhee (1982 Hobey winner, BGSU graduate, and current GM of the Capitals) come out when the families of the three finalists came out to the presentation area. When the host started talking, we realized we were experiencing a first... we were part of a live audience as the presentation show was being broadcast on ESPNU. Pretty cool.

The three finalists were introduced and we saw video footage of their hockey accolades. Interestingly, the finalists included a forward, a defenseman, and a goalie. While we, of course, had a soft spot for the goalie, we were kind of rooting for the defenseman from BU to win. He seems like a really good kid. The other kid from BU seemed kind of arrogant. But what do we know?

Anyway, in the end, the kid we were rooting for won. :) George was interviewed during the show, as was the 1984 Hobey winner. Very cool.

Then it was on to the skills competition. All the "kids" out there (male and female) looked like they were having a great time. The skills competition was set up much like the one at the NHL All-Star game, so the events were familiar to us. I'm sure we saw some future NHL players on the ice last night. Too bad women can't play in the NHL... some of those "girls" had some sick skills!

Keeper Boy got some autographs afterward, and he thought that was very cool. All in all a great experience. Hubby and Keeper Boy get to go back tonight for the championship game. A teammate of Hubby's gave us two tickets! I don't know if they'll cheer on Miami (a team in the CCHA, just like BGSU) or the favored Boston University. But either way, I know they'll have a blast. I'm a little jealous.