The Springfield Jr. Blues? More like, "It's time for a little snooze!"

This past weekend, my wife, her best friend Melody and I were finally able to meet our best friend Jessica’s new boyfriend, Mike. The evening started off great as we chowed down at our “usual” hangout – Buffalo Wild Wings!

Dinner was phenomenal as the Teriyaki and Honey BBQ wings RULED! The conversation was good as well; Mike seemed to hold up well against the bombardment of questions asked by Melody and me. As soon as we all felt ridiculously full, it was onto the main event of the evening: A Springfield Jr. Blues Hockey game!

Mind you, I’m not a hockey fan. Baseball, Football and NASCAR are laden with a multi-faceted coolness, but with hockey, I really only care about one thing: fighting. And what better way is there to catch a fight than by putting a bunch of just barely post-pubescent young men into an ice rink and letting them attempt to slap a puck around. You read that right: attempt.

The game itself was rather boring as the Jr. Blues really didn’t seem to have much team cohesion. There were many times when they would have a shot at the goal only to fall down while raising their stick up to shoot. There weren’t many passes, and they weren’t very aggressive on defense. What’s left to cheer for?

The announcer did an awesome job of trying to excite the audience; his voice was awesome! The music they played between whistle blows was really good, too. If it were not for these two auditory aspects, the game would have been much, much worse. Even so, there was little to no excitement on the ice.

I spent most of the third period looking for good photo opportunities rather than watching the game itself. But then, with a mere 3 minutes left in the game, the fights finally began!

Of course, the refs stopped any fights from really happening. Bummer. The Jr. Blues ended up losing 3-0, and all I got from it was this semi-decent picture. I've also determined the best place to watch a hockey game is from one end of the rink. It actually made that portion of the game somewhat more exciting because I was that much closer to the action.

The evening wasn't a total loss, though. After the game, we all headed to Starbucks for some hot chocolate which was absolutely delicious!

The moral of this story is: Instead of watching a hockey game to have fun, just hang out with good company! It's cheaper and there's more interaction.

~ N.