Alfie's 1000th game

The term "warrior" can figuratively be describes as "a person who shows or has shown great vigor, courage, or aggressiveness, as in politics or athletics".

Does everyone cheer for Daniel Alfredsson? Well, not if you're a Leafs fan. But, those that are a part of Sens Army know that even though there are haters out there, Daniel Alfredsson will always be a warrior.

Through the end of the 2009-2010 season, there were only 250 players that have played 1000 NHL games in their career. Daniel Alfredsson became number 251. However, only the 44th to accomplish the feat having played all of his games with a single team.

On April 10th, 2010, after playing his 1000th game on the road, a celebration occurred in the Senators first home game back. There was to be a special ceremony held before the game to commemorate the event.

Diane and I headed to the arena and met up with my sister to see if we could catch some of the players as they arrived at the arena. There was only one player left on the team that I hadn't met yet, but I really didn't expect him to stop. It was Chris Neil, and he was almost always one of the first players to arrive.

There were five of us waiting before the game and it was a gorgeous day. For some reason Neil was late to show up. Was he playing that night? Maybe he was going to be scratch and we wouldn't see him show up at all. A few players began showing up. Pascal Leclaire was nice enough to stop and sign for the others waiting. I didn't have anything for him to sign. After a few other players drove by, Neil showed up.....and stopped!!!! Wow, I couldn't believe it. I heard he had gotten a lot worse than he was before. He was nice enough to sign a couple of photos for me and let me take a picture with him.

It was great finally meeting Chris Neil, but we were all waiting for Alfie. Soon enough, a camera man came outside to wait for Alfie as well. This was great news because I knew Alfie would stop for sure. If he didn't, he would look like a total jerk on television. Sure enough, he stopped and signed and took pictures as well.

After all the players arrived, we headed to the Local Heroes located in the Scotiabank Place. When we walked into the arena, we looked at the seats and saw that each seat had been decked out with a "Alfie 1000th game" t-shirt.

I must say that the arena pretty awesome with everyone wearing the same colour shirt. It made me feel like we were in a playoff game. I really wish the Sens would pony up and give everyone a shirt for a playoff game a la Pittsburgh Penguins "white out". It makes the stadium look amazing.

The game had a great atmosphere. When the Sens took the ice, they all had their own number on their sleave, but all wore #11 on their backs. It was quite the site. Alfie's number was all over the arena... on the boards.... behind the net. Everywhere.

After a bit of game time, a special guest was shown on the jumbo screen. Olympic athlete and double medalist from the 2010 Vancouver game, Kristina Groves, was at the game! Those of you who know me know that I had to try and grab a picture with her. It wasn't hard at all. I went down to the 100 level and went near the box she was in and, much the same way with Gordie Howe, there was a small lineup beside the box for pictures and autographs. I didn't have anything for her to sign, but I got my picture with her.

Later in the game, my sister called me and told me that they had showed Cuba Gooding Jr. on the big screen. If you read my last blog entry, you know that I have already met him, but I figured I would try and find him and see if I could get a second picture with him. I quickly spotted him in a suite at centre ice in the 100 level. He was sitting his his bodyguard and stunt double. Unfortunately, they showed him on the jumbo screen also, and that was the end of me being able to get a picture with him. Now that everyone knew where he was sitting, it would be very hard to get near him.

I figured we should try anyways. We headed down to the 100s again to see if Cuba was in his box. Sure enough, he was....but, I did get a picture with this guy who happened to be in the same section.
Now, why is there a border around this photo you ask? Well, that would be because his people don't allow you to take a picture with your own camera. There is a photographer with him and you must then e-mail the person with the photo number they provide you, and ask for the photo.

Perhaps the best part of meeting the prime minister was seeing the look on his bodyguard's face when he asked Diane if she wanted a photo also and she told him no way.

It was a great game, unfortunately the Sens lost, but the game will be remembered more for the celebration that happened before the game.

Alfie is a true warrior and I hope he has many more games in him.

Sacrifice

In order to meet athletes, it is necessary to do one of the following: wait before or after a game, go to a practice, or go to the hotel the players are staying at. All of those things require time. Now, when waiting for other celebrities, there is no time frame. You could be waiting for hours and hours, or you could meet them with little waiting at all. Take the following as proof.

