Blighters Blog - Part 6

4th Oct 2012 | Posted by Chris Blight

Today was the first day of school for us in 7 years. A lot has changed since Mac and I last went to school. First off, Facebook was just starting out my senior year of university and nobody had smart phones. I noticed quite a few people on their phones today, some even taking pictures of the slides with their iPhones. I found this funny considering the slides are available online and the professors even printed them out for us as well. I thought it was nice of the professors to do that but maybe a little bit of overkill. Maybe that is what the kids today need in order to take in the information. It must be a lot of work for those professors to print out 300 copies for each of the students. That would drive me crazy if I were them; especially considering that the notes are available online as well.

A special thanks to Neil Wellard for centering us out on the first day in front of the other 300 students. As if 2 Canadian guys didn’t stand out enough already he had to add that we play hockey for the Cardiff Devils as well. Management will be happy to note that he did mention to everyone that they should come to the games and support us, which was really nice of him to do. Although I’m pretty sure a lot of the students have never seen a hockey game as most are from India or China. There is a pro ice hockey team in Shanghai China but I’m not sure India has any ice hockey. They probably thought he meant field hockey!

The games this past weekend were both tough in different ways. The Belfast game I thought we played well other than the first ten minutes of the third period. I know a lot of people probably disagree because of the outcome but let me explain. We just couldn’t get any momentum because we couldn’t score on our chances. Their goalie really played well, as did Phil. He didn’t have a chance on any of those goals. Obviously the result is not what we wanted and getting shut out at home is never acceptable no matter how well you play. I tend to think positively as much as possible. From my experience hockey can be a fickle game. Sometimes you play well and things just don’t go your way and sometimes you don’t play well and everything you touch ends up in the back of the net. I think if we score a few of those grade A chances we had we win that game and everyone is happy but in reality we essentially played the same game. In the end though we win as a team and lose as a team. If everyone is working hard and doing the little things that add up throughout the game we will have a lot of success at the end of the day.

The next night we had Edinburgh. The game was slow and sloppy and we found a way to win. Phil made some key saves at key moments to keep us up in the game. Edinburgh sat back, trapped us and tried to lull us to sleep, which I think they did a pretty good job of. Thankfully Mac had the golden touch once again and found a way to get a couple past the goalie. Deeds had a good game too, a Gordie Howe Hat-trick actually. He made a great pass to Faulkner for the first goal, got in a pretty entertaining fight later and then scored his first goal in Europe to seal the win for us. For those unsure of what a Gordie Howe Hat-trick is it’s when a player gets a goal, assist, and fight in the same game.

Blight Hit

I’m supposed to comment on the picture that is supposed to be attached to this blog so I really hope it is. The hit on Keefe happened because I had just jumped on the ice and I don’t think he even saw me until it was too late. He is a friend of mine and ex-teammate so I suppose that is one reason why he didn’t chase me around the ice after, although I don’t think he was too happy about the hit...


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