If hockey won't come to me, I'll go to hockey.

This past weekend I made the second of my usual twice a year trips to Toronto, where, after a fun evening with my good friend Chapel (wherein he bought me dinner as a prize for winning his playoff pool this past season), I met up with fellow HLOGger Sherry for second time. Last time we were able to take in a Bulldogs playoff game; this time the two of us made our way to the Hockey Hall of Fame. I'd been there once before, but not since it moved to the new building, so I was excited to see exactly what it was comprised of now.

First, I was unsurprised to see that the Wings were the team whose jersey was featured in the Central Division display, but I was more surprised when I walked around to the back of it and saw this:

What, didn't have any extra Stevie Y.'s or something? I wonder if he knows.

Sherry and I also decided to try the goalkeeping and shooting games they had - I managed to beat her in both, though not by much (I did do better at the trivia game, but it was pretty much sheer luck). I was only able to score three goals on seven attempts against Eddie Belfour (for shame), and only stopped two out of five (though it would have been three if I hadn't kicked one in with my own foot). To her credit, Sherry was playing in a skirt - but then again, I was playing in very hockey-inappropriate sandals, and both of us were using a stick about a foot too long.

When I stepped into that net, I must have started thinking to myself, "what would Conklin do?" There wasn't enough room to run behind the net and commit a grievous error, so I apparently had to think more like Cam Ward and flail at a shot I actually stopped until the puck went in the net.

If you're interested in any of the other pictures from the weekend, and the HHoF, my photo gallery is here. If you're looking for more stupid pictures of me proving that I should definitely stick to watching hockey rather than playing, however, you're out of luck, as those are all on Sherry's camera. We had a lot of fun even if we sucked.

Over the course of the weekend we also watched a chunk of Miracle and considered liveblogging it - but through a combined laziness and lack of internet in the room we were in, ended up sparing you all.

As August wears on there is less and less hockey news available, and more and more anticipation for the new season, but here are some odds and ends to help tide you over:

• The Red Wings are going on with that silly "Fire on Ice" theme heading into the season - and they've created possibly the most hideous splash page ever to go along with it. Does anyone else think it looks like viewing an image on a monitor that can't display quite enough colors to show it properly? Anti-aliasing is good, I promise.

• If you can manage to brave the site design, however, you can purchase preseason tickets starting August 30th. Tickets are also still on sale for training camp in Traverse City (September 13-18).

• The Sharks took a page out of the Wings' book with a splash page of their own. It's almost as ugly, and yet it's a thing of beauty - bet you can figure out why. (In other news re: the Sharks endearing me to them, check out the Cheechoo/Teemu ska song, if you haven't yet.)

• The LA Kings sign former Toronto backup J.S. Aubin (crickets chirp).

And finally, with the offseason being quiet and horrendously boring, you'd think we'd hit a lapse in crazy search terms - but nope. Amidst the armies of people who still want pictures of Lauren Pronger and information about Rod Brind'Amour's girlfriend, my latest favorites have been "js giguere pool party" (I hope he invited The Aquabats), "dominik hasek laptop" (the man just learned text messaging last season, let's not go too far now), "fake teeth in ontario" (....what?) and, the current winner, "let down your hair I want to comb it" (uhhhhh, that's the last time I make those "Mr. Babcock I want to comb your hair" comments).

There is still hope!

Having returned from Toronto, I see I've missed very little - except for that little bit about Nashville being sold, the only other "news" seems to be Hasek not sure if he's coming back or not yet, and that I still hate this years Cup Finals.

I did, however, get to take in some AHL hockey with Elly, HG, and Sherry of HLOG fame, as well as Drea, over the weekend. After arriving in Toronto, we backtracked (for me at least) our way to Hamilton to take in what could have been a Bulldogs sweep of the Chicago Wolves. They ended up losing 1-0 (continuing my record of never going to an AHL game and seeing my preferred team win), but we had a great time anyway. I took some pictures that I'll put up eventually, but in the meantime, Sherry's are even better.

One of Sherry's group shots of us was featured at Japers' Rink, but we decided this silly one might best represent us - so I of course had to share. (L to R: Sherry, HG, me, and Elly.)

I've decided, thanks in part to the influences of those around me, in part to Carey Price and even more to Zack Stortini (I really wanted to make him a sign suggesting he punch someone - but he did at least get into a little pile at the net. I also wouldn't have minded seeing him score, which he did not - but he did in yesterday's winning game, which puts them officially in the finals), to throw my support behind them for the Calder this year.

This should make Sherry happy, as her weekend mission to convince me to really cheer for the Sens in the upcoming playoffs didn't meet with a whole lot of success. She did, however, manage to unwittingly settle just what it is Elly and I will be cheering for in the upcoming weeks. Ladies and gentlemen, your NPI bloggers are proud to announce that from this moment on, we will be affiliating ourselves with...

Antoine Vermette's hair.

We'll be gone...but does it even matter?

Elly and I do this thing, every Memorial Day weekend, where we go to Toronto. And we hang out and we watch hockey, and we drink beer (that we've pestered my good friend Chapel into buying because he's wont to make really idiotic bets that end up costing him $50). Last year there was a glorious evening of watching the Oilers (oh my Oilers how I miss you) toss the Sharks around to take the West and it was wonderful. And thus, we have been waiting with bated breath for May twenty-fifth to roll around all year.

Unfortunately, the Hockey Gods decided we'd had enough fun. We clearly didn't deserve to spend the weekend watching the glory of the WCF - in fact, we didn't even deserve a favorable outcome to the WCF, whether or not we could watch it together, AND we had to suffer through Pronger being victorious once again.

So we decided, screw the Hockey Gods - we're off to party with HG and Sherry, eat sushi, drink spiked Slurpees, and catch a Hamilton Bulldogs game (take that NHL!); it's an International HLOG Convention!

And you know, the disgusting part is, we won't miss absolutely anything in the hockey world despite being absent from this blog for three days during playoff season. Tonight I watched basketball. It was a dark, dark day.