Buffalo Bitter

I'll drink to that!

I'm #2!

I think I forgot to post this Top 10 Caniacs video earlier in the season.

Trippisms

Here it is, Caniacs. The year’s best Trippisms.

3/30/2011 his quick release between the legs
3/26/2011 [somebody's] first move is to go down.
3/25/2011 Sooner or later that dam'll burst and they'll just keep on coming.
3/4/2011 You don't want to spend any more time in your own end than you have to.
2/16/2011 Guys just want to bear down for him.
1/13/2011 Just look at that soft area!
1/13/2011 Going to those dirty areas!
1/7/2011 What a release by Eric Staal!
1/1/11 Corvo would like to be underneath Travis Zajak.
12/16/2010 The hurricanes need to get deep
11/13/2010 He and Jeff Skinner go to work down low.
11/11/2010 Briere gets it up.
?/?/2010 The way the Canes were coming, it's surprising there was a lack of...
10/30/2010 Cam thought he was going to have to get vertical.
4/1/2010 Did you see how tight that gap was?
3/31/2010 When he goes down, he stays down for long periods.

OMG! It's a T-shirt!

My OMG eye chart sign has been made into a t-shirt by my friends at Derbylicious.

Farewell, Rod

Rod Brind'Amour announced his retirement today, and like any good Caniac, I am sad.

The trade that brought Rod Brind'Amour to Raleigh was a seminal moment in my hockey fandom. It ultimately led to the birth of Clever Sign Chick because the player we traded for him was Keith Primeau. Primeau's supreme suckitude warranted relentless harrassment, and it was a cause to which I felt compelled to contribute my personal attention and skill with Sharpies whenever he visited Carolina as an opponent thereafter.

I kinda miss harrassing Primeau - he's long gone from the NHL- but not as much as I will miss cheering on the player who personified leadership and dedication as the Captain of the Stanley Cup Champion Carolina Hurricanes: Rod Brind'Amour.

Rod didn't know when he came to Raleigh that he would come to love it here. I hope his new circumstances prove just as unexpectedly wonderful.

Honeymoon

What kind of hockey fan am I? Scheduling my wedding during playoff season? But my husband is an Army Reservist, and he ended up deploying to Iraq two and a half months after the wedding. We really didn't have much of a choice.

We planned a two-day event in the mountains of NC, in a giant cabin and surrounding buildings that would accommodate 75 of our friends and family. As the Canes moved deeper into the playoffs, it became evident that we would have to miss one home playoff game, May 14 against the Devils, the night all the guests were arriving and socializing. The cabin didn't have TVs. Some of our hockey fan guests were ready to drive into Boone to try to catch the game at a sports bar, but we managed to get audio of the game over someone's laptop. My fiance and I were so nervous about the karma of missing the game. Ultimately, it would be the only home playoff game we missed through the whole playoffs. We were greatly relieved to hear Chuck Kaiton call the 4-1 victory.

We had sold our tickets that night to my fiance's boss, who brought his wife. Afterwards, they told us that the other fans in our section were all concerned because "Where is the Sign Chick?" When my fiance's boss explained we were getting married, the reaction was, "Well, did you at least bring the signs?"

Ass-kickin Shoes

You can design your own Chucks at Converse.com.

Irbe

Goalie Arturs Irbe was my first favorite player. I like goalies and short players, and he was both. Whenever he made great saves, the Jumbotron would show "IRBE SAYS NO!"

Dancin' Granny

A fellow Superfan - everyone knows Dancin' Granny.

Ray Must Stay!

It’s been a kiddie roller coaster kind of week for me: going along kind of smoothly at first, then a sudden twist here, a brief high point there, and a then sickening drop which I’m too tall for this ride not to have suspected was coming. I thought I would survive my weekly case of the Mondays, when in the early evening I made the mistake of logging into Facebook and learned that my favorite hockey player, Ray Whitney, is unlikely to return to the Carolina Hurricanes next year.

I was instantly and totally dejected. Completely downtrodden, bummed, angry with the Universe,