Our "puck boys" are back in town at the Allstate Arena. Today is the first game (of three) that the Wolves are wearing their special "College-Style" jerseys which, of course, will be auctioned-off of Sunday. I think they're nice looking, but this is the first promotional jersey that they've worn that I've felt no compelling drive to purchase. The "College Style" to me is just... bland. In the East Lobby, they had the Calder Cup on display (complete with the Wolves championship roster affixed to the appropriate location). The Calder Cup is just so... cheesy-looking. I want a tiered cup, like Lord Stanley's or even the IHL's old Turner Cup (which we won twice) instead of this style.

The Wolves are playing the Manitoba Moose tonight. We enjoy going to these games for two major reasons. The first is to be able to sing the Canadian National Anthem (which we think is the best National Anthem to sing, and Wayne Messmer does a great job of it. Oh, and it's in our key). I know it's a minor thing, but it's fun.

The second thing is because of one specific Moose player: Jimmy Roy (pronounced "Roy" and not "Wah"). We just hate this guy. He's been with the Moose since '97, back in the IHL, back when the Moose were still in Minnesota. He's just a punk. But for some reason, he doesn't act that way on his home ice, so his fans have no idea what he's like when he's in Chicago.

We started taunting Roy starting with the opening face-off. If he was on the ice, we taunted him. When I mean "we", I mean groups of specific fans all around the Allstate Arena. Specifically, it's a chant: "Ro-oy! Ro-oy! Ro-oy! YOU SUCK!!!" It started across the ice by Sock Boy, it went upstairs to The Rafter Rats, and then it would come down to us - The Penalty Box Police. (A side note - That's what our group is called. First, it's our primary responsibility to "police" the visitors penalty box and hassle them as much as we can. Secondly, there are some Chicago Cops in the group, so Penalty Box Police is a bit fitting. We even have patches to wear on our jerseys (yes, we all wear jerseys).) We were chanting in a round. Anytime he was on the ice, we all took turns and hounded him.

Jump forward - it's the end of the second period, Roy is in some kind of skirmish with Dallas Eakins, and the two are being escorted off the ice to keep them apart. It was reported later that Eakins said to Roy "How does it feel to be a career minor-leaguer?'' Well, that just set him off and he gets a 2 minute unsportsmanlike conduct and a 10-minute misconduct. He starts the 3rd period in the penalty box, and , for all intents and purposes, he's ours. We start laying into him, but this time (for a change) he's not really reacting to us (I think that's another reason why we hassle this guy - there was a few times where we got to him, he reacted to us, and we totally took him out of the game. He was ineffective on the ice.) We weren't paying too much attention to the game, we're focused on Roy. Then, at 3:47 into the period, Andre Payette gets a 10-minute misconduct as well. This guy has been in the ECHL and was signed on New Years Eve for a try out. Naturally, we have to get into his head, so we start our taunting - and he reacts. Oh, that's all we need! from then on, it was the hell with Roy, we're after Payette. He reacts often. He was talking to Roy in the box (who remained calm and just served his time), and it was obvious they were talking about the taunting. After it was all over, Jimmy Roy never played another minute in the game (we lost track of Payette).

The Moose goaltender Alex Auld was unfreakingbelieveable in net. He made saves that just seemed totally impossible. In the end, even though he lost 4-2, his 33 saves made him the #1 star of the game. (A great quote from the Winnipeg Sun: Chicago Wolves coach John Anderson summed up Alex Auld's performance as only someone from the Windy City so eloquently can.  "He was playing out of his friggin' mind".)Our goalie, Frederic Cassivi did a pretty good job as well, considering he hasn't seen much action since before Thanksgiving.

Damn it, they've gone and messed-up a GREAT (and one of my favorite) Reality TV Shows!!!!

ABC aired the first episode (of 6) of Celebrity Mole Hawaii. Crap. Good structure, bad implementation. Seven "celebrities" (and I use the term very loosely) in the competition with <shudder> Ahmad Rashad as the host (in place of Anderson Cooper, who is now firmly stationed at CNN, thank you very much. The "celebrities" are Stephen Baldwin (“Usual Suspects”, the only credit for something legitimate), Corbin Bernsen (“L.A. Law” and "Major League"), Michael Boatman (“Spin City” and ""Arli$$), Kim Coles ("In Living Color" and “Living Single”), supermodel Frederique Van Der Wal, Kathy Griffin (“Suddenly Susan”), and Erik von Detten (“Princess Diaries” and another ABC "hit" "Dinotopia"). Ewwww. ( Here's a great quote from Kathy Griffin: "I have gone from 'B-List' to 'D-List,'" she said in an interview. "I skipped 'C' altogether. I jumped right to 'D.'" )

Now, in case you haven't heard, there was a fire December 17th at the Hollywood Center Studios, where the show was being edited. Stone Stanley Entertainment (the production company) had issued a press release just yesterday saying they were able to make the premiere date today!!! (2500 tapes and hundreds of computer hard drives, as well as written logs were completely immersed in 3 feet of murky water used to douse the fire).

The show just doesn't feel right technically. The edits are poor, perhaps because there wasn't enough of recovered footage to make clean, flowing edits. The incidental music feels weird. Maybe they rushed the editing? On top of that, the press release doesn't say anything about the rest of the episodes - are they edited yet? Also, every single commercial break seems to lead with a tease for the next segment which I don't remember the show doing before.

So the first game was called "On The Line". While one player hangs from a zip line 50-feet over a waterfall, the other players must navigate them to buckets placed around the canyon walls. That player must then fill each with water, navigate back and empty its contents into a container counterbalanced with a moneybag that must be raised to win. Stephen Baldwin completes the task quickly. Frederique fails to beat his time, but Michael Boatman succeeds, adding $20,000 of $30,000 possible into the pot. The second game was called "Baa Baa Black Jack" Ahmad, wearing a white cowboy hat, stands behind a blackjack table and deals a hand for himself: a 3 and a queen, totaling 13. The object of the game are for three teams of two to corral 2 of 52 sheep (each marked as a playing card), beating Ahmad's hand. Only Erik von Detten and Frederique succeed in getting two sheep in the pen and win with 19. Because Stephen sat-out, he had a special game: catch "The Mole Sheep" (one wearing the Mole Logo) that is out with the other playing card sheep, and he will double the pot and earn himself an exemption. He does it successfully. Time for dinner and an execution, where we see the familiar Red Thumbprint come up for Kim Coles, and she leaves.

Accomodations Provided by The Fairmont Orchid Hawaii.

I just don't know if I can stomach the bastardization of the show. At least they've kept all of the game elements intact (even the fact that the players keep the money, unheard of in celebrity versions of shows).