For those that are unaware, there is a movie being filmed in Ottawa called Sacrifice. It stars Cuba Gooding Jr. as a cop who gets involved in a dangerous heroin ring. It also has a cameo appearance by Christian Slater.

Now, I don't know if you know, but A-list celebrities don't usually come to Ottawa. I can only recall a few times over the course of my life where a movie has been filmed here. Most notably, a movie starring Pierce Brosnan was filmed in Gatineau. That being said, I had to try and meet these guys.

I headed down to the market where they were filming on Friday. More specifically, they were filming at St. Brigid's. This used to be a church but is now used as an Irish Community Centre. They were to film a scene outside involving a burning statue of the virgin Mary. I had already printed a few pictures of Cuba Gooding Jr., but had yet to get any of Christian Slater. I met up with my buddy Steve who told me that he would give me a picture to get signed if I tried to get one signed for him as well. If he only signed one, I could keep it. No problem. I arrived at around 4:30pm and met up with Steve who decided he should go and move his car in order to avoid a parking ticket. Within two minutes of him leaving, Christian Slater exited the church and walked to his trailer. I quickly walked across the street and asked if I could get a photo with him. "Sure buddy, no problem."

After Steve came back I decided it was best if he passed me the two pictures just in case something similar happened again. Within about a half an hour, Mr. Slater came back out of his trailer to go back inside to shoot. One problem - it was slightly raining. This is not good for photos, autographs, and in his case, costumes. Therefore, he quickly signed one photo for Steve and told us he was sorry but had to hurry inside. However, within an hour or so, the rain had stopped and Mr. Slater happen to come back outside and head to his trailer again. I can honestly say that he is one of the most down to earth guys I have ever met - especially for an actor. This time he had no problem signing Steve's other photo and my two photos. This is the one that I chose to keep.

Now, Friday wasn't a very warm day. After a great Easter weekend, it felt like winter again here in Ottawa. We thought it would be best to sit in the car and wait to see if Cuba would show up. We weren't sure if he was to be on set that day, but from the description of the scene, we assumed it was important enough for him to be there. Sure enough, around 7:00pm he arrived. A black SUV pulled up right beside his trailer, threw on its 4-ways, and out he popped. Steve and I ran outside to go meet him, but he had already headed into his trailer.

There were four of us that were waiting for Cuba to come out. One guy was pretty cool and then there was this other guy who felt the need to tell everyone who asked what was happening that Cuba was in his trailer and that we were waiting for him. Sure enough, the number of people waiting grew. We were now up to 9 people waiting. The director then decided it was time to tell us that we couldn't bother Mr. Gooding. I had the feeling that if we were still just four people that we would've been fine. When Cuba came out, we let him walk right by us and respected the wishes of the staff, even though he took his time and talked with some of the people that were hanging around the set including Kenny B from Hot 89.9.

It was now dark outside. Gun shots could be heard coming from inside the church and it was really cool to see how some of the things on set were run. After a few hours, Cuba came back out, jumped into the black SUV, drove about 20 feet to his trailer and got out and headed inside. Unbelievable. One of the ladies on set told us that he was getting ready to film the climax of the movie and that it was his wish to have that happen.

After another hour or so, he came out of his trailer and headed back into the church. We then though it was time to head to the other side of the church to see the scene being filmed. It was a bit tough to hear what was being said, but I found it really cool that a movie was being filmed right in front of us.

After the scene was done being filmed, both Cuba and Christian headed across the street to where everyone was watching and took pictures with everyone. It was cool to get photos with both actors in costume.
Unfortunately, Cuba didn't sign any autographs and headed back around the church to his trailer. Steve and I decided to follow him and waited outside. His stunt double Tierre came out after a little bit (one of the coolest guys on set), and told us that Cuba wouldn't be signing and that he had signed enough. We told him that he hadn't signed at all for us. Tierre took a photo from each of us and went into the trailer. He almost immediately came back out and said that Cuba was on the phone and that he didn't want to bother him. He appologized and gave us back our pictures.

Its amazing how similar Cuba and Tierre look.

After a few minutes Cuba came out and told us sorry and that he was done for the day. I quickly said please and that he hadn't signed for us at all. He asked if I was sure that I hadn't gotten an autograph in the last two days. I was sure. I told him he could even write to Brian if he was afraid I was going to try and sell the photo. He came to me and signed my photo and immediately left without signing for the other two guys. I was very fortunate that it turned out as good as it did.
We ended up being on the set for nearly 9 hours, but I can't wait to see the movie now that I have had the experience of seeing it being filmed and meeting the actors. I can't wait for it to come out next year!

