Leaderboard

NHL94 Magazin - The Monthly Round Up As playing in a Pinball League i get to know some little Pinball Magzines like the one from PINHEADZ. Having some night-shifts i tried to build one for us... I would need some Input / Infos / News to produce one every month but it might be quite nice having one ... Projekt: How to Fould: 1. 2. 3. 4. PDF Version to PRINT and FOULD at Home: NHL 94 TMRU_Front_Test_#1.pdf NHL 94 TMRU_Back_Test_#1.pdf Just give it a look and tell me if you like it so perhas we could start an Monthly issue of the "The Monthly Round UP". If you already have some input for the next Issue, like new Tournament Dates, Rom Updates, Internet links, most discussed Topics in the Forum ect. just mail it to me: info-KaBa78@e.mail.de Curious about your opinions... KaBa78

I have 'met' the Stanley Cup, when it made its way to my hometown back in 2001. Dan Hinote, graduated two years ahead of me brought it home after he won the Cup with the Colorado Avalanche. They used the cup as a fundraiser for the local hockey association. I got my tickets (my wife then fiance was with me) and we near the front of the line. We quickly realized we had made a crucial mistake. We didn't bring a camera. So strangely, we got to go see the cup, we shook Danny's hand, congratulated him and he seemed to ask are we going to take a picture. I said, sorry, I don't have a camera and said no big deal...I won't forget this! I didn't touch the cup because I didn't win it. He did. Still, my wife and I felt pretty stupid by not having a camera. Oh well, it happens. Another player from my hometown graduated 3 years after me and that was Paul Martin. I've known Paul since he was in elementary school as I had a brother that was a year younger then Paul and they battled each other in a variety of sports. He is perhaps the best pure athlete I've ever personally known. He was outstanding at nearly any sport he ever tried. He played WR as a freshman in HS when I was a senior. I went to a bigger HS and that was something that never happened but Paul was a pretty incredible athlete. In fact I think he held the record for receptions in the state until just recently. He was also an exceptional basketball player and baseball player too. I had a chance encounter with him shortly after he was drafted by the New Jersey Devils and was still going to the University of Minnesota. I didn't talk to him about hockey at all, just talked about being in college mostly. Since he retired from the NHL last year, he's back at the University of Minnesota going to finish off his degree and is helping with the Gophers men's hockey team. Super humble, no ego at all and very nice. I have had other encounters more brief encounters too with NHL'ers too. I interviewed Jordan Leopold for an article I wrote once. Talked to him for a good 40 minutes. Instant replay was just about to be implemented and I asked him if he ever thought about how that may have resulted in him winning a Stanley Cup with the Flames back in 2004. I interviewed Brennan Menell for another article I wrote. He's only had a cup of coffee in the NHL with a few games with the Minnesota Wild but he'll probably get another shot someday with how well he's playing in the KHL right now. A great story of a kid who took the less traveled path to the league by being a Minnesota HS that went to play Canadian Junior, was undrafted but just kept working hard that he earned a pro contract after a strong performance at the team's prospect camp as a tryout. I had a chance to talk with newly minted Wild head coach (at the time) Mike Yeo and young defenseman Jared Spurgeon and Marco Scandella. Those three just were coming off a run to the Calder Cup finals with the Houston Aeros. Coach Yeo talked about how the coaching staff would play against the Black Aces to keep them on their toes after the end of practices during the AHL playoffs. I asked Spurgeon and Scandella if the coaches won those games or if the players did...the players said Yeo and the coaches did and everyone got a bit of a laugh. I met Antti Laaksonen, Brad Bombardir at a Wild fan meet-n-greet during their early years. Great guys, funny and I joked with Brad he might get a job in commercials someday because of his performance in a seatbelt ad he was in. He laughed and now he's working with the Wild as the team's director of player development. I have met former Minnesota North Star and current Wild's radio analyst Tom Reid many times at his restaurant near Xcel Energy Center. He likes to make his way around and talk to customers. I normally would go to his place to watch the NHL draft and he'd ask us about the team and we'd bounce questions off of him. Great food, tons of great memorabilia there too! My wife has met Matt Johnson, Jamie McLennan, and Jeff Nielsen at Reid's after a Wild game. At one point, Tom Reid came down to join the talk between fans and players and a drunk came in wanting to throw a punch at Tom. It didn't go too well for the drunk but despite the stupidity of drunken guy they had a good time teasing one another as a fan brought a Matt Johnson rookie card that amused McLennan who got a kick of how young the enforcer looked. Then perhaps the most surprising one of all was our chance encounter at meeting the majority of the 2003-04 Ottawa Senators team. My wife and I went on Spring Break to Quebec. One of the things we did was go to a Montreal Canadiens game. About halfway through the 3rd period, an Ottawa fan who I had chatted with during the intermission asked me if I wanted to meet the players. At first I thought he was give me a line of BS. I said, "For real?" He said "Yea, do you want to go? We're going to the Ottawa locker room so she can't come in but do you want to go?" I looked back at my wife and she shrugged her shoulders in indecision and said, "Ok, sure why not." So the game ends, (I was wearing my Montreal jersey) my wife had a Minnesota North Stars jersey. He told me to zip up my jacket because of my Montreal jersey and we walked down towards the lower part of Bell Centre. We got to a security checkpoint and I thought we'd find out the guy was a phony but sure enough we were allowed through although they said the players were exiting the locker room so we were allowed to wait near the team bus. We were waiting by the bus and the players started making their way to it and this guy and his friends (where they did memorabilia work as their job) would kind of meet them and they said, "hey these two people came all the way from Minnesota just to see you" and then they'd come over and we'd talk, shake hands. Then (even though I wasn't going to ask) they'd say how about we take a picture, and would you sign their game program. The Senators players were pretty happy since they had won 4-0 and so they gladly took a picture and signed our program. For most of the players the encounter was pretty quick, but for the tough guys; like Rob Ray and Chris Neil they stuck around and we talked for maybe 5-10 minutes. Rob Ray especially liked my wife's North Stars jersey and talked about of his memories fighting against Shane Churla or Basil McRae and we laughed. The guy had just giant meathooks for hands and a cement skull. But they were extremely kind and in good spirits. So over the course of what had to have been about 30-40 minutes we met the following players: Rob Ray, Chris Neil, Marian Hossa, Martin Havlat, Antoine Vermette, Jason Spezza, Patrick Lalime, Radek Bonk, Curtis Leschyshyn, Martin Prusek, Mike Fisher, Wade Redden and Chris Philips. One of the more funny moments was Antoine Vermette (who was a rookie that year), he saw us and asked us to wait while he put his bag and his chicken (all of the players were carrying St. Hubert's Chicken in a box after the game) on the bus and then he ran back out to meet us. We thought it was funny because you could see the players in the bus sort of looking and laughing about it so we wonder if someone played a prank on him. And then someone said the bus was about to get rolling so we were escorted out the back door of the arena and just like that it was all over. I never really had the chance to thank the guy who gave us that opportunity but it was absolutely incredible! Zdeno Chara just walked right by us as did Daniel Alfredsson. Oh well, it didn't matter...it still was an incredible and totally unexpected experience.