Game day for Game 4...

Too much media

Monday is game day and with that came the swarms of media from all over North America. As you can see in the Oilers room there was more media than hockey players. Oh, the reason the camera guy in the weird pink shirt was blurred is because he, in my humble opinion, is a dick. He chose to cross my picket line for 166 days and I do not want him on my blog. He just happened to get in my pic.

Where was I, oh yeah, there was a lot of media in the rooms today. In the Oiler room alone there was 12 cameras. I can bet that there was at least 25 cameras in the building doing stuff.


A door filled with history

Speaking of the room. I took a picture, a bad one, of the video room door. A lot of history in this door. It used to be the door to the coaches room. Back in the glory days of Gretzky and Messier, Essa Tikkanen would go over to the door and slam his stick in it to let the coaches know that the team is headed to the ice. If you look close you can see three huge dents in the door.

When there was some remodeling done the door was actually rescued from the dumpster. They then moved it to it's present position on the video coaches room. They then had a guy come in to paint it. The guy started to paint on all the stickers on the door. Someone caught him early enough before they were all painted over.


a win a sticker

The stickers represent a win in the stanley cup playoffs. As you can see at the end when you win 16 a cup is put on the door. There are 5 cups on that door. This tradition is kept alive by the media director. The current media director is JJ Hebert. After a win he has a special stash of stickers that are kept in a sacred metal box. There are 13 stickers on the door this year. Sorry for the bad quality of the pic but I am trying to do that and shoot a scrum at the same time. Plus I was not sure if I was allowed to take a pic of it. I have seen it on TV and in the paper lots but you just never know during the playoffs.


Pole from hell

This is the pole where we plug in our signal to be sent to Toronto and then beamed to the world. Usually there is not this many cables coming out of it. Just a big tangled mess. That is Ryan trying to figure it out.


Telus box

Telus installed this box and our port is number six on the top. Usually there is only about 5 cables coming in and out of this box. Nice. Kinda confusing.

Game time is six pm so I will get to that later.

Cabbie on the Street

Cabbie was back today. That is all I have to say about that. I did not get to talk to him too much but it is always nice to see Cabbie.

MMMMM free lunch

After the morning skate we went back to the Sutton Place for a free buffet put on by the NHL for the top 5 prospects in the upcoming draft. I am always the first one there and the last to leave. I might add that this buffet had a fabo lasagna and some killer roast beef. If you have never had Alberta Beef you must try it. Best I have ever had. Sorry ND beef producers.


free food always get the media

At the table behind the podium is some of the prospects. Jonathan Toews is in the top five and he played at UND last year. He is sitting right behind the mic on the podium. Great player, I hope he ends up on a good team. Probably won't though.


Vern Relaxing

After a great free meal a good photog will relax or take a nap. Here is a shot of Vern from Sportsnet relaxing in the hotel lobby. Good work my friend.



Afterwards me and Jordi went back to the rink in the Scores exclusive shuttle. Of course with only 5 employees from the Score in town the bus was a bit empty, but you know this is how we roll.