Sens Army

I figured that since I had been meeting other teams all season that it was time to actually meet the home team. With that though in mind, I took Thursday morning off work and heading down to the Sens practice at the Bell Sensplex.

I got to the arena at around 9:30, just in case some of the players decided to show up early. Now, the funny thing about practices at the Sensplex are that the Sens get dressed in their equipment at Scotiabank Place and then drive over to the practice arena in their gear. Seeing players drive up in full gear (including helmets), except for skates, is one of the funniest things I've seen from professional hockey players.

There were four of us waiting for autographs before practice. It was actually a good thing too, not because I needed help knowing who the players were, but because three or four carloads of players would all arrive at the same time. Its tough to get more than one guy ata time when you are by yourself.

Players began showing up shortly after ten o'clock. I had already met some of the team so I let a bunch of players go by without bugging them. I did grab autographs from Erik Karlsson and Alexei Kovalev before the practice. Karlsson was a great guy. I guess its good to get players early on in their career before they become superstars, that way they still have a nice graph. Soon his signature with just be "EK". I'm almost sure of it. The AAA bantam tournament was happening at the Sensplex at the same time as the Sens practice and people soon began to notice. Crowds filled the practice arena to watch. I decided I would head back outside after a short while to make sure I didnt miss any of the players as they came off the ice.

After the practice there was only myself and one other guy waiting for players. Most of them were more than happy to sign autographs. Spezza, Carkner, Regin, Sutton, and Cullen all signed for me after practice. Alfie and Phillips didnt practice on that day, and for some reason Fisher, Volchenkov, and Neil decided that they didn't want to sign on that day. I hear that Neil is actually a pretty bad signer. He just ignored us when we called him to ask for a signature. Strange how the good players signed.

Superman's Dead

Sure, he died in the comics and then came back or something like that, but this title refers to the hit song by Our Lady Peace.

I first saw OLP way back at the very first Edgefest at Lansdowne Park. They were headligning the event along with Collective Soul, I Mother Earth (their last tour together) and Tea Party. It was an all day show and was great.

For those who aren't that familiar with the band, I will give a brief background. OLP is an alternative rock band that formed in Toronto in 1992. The band has sold over five million albums worldwide, won 4 Juno awards, and won ten MuchMusic Video Awards - the most MMVA's ever awarded to any group or artist. Thank you wikipedia for those stats.

Now, what surprised me even more about the whole situation was that they were performing at Centrepoint Theatre, about five minutes from my house. Centrepoint Theatre is a very small facility and makes it pretty easy to meet celebrities there. So, when I heard about the concert I figured I would swing by and see if I can meet them.

It wasn't great weather for waiting around outside. There was a slight drizzle and I was worried that my picture or the autographs might get ruined, or worst of all, what if the band decided that they didnt want to stop and sign?

We waited around after the concert for about an hour and a half and talked waiting for the band. Finally they came out and each band member signed my picture. There was a seller there also with eight pictures to try and get signed and he only got one signed as well. The guys seemed really nice and chatted it up with a few fans that were also waiting.

Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for my next blog about the Ottawa Senators.

Easier than shooting fish in a barrel...the Edmonton Oilers

I never realized how easy it is to meet certain teams. This was exactly one of those times. After the Leafs practiced at the Mastercard Centre for Excellence (still a terrible name considering it's the Leafs' facility) the Edmonton Oilers were scheduled to practice in the same rink. Let me rewind a bit first.

After the Leafs had entered the arena to practice, one of the e-bay sellers was telling people that Edmonton was having an open practice at the Ricoh coliseum and that it was open to the public. My sister's boyfriend looked at me right away and I mouthed that the guy was full of shit. I later heard that the Tampa Bay Lightning had practiced there earlier in the week and around 30 people had shown up. I guess the sellers had gotten screwed because they couldn't get as many things signed as they would have liked. Still, what an ass the guy was for trying to get people to leave.

Shortly after the Leafs had started practicing, we saw Shawn Horcoff walking through the lobby of the MCE. I wish I had my pictures on me at the time because everything we had was in the car. We went outside to grab them and just in time as another cab was pulling up. Out came Oilers captain Ethan Moreau and Sam Gagne. Both were great guys and signed everything for everyone.

