Lord Stanley, Playoff Beards, and Softball

Listen,

I've got a lot to say today... here we go

Topic 1
The Stanley Cup Finals have been amazing thus far. If you are not a hockey fan now would be a great time to start (Hana, I am talking to you). This year is a rematch of last year’s final between the Detroit Red Wings and the Pittsburgh Penguins. If you’ve been following me long enough, you know that I am a Penguins fan. Right now they have 2 of the top 3 players in the league, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. The craziest part about how amazingly awesome these 2 player are, is that Crosby (man I love that name) won’t turn 22 until August and Malkin will turn 23 in July! Insane I tell you… Last year Detroit won the best of seven series in six games. Now the series is tied at 2 and game 5 is Saturday night. Anyone interested in watching give me a call. If you haven’t watched a game before let me invite you over to see your first. You will not be disappointed. You may think I am joking, but I am serious. We can get some Wing Coop and enjoy a great game. Speaking of Wing Coop, they deserve a post of their own… maybe another time. Here are some action shots of the superstars:

Topic 2
One of my favorite NHL playoff traditions is the growing of playoff beards. I don’t know when or why this started, but I think it’s great. I think it is so great that I decided to grow one of my own. This decision was further aided when I did not shave the day of Game 3 of the Finals. The Penguins were down 2 to zero in the series. After they won game 3, I decided I better not risk shaving again until they lose. It seemed to work well because they won game 4 too. If they win the next 2 games in a row then I may be stuck with the beard until the season starts again in October. There is another great reason to come over Saturday for game 5; you can see my awesome facial hair. I really have no business trying to grow facial hair. Seriously, it looks pretty (really) lame, but I need to help the Penguins win the cup any way I can and if not shaving will help then by gum, I will not shave. By the way, did I tell you that Hana is the biggest Red Wings fan in Utah as of last night?

Topic 3
Ward softball started up last night. This is the one ward sport that I like to play. I used to be a decent baseball player… when I was 12. Two separated shoulders later and nearly 20 years later and I am pretty lousy. I wouldn’t say I am bad, I am just not great. Anyway, when they announced the games a few weeks ago, I made the comment that I played catcher in little league and liked to trash talk. After the meeting, one of the guys came up and told me that the team needed a catcher and wanted me to play. Going into last night’s game, I was just worried about throwing the ball back to the pitcher without making him chase it around too much. We had an awesome game… against my parents’ ward no less. We won 37 to 9. Yes, 37 to 9. It would have been even more fun if I had known anyone playing my parents’ ward team, but I didn’t. We had just decided to play one more inning (just to run up the score) when the automatic sprinklers came on in left field, thus putting an end to the slaughter. I finished the game 2 for 5 and more importantly managed to avoid making a complete fool of myself throwing the ball back to the pitcher. By the end of the game I actually had gained a bit of confidence… I’d forgotten what that feels like. Ever since messing up my shoulders in high school, throwing a ball has never been the same. The best part is that I don’t even feel sore this morning… Thanks Aleve!