Friday, November 18, 2005
Fashion Statements
For now, I’m going to stop pretending I can write Canes game recaps. For that, I leave you in the extraordinarily capable hands of David Lee, whose knowledge of the game – and the Canes in particular – vastly eclipses mine. And, he’s a hella good writer to boot. He’s also one of the few bloggers kind enough to include me in their blogroll; extra points for that.
I’m pretty darned excited about this team, though, and by my decision this year to abandon my beloved Colorado Avalanche in favor of them (“abandon” might be too strong a word; “demote” might be more accurate – I still love the Avs, just not as much as I love the Canes). So, expect continued updates on my experiences as a Carolina Hurricanes fan. Feel free to jump on the bandwagon any time. There’s plenty of room.
And now, on with my regular irrelevant blog post (Cross, you can click away any time now):
Curiously, I don’t own any Carolina Hurricanes swag. Not a sweater, nor even a hat (though I expect that to change once Christmas / Billmas week rolls around). Since I can’t dress up like 80% of Canes fans when I go to games, I have to make do with the clothes I already own.
Last night, I wore a Patrick Roy Avalanche sweater to the game, and a bright orange Yuengling cap (which I was wise enough not to toss on the ice after Kevyn Adams’ hat trick). I took a lot of grief from my buddy Dave, who went to great lengths to point out I was the only one in the building wearing an Avalanche sweater.
Then, midway through the first period, a 15 year-old kid sat down in the row behind us. He was wearing an Avalanche sweater and a bright orange cap.
No kidding.
A couple weeks ago, I went to the Toronto game straight from work. That day, for reasons completely independent of my plans to attend the game that night, I wore a blue and white striped rugby shirt. In the minutes leading up to the game, I was seated comfortably, enjoying a beer, when one of several hundred conspicuously dressed Leafs fans – this one, a “generously proportioned” woman wearing a blue miniskirt, a Leafs sweater, and with her face painted blue on one side and white on the other – winked at me on her way up the stairs. “A Leafs fan, I’ll bet!,” she proclaimed, smiling widely. I shook my head, slowly. “Canes fan. Sorry.”
She slumped her shoulders and frowned like someone had stolen her back bacon.
On opening night, I wore a Saint Lawrence University Skating Saints sweater. I wore it because it was a hockey sweater, and because it was red. The Saints’ logo looks an awful lot like the St. Louis Cardinals’ logo, so it’s understandable that people think I am advertising my allegiance to the Cardinals through my hockey sweater (as little sense as that makes, give these folks a break – they’re sort of new to hockey). And lots of people that night – at least a dozen – asked me if I was, indeed, wearing a Cardinals sweater (duh, please, the Cardinals play baseball).
Between the second and third periods, though, I heard some guy yelling from the “Liquor Drinks Sold Here” booth: “St. Lawrence University! St. Lawrence University!” The guy yelling it looked about my age, and like he might have gone to SLU (he was wearing the standard Larry uniform: khaki ball cap, Lands End button down shirt, Levi 501s). I don’t run into many Larrys down here (or anywhere, for that matter), so I approached him.
“You’re the only person here who recognizes this sweater,” I said.
“I played there!”
“Who are you?” I asked, feeling sort of stupid for doing so.
“Mike Lappin!,” he screamed back at me.
(Mike was yelling, sorta loudly, obviously excited, and might have already visited the “Liquor Drinks” booth one or more times earlier in the game. Hard to tell for sure.)
Well, I knew Mike Lappin! Yes indeedy I did!
Mike Lappin was a Hobey Baker award runner up in 1988. He scored a hat trick in the most exciting hockey game – hell, the most exciting athletic event, period – I have ever attended, a 3-2 victory over Minnesota in the 1988 NCAA Frozen Four semifinals in Lake Placid. His third goal, on a breakaway with just over a minute remaining, absolutely smoked goalie Robb Stauber (who actually won the Hobey Baker award that year) and completely deflated a much larger and stronger Gopher team that would almost certainly have crushed us in OT. Saints fans exploded into a celebration the likes of which I have never seen since – people screaming and embracing each other and rolling down the aisles. It was glorious, that game! And so was Mike Lappin!
And here I was, seventeen years later, in Raleigh, North Carolina, talking to Mike Lappin – THE Mike Lappin – in front of the “Liquor Drinks” booth at the RBC Center. I went on and on and on, recalling Mike Lappin’s incredible heroics in a loud voice that was perfectly appropriate for the setting.
But Mike looked confused. Then, he looked a little sad.
“You’re thinking of my brother, Pete,” he said. “I played there a couple years after my brothers.”
There was an awkward silence. Then I smiled, clapped him on the shoulder, and told him it was good to meet him. I slipped into the crowd and disappeared.