Sam Gagne pretty much did a sit down signing for all the collectors. I swear he even did a last call and everything.

After this we decided it was time to go outside to try and grab the rest of the Leafs. After a couple of minutes of waiting we saw the Edmonton Oilers bus pull up to the players entrance. Unfortunately we weren't able to get anywhere near them on the way in. Things would get better though as the security would leave right after all of the Leafs were gone. Amazing. We were able to walk right into the arena to watch the Oilers practice, but fans weren't the only ones there.

A huge surprise to the afternoon was meeting one of the guests that was in attendance.... none other than Oiler great Paul Coffey. He was there with his two sons and in a bit of a hurry, but I was able to get an autograph on an oilers logo.

After the practice was done a lot of the collectors went outside to wait by the bus for the players to exit the arena. My sister, her boyfriend, myself and one other guy decided to see how close we could get to where the Oilers locker room was though. It was raining outside and we didn't want to get our pictures all wet. Sure enough, we were able to walk down the stairs and stand pretty much right beside the locker room. The only thing were were told was to make sure we were on the stairs. No problem. There we were able to call over players as they came out of the locker room.

Pat Quinn was doing interviews for the media immediately under us before we went down the stairs.

Some of the players that left the ice early had already gone out to the bus. Unfortunately, we missed Dustin Penner, Fernando Pisani, and Shawn Horcoff. Oh well. There were still plenty of guys to meet. The first player we met was Jeff Deslauriers. The guy was tall. Nice guy. Was happy to sign and take pictures.


We then grabbed pictures with Andrew Cogliano and Mike Comrie. Too bad Hilary Duff wasn't around.
Right after that, head coach and coach of the gold medal winning Team Canada World Junior team (last year), Pat Quinn, came by. I guess you have to be that big to end the career of a legend like Bobby Orr.
The last guy that came out of the room was a former member of the Sudbury Wolves, Zack Stortini. He was awesome as well, willing to sign and take pictures.

I guess if your team is in the basement of the NHL your players are happy to sign for everyone! But, like my sister's boyfriend said, it was easier than shooting fish in a barrel.

As a quick bonus picture, the three of us went to Brampton to catch the Battalion game and met injured CHL 2009 player of the year Cody Hodgson.

This guy will definately be a star with the Canucks if he can stay healthy.

Stay tuned for the next post....

Puttin' on the foil with the Toronto Maple Leafs

What a day!!! On Friday, we decided to take a vacation day off work and head down to Toronto to see if we could catch the Leafs at practice. I heard its a good idea to get there early, so we arrived at the Mastercard Centre for Hockey Excellence at 9am. The practice wasnt until around noon. We stood right beside the door where the players would enter as we had never been to the facility and were unaware of the security procedures.

Before security came, we saw head coach Ron Wilson park and head towards us. He said "Hi guys" and I was thrown right off guard. I though Wilson was a cold guy, so I was surprised when he spoke to us. I quickly asked him if I could get a picture with him and he said "No, no pictures". Again, I was caught off guard lol.

When security finally came they told us that we had to stand at the curb at the end of the parking lot. We would then need to yell to the player and ask if we could grab a signature and if they said yes we would be allowed to go to them. There were only about seven of us waiting for autographs and it was clear that these guys were sellers as I was told they were there everyday.
Many of the players seemed to just ignore us as they walked into the practice facility, as the players that arrived early were closer to the doors and farther away from us. Many of these guys I would try and meet on the way out after practice.

As more and more guys started showing up, they began to acknowledge us and some stopped to sign for us. J.S. Giguere was a great signer as he was the first player I got on that day.

Mikhail Grabovski was a great guy also. He had no problem signing and stopping for pictures.

Phil Kessel on the other hand, was a complete jerk and wouldnt sign for anyone or even acknowledge that we existed as he walked by us. We then saw "The Monster" Jonas Gustavsson who didnt say anything but had no problem stopping to sign and take pictures.


As for the rest of the guys, Dion Phaneuf gave us the old "I'll get you guys on the way out". Same story from Beauchemin. Damn. As all of the players had finally arrived, we heading into the MCE to watch. We quickly noticed that a lot of the guys weren't on the ice. Phaneuf, Kessel, Kaberle, Orr, Beauchemin, and a few others didnt take to the ice. We watched for a short while and then figured we should head back out to see if maybe those guys were going to leave early. Unfortunately, we missed them all. They had all already left. Balls.

