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| The game underway. |
We have just returned home from our first hockey game. The local team, the Kamloops Blazers, were playing rivals Kelowna Rockets in the WHL(Western Hockey League) which is one level down from the NHL. What a great night we had!!
It was a full house, and our seats were only 3 rows from the rink, but behind the commentary box and the sin bins! This was no problem at all as we could see everything and we got to see all the naughty ones up close!
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| The family. |
The crowd was totally behind the home team, and even when Kelowna scored the reaction in the crowd and on the screens was minimal! When Kamloops scored, though, there was music and lights and it was all very exciting!
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| I thought this guy had it all worked out! |
To be honest, I still haven't learned much about this game, which is no real surprise given my sporting ineptitude! But I did learn that the game is in three 20 minute periods, and that there are 6 aside on the ice at any one time, but another 13 or so on the bench waiting to change in, which they do frequently. There are four refs whose skating skills were AMAZING, and make me want to learn to skate! They were beautiful!
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| More of the game |
We saw no blood, but were interested in the 'fighting' that did go on once the game warmed up. There seemed to be two different ways this took place. One was an attack, which was quickly stopped by the refs and earned the players a 2 minute suspension. The other was much more exciting. With great drama two players would rip off their helmets and mitts, and throw them on the ice along with their sticks. Two refs would then approach and supervise a fight (usually about 15 seconds) between the two until someone fell and the other jumped on them. They earned a 5 min suspension for this.
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| Sustenance! |
We enjoyed the atmosphere greatly, with music, prizes and local First Nations cultural interludes. The game snacks were also appreciated!
We were warned over the loudspeaker to be aware of the puck as it could come off the rink and into the crowd. Before we knew it a lady had been hit by it. I found it very difficult to see let alone follow the puck. A sitting duck??
ok, who is the dude with the orange lycra on his head???
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad he was in the picture! There were two of them in orange morph suits supporting the Kamloops team. At the start they were near us, and everytime a Kelowna player got sent to the sin bin they would climb all over the glass around the player to annoy them. They were a bit spiderman-like! They moved around during the game to various spots.
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