(For the record, I want an authentic Reebok Erik Cole sweater for Christmas / Billmas. Thank you in advance.)
I’m pretty darned excited about this team, though, and by my decision this year to abandon my beloved Colorado Avalanche in favor of them (“abandon” might be too strong a word; “demote” might be more accurate – I still love the Avs, just not as much as I love the Canes). So, expect continued updates on my experiences as a Carolina Hurricanes fan. Feel free to jump on the bandwagon any time. There’s plenty of room.
And now, on with my regular irrelevant blog post (Cross, you can click away any time now):
Curiously, I don’t own any Carolina Hurricanes swag. Not a sweater, nor even a hat (though I expect that to change once Christmas / Billmas week rolls around). Since I can’t dress up like 80% of Canes fans when I go to games, I have to make do with the clothes I already own.
Last night, I wore a Patrick Roy Avalanche sweater to the game, and a bright orange Yuengling cap (which I was wise enough not to toss on the ice after Kevyn Adams’ hat trick). I took a lot of grief from my buddy Dave, who went to great lengths to point out I was the only one in the building wearing an Avalanche sweater.
Then, midway through the first period, a 15 year-old kid sat down in the row behind us. He was wearing an Avalanche sweater and a bright orange cap.
No kidding.
A couple weeks ago, I went to the Toronto game straight from work. That day, for reasons completely independent of my plans to attend the game that night, I wore a blue and white striped rugby shirt. In the minutes leading up to the game, I was seated comfortably, enjoying a beer, when one of several hundred conspicuously dressed Leafs fans – this one, a “generously proportioned” woman wearing a blue miniskirt, a Leafs sweater, and with her face painted blue on one side and white on the other – winked at me on her way up the stairs. “A Leafs fan, I’ll bet!,” she proclaimed, smiling widely. I shook my head, slowly. “Canes fan. Sorry.”
She slumped her shoulders and frowned like someone had stolen her back bacon.
On opening night, I wore a Saint Lawrence University Skating Saints sweater. I wore it because it was a hockey sweater, and because it was red. The Saints’ logo looks an awful lot like the St. Louis Cardinals’ logo, so it’s understandable that people think I am advertising my allegiance to the Cardinals through my hockey sweater (as little sense as that makes, give these folks a break – they’re sort of new to hockey). And lots of people that night – at least a dozen – asked me if I was, indeed, wearing a Cardinals sweater (duh, please, the Cardinals play baseball).
Between the second and third periods, though, I heard some guy yelling from the “Liquor Drinks Sold Here” booth: “St. Lawrence University! St. Lawrence University!” The guy yelling it looked about my age, and like he might have gone to SLU (he was wearing the standard Larry uniform: khaki ball cap, Lands End button down shirt, Levi 501s). I don’t run into many Larrys down here (or anywhere, for that matter), so I approached him.
“You’re the only person here who recognizes this sweater,” I said.
“I played there!”
“Who are you?” I asked, feeling sort of stupid for doing so.
“Mike Lappin!,” he screamed back at me.
(Mike was yelling, sorta loudly, obviously excited, and might have already visited the “Liquor Drinks” booth one or more times earlier in the game. Hard to tell for sure.)
Well, I knew Mike Lappin! Yes indeedy I did!
Mike Lappin was a Hobey Baker award runner up in 1988. He scored a hat trick in the most exciting hockey game – hell, the most exciting athletic event, period – I have ever attended, a 3-2 victory over Minnesota in the 1988 NCAA Frozen Four semifinals in Lake Placid. His third goal, on a breakaway with just over a minute remaining, absolutely smoked goalie Robb Stauber (who actually won the Hobey Baker award that year) and completely deflated a much larger and stronger Gopher team that would almost certainly have crushed us in OT. Saints fans exploded into a celebration the likes of which I have never seen since – people screaming and embracing each other and rolling down the aisles. It was glorious, that game! And so was Mike Lappin!
And here I was, seventeen years later, in Raleigh, North Carolina, talking to Mike Lappin – THE Mike Lappin – in front of the “Liquor Drinks” booth at the RBC Center. I went on and on and on, recalling Mike Lappin’s incredible heroics in a loud voice that was perfectly appropriate for the setting.
But Mike looked confused. Then, he looked a little sad.
“You’re thinking of my brother, Pete,” he said. “I played there a couple years after my brothers.”
There was an awkward silence. Then I smiled, clapped him on the shoulder, and told him it was good to meet him. I slipped into the crowd and disappeared.
(For the record, I want an authentic Reebok Erik Cole sweater for Christmas / Billmas. Thank you in advance.)
posted by Bill Purdy, 11:33 AM
7 Buffaloes were bitter enough to post comments:
Any time you can combine hockey, back bacon, and a rugby shirt (it is 2005, right?) in one article, entertainment is at its peak. Throw in a Mike Lappin sighting, and you've gone beyond the realm of probability.