I was able to get a few guys on the way out though. I didnt have too many pictures for guys to get signed, but I was able to grab an autograph from Luke Shenn.

I was also able to grab photos with others on the way out. I got a picture with Nikolai Kulemin, Carl Gunnarsson, Wayne Primeau, John Mitchell, Garnet Exelby, Jamie Lundmark. I also was also able to grab a photo with injured Mike Komisarek. On a side note, he is pretty bitter towards the Habs I guess. He wouldnt sign any Montreal stuff.

One last picture I wanted to show was with Notre Dame standout and current Leaf, Christian Hanson, who just happens to be the son of Dave Hanson from the movie Slapshot!!! He said that he won't watch the NCAA Frozen Four now that Notre Dame is out.


Stay tuned for my next blog....the Edmonton Oilers!

Unbe-leaf-able - JS Giguere, Colton Orr, Wendel Clark, Alex Pietrangelo, Stefan Della Rovere

I know... a terrible title, especially for all of us that live in Ottawa. My sisters boyfriend, however, is a huge Toronto Maple Leafs fan. I had found out about a free autograph session Centre Sports in the ACC with the resident tough guy, Colton Orr, and one of the new Leafs, J.S. Giguere.

We left Ottawa at around 5 am in order to make sure we would be at the store before its opening at 10am as a "wristband" policy was in effect. This meant that the first 80 fans that made it to the store would receive a blue wristband and a guaranteed autograph. Everyone else would receive a numbered yellow wristband and would only receive and autograph if time permitted.

We made it to the store early enough to grab the blue wristband, looked around the store for a bit and then headed into the city. The Q&A and autograph session wasn't until 2pm. We headed to the Eaton's Centre to look around for a bit and then went to Wayne Gretzky's for lunch before returning to the ACC.

When we returned, there were roughly 75 people in front of us in line for the Q&A, which meant we wouldnt have a great spot to see the players. The players were about fifteen minutes late for the 1 hour event. C'mon Leafs.... late for the Q&A and autograph session.... always late for the playoffs etc. The most notable question asked was "how much of a hard-ass will Wilson be on Monday at practice after bringing home the silver medal". After a brief Q&A the autograph signing started. Again, like most sessions, there were no posed photos with the players.

After the signing we tried to figure out what to do, so we looked for any junior games that were being played around the area. We only had one game to choose from: the Barrie Colts against the Niagara Ice Dogs. And hey, we found out about a signing in Alliston, Ontario, on the way to Barrie with Maple Leaf great Wendel Clark. We had a problem though, nothing for him to sign.

Panicking, we tried to find an internet cafe to try and download a photo which we would then take to Wal-Mart to get printed. There were none near us. Next plan, take my sister's I-phone and download a picture and somehow try and extract that at the photolab. She had her hookup for her phone which had a USB hookup which helped. We found a good picture and booted it to Wal-Mart to get some prints. Sure enough the USB and the printer couldn't read the I-phone. So, what did we end up doing? We bought a memory stick, took one of the demo computers in Wal-Mart, hooked the I-phone up to the computer and copied the picture to the memory stick. Somehow I felt that this might not have been appreciated had the staff known what we did. We then hurried to Alliston and made it just in time for the signing.

We then headed to the Barrie Molson Centre for the game and luckily I had already had some prints done for this Friday's upcoming game in Ottawa against Barrie. Having never been to the arena, we didnt really know where to meet some players after the game, so we tried to find the token crazy fan with autographs all over their jersey. Sure enough, he told us where to go after the game. The one problem we had was that Alex Pietrangelo, the Team Canada defenceman and 4th overall pick in the 2008 draft. He had been suspended earlier in the week for throwing water at a referee after a disputed call. I figured he would be somewhere in teh crowd, and sure enough, we spotted him in the media box. Because the arena is so small, the media must go down through the crowd to exit.

With about two minutes to go in the game, we headed to where the players would come to sign autographs. With about a minute left in the game Pietrangelo came our way to head down to the dressing room and I was able to get a picture signed by him.

One by one, the players began coming up the stairs to sign for the fans. We were then able to get Stefan Della Rovere on a picture again.

A pretty good day for autopraphs.