Wednesday night : Hockey n' Heels cocktail party in Arlington
Tonight : Capitals vs. Thrashers
Can't say I'm not doing my part to stimulate the economy! :)
Front Page was the site of the Hockey n' Heels cocktail party last night. I left myself ninety minutes to get to Arlington from Gaithersburg, and it only took thirty, so I killed some time at Ballston Common Mall before stopping by the bar at 5:30. After checking in, and wandering around a little bit, I ordered a beer at the bar, and saw someone else from the "purple group" from Saturday's event. We chatted a while, and some of her friends came by, then another "purple" walked by and said, "Hey, you were in my group on Saturday! My husband loved your Nylander comment!*"
Meaghan was there by herself too, and like me, felt kind of weird about it. So, we ended up hanging out for the evening, which was fun. Leslie the Hockey Mom made it as well.
From where we were standing by the bar, we could see the players outside when they arrived and were being "prepped" by the event coordinators. Several other women started speculating who all was outside, so I looked, and rattled off, "Eric Fehr, Michal Neuvirth, Milan Jurcina, and Staffan Kronwall." There was some argument over whether it really was Kronwall or if it was Sergei Fedorov, and it was sort of hard to tell, since there was a glare from a bright light, but his hair didn't look nearly long enough to be Fedorov. Then we see Nicklas Backstrom walk up (talk about needing a hair cut).
The players were kind of scattered around the bar, and various lengths of lines formed in order to get pictures and autographs with them. It was funny-yet-sad how many remarks I heard like, "Who was that?" after a picture was taken.
David Steckel showed up about ten minutes after the others, and a lot of people didn't even see him walk in. Poor Kronwall -- I think a lot of the attendees didn't know who he was. He was very quiet, too. I asked him if he thought he was going to play tonight against Atlanta, and he said he hoped to, but he probably wouldn't know until game time. I said, "So, does Boudreau just flip a coin?" He laughed.
Jurcina and Neuvirth seemed joined at the hip for the evening. When Meaghan and I talked to them, she asked Jurcina about good Eastern European beers. He recommended Pilsner Urquell, but Neuvirth made a face and said he didn't think it was very good at all. I asked Jurcina why he and Neuvirth were hanging out together, and he said it was because "We speak same language." I remembered that Jurcina was from Slovakia and Neuvirth is Czech, and Jurcina seemed impressed that I knew that. Considering I'd heard a woman ask him if he was from "Czechoslovakia", maybe it was impressive that I at least knew they were separate countries.
Steckel and Fehr were both pretty cool. I knew Steckel was crazy tall, but I seriously only came up to his shoulder even though I was wearing three-inch heels. Fehr was taller than I realized. I asked Fehr if he subscribed to the Laich theory on goalscoring, and when he looked quizzical, I explained, "You know, 'if you want bread, go to the bakery...'?" He laughed then, and said, "Oh, yeah! And one of these days, they are all going to start going in!"
So, I ended up staying for the whole thing, and then Gabe came by later on and I didn't leave until almost 10:30. So much for an early night. It was more fun than I thought it would be, but only because I met some new friends through the Hockey n' Heels, which I guess is being morphed into the new Club Scarlet.
And next up... Thrashers. Pictures later.
*(the Nylander comment, btw, was a jibe about his propensity towards spin-o-rama moves. During the equipment session on Saturday, one of Nylander's skates was being passed around, and I remarked something to the effect of, "Are you sure this is Nylander's? It doesn't have a toe pick.")
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