I need to catch my breath. Where the hell is my paper bag?
xenndugs indeed!
I need to catch my breath. Where the hell is my paper bag?
xenndugs indeed!
Matt, I think the troubador to whom you refer wasn't Mike Lappin (unless you met him during j-term of your post-grad year living at the house).
Indeed, Pete and Tim Lappin played hockey at SLU when we were there. Pete was highly skilled, Tim a bit of a goon (do you recall Tim accused of throwing a log through our living room window one night?).
Mike and his brother, Chris, played at Boston University from 1987-1989, and were heralded as the second coming of Pete and Tim when they transferred to SLU.
The New Lappins no doubt improved the Saints team in the years they played. The 1989-90 squad (their redshirt year, and the year after we graduated) went 13-15-3 and was bumped in the first round of the ECAC playoffs. But in 1990-91 (the New Lappins' first year of eligibility) the Saints went 21-13-1 before losing in the ECAC finals. Their senior year, 1991-92, the Saints fared even better, winning the ECAC with a 22-10-2 record, and making it into the NCAA playoffs.
Mike scored 49 goals and had 72 assists (121 points) while wearing a Saints uniform. Add the 54 points he had at BU, and I get 175 career points (note in the SLU Records page, which says he had 185 career points, Mike has an asterisk by his name). Indeed, Pete had 187 career points, all at SLU.
Mike went on to play for the (now defunct) Raleigh Icecaps of the ECHL. Chris played in Greensboro for a year with the Monarchs of the AHL. I suspect Mike stayed here in Raleigh and became an investment banker or some sort of commodities broker here in Raleigh. Isn't that what all Saints do, eventually?
Indeed, Pete and Tim Lappin played hockey at SLU when we were there. Pete was highly skilled, Tim a bit of a goon (do you recall Tim accused of throwing a log through our living room window one night?).
Mike and his brother, Chris, played at Boston University from 1987-1989, and were heralded as the second coming of Pete and Tim when they transferred to SLU.
The New Lappins no doubt improved the Saints team in the years they played. The 1989-90 squad (their redshirt year, and the year after we graduated) went 13-15-3 and was bumped in the first round of the ECAC playoffs. But in 1990-91 (the New Lappins' first year of eligibility) the Saints went 21-13-1 before losing in the ECAC finals. Their senior year, 1991-92, the Saints fared even better, winning the ECAC with a 22-10-2 record, and making it into the NCAA playoffs.
Mike scored 49 goals and had 72 assists (121 points) while wearing a Saints uniform. Add the 54 points he had at BU, and I get 175 career points (note in the SLU Records page, which says he had 185 career points, Mike has an asterisk by his name). Indeed, Pete had 187 career points, all at SLU.
Mike went on to play for the (now defunct) Raleigh Icecaps of the ECHL. Chris played in Greensboro for a year with the Monarchs of the AHL. I suspect Mike stayed here in Raleigh and became an investment banker or some sort of commodities broker here in Raleigh. Isn't that what all Saints do, eventually?
You have liquor drinks in lower level south?
We have fancier hot dogs, and cooked-to-order hamburgers in lower level north, but no liquor.
We have fancier hot dogs, and cooked-to-order hamburgers in lower level north, but no liquor.
Thanks for the kind words, by the way.
Yep. We have liquor drinks in lower level south. The guy serving them wears a cheap tuxedo vest & looks like a hotel bellman. And he is brutally slow. On the one occasion that I decided to drop $8 on a gin & tonic with lemon (cuz "we're out of lime"), he took so long pouring drinks for the chatty, spiky-haired, satin shirt-wearing, double ear-ringed, nightclub bartender in front of me that I had to bail lest I miss the puck drop for the third period. I disavowed liquor drinks at the RBC everafter.
Beer is vastly better, anyway, under just about any circumstance. Even at $8.50 a pop. Is there any vendor in lower level north who sells Yuengling?
Beer is vastly better, anyway, under just about any circumstance. Even at $8.50 a pop. Is there any vendor in lower level north who sells Yuengling?
I think we have Yuengling on "the deck" (between sections 111-112), but I'm not 100% sure. I usually drink Highland Oatmeal Porter (only available on "the deck") or Bass. Despite all my efforts, I cannot refrain from getting the second beer.
Since I don't drink Yuengling, I don't pay specific attention to whethere it's there or not, but it seems like I've seen it. I'll have a definite answer for you after tonight's game.
Since I don't drink Yuengling, I don't pay specific attention to whethere it's there or not, but it seems like I've seen it. I'll have a definite answer for you after tonight's game.
2 weeks since you posted. And you don't have a job. Huh!