Last day of hockey for about two months..

So yesterday was the last day of hockey for the year. June 21st and I was still covering hockey. Wow, that is weird. Actually the rookies reported for camp on monday. Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals and the Oilers rookies are having a camp at RExall place. Nice. As you can see above is the Western Conference Championship Trophy, the Campbell Bowl. I finally had a chance to snap a pic of it. JJ, the media guy for the Oilers, took the lid off of it and showed me that on the inside it says rep. Meaning it is a replica. Now you would think that if a team had just won the western conference they would actually have the actual trophy on hand to give. Nope, replica. It still is a nice looking tophy though.


Anyone want an autograph?

Part of garbage bag day is the players sign a ton of stuff for auctions and gifts. The Oilers on this day had over 1500 items to sign. That is unbelievable. Pronger said it best when he walked in, "It looks as if I will be signing my life away today." Uh, yeah.

Garbage bag day is called that because the teams often just empty the players stuff from their lockers into black garbage bags. The Oilers however do not do that. The Eskimos, do. Just put all their stuff in a garbage bag. I would be pissed if it were me.

Well it has been one hell of a ride and I hope for all of you who actually followed along you enjoyed what you saw and read. I enjoyed putting it all on the blog for you. It was a great thing to experience for my career that is only rivalled, almost, by the Packers run to two super bowls in the late nineties. I did not get to go to the Super Bowl, because Joel Bernell was and I am sure still is, a dick, in my opinion. So this kinda wins out because I got to travel and see the final.

Doug Helbing sent me an email early on in the run asking me to move to Chicago so his Cubs would win the world series...

Doug Wrote - Hey Chris, I'm sure you are pretty busy, but I was wondering if when
you were in Green Bay were the Packers making there championship runs,
and if they were could you maybe move to Chicago and follow the Cubs
and Bears for me.

Sorry Doug, I would love to move to Chicago, it is a beautiful city, BUT, the Bears will always suck, and the Cubs, well are just the Cubs. I don't think I can do anything with that curse. I was however in Des Moines, Iowa when Kerry Wood was there so at least I did that for you.

So thank you for following along to my ramblings and humoring me with your time. I appreciate it alot. I just am sorry that I could not do more podcasts for you. I just was way too busy. Until next time. I will see you once a week during the CFL and will try to get some podcasts from the players. Maybe Ricky Williams when he comes thru with the ARgonauts. Wouldn't that be exciting?