I took the afternoon off from work and we headed up to L.A. early to beat the rush hour traffic. I had very high hopes for this trip, because last time we were there, it proved to be the only venue where you could be in contact with the players after the game, and I was hoping to score an autograph for my Boogaard jersey.

We got there in time for warm ups, and our seats happened to be right near the tunnel where the players come out. Once again, the Good Hockey Seat Fairy smiled down upon us and placed us behind the visitor's bench. Warm ups are an interesting thing for me to watch, mostly from a personal standpoint. Kyle Wanvig went up several points in my estimation by flipping a puck over the glass to a little boy watching the players. Having seen several games now, you could start to see which players have a routine, and which just go with the flow.

One of the cool things about being near the tunnel is that when the players come off the ice from warm ups, you can hang your fist over the railing and most of the players will bump fists with you. Bryan managed to score bumps from Gaborik and Foster. I had mine out there for Boogaard, but he hit every single other person's fist that was out, except mine. Dissed by Boogaard! Bryan tried to console me by pointing out that everyone else was a kid, but the excuse didn't fly.

The game itself was a disappointing loss, and there weren't even any good fights! After the game, we headed to the area where the team bus waits, only to find...a satellite truck. We met up with the girls that we saw at the Phoenix game (and the LA game in October) and Stephane Veilleux's cousin, Michelle. We were chatting with them, and it turns out Michelle is dating Derek Boogaard!

Gah!

Michelle couldn't have been nicer. She offered to get my jersey autographed and get it back to me, but I really wanted to get it done in person. The other girls asked if we were going to the Anaheim game the next night, and even though we hadn't been planning on it, we decided to give it some thought. The team bus rolled past us, and off drove my hopes for an autograph. We didn't get home until about 1 am, and although Bryan had Friday off, I had to be at work bright and early.

Friday morning, after a whopping four hours of sleep, I began hunting for Anaheim tickets. Thank you Good Hockey Seat Fairy, because this time we scored seats right next to the visitor's bench. I rapidly did some math, calculating whether we'd be able to make it up there in time for the game after I got off of work, and we decided to give it a try anyway. The Anaheim game had an equally disappointing outcome unfortunately. We did see Michelle and the girls again, and she asked for my address, so she could send me Boogaard stuff. So we'll see what happens with that. We made the not-quite-as-long drive home (only an hour and fifteen minutes, as compared with a two hour drive home after the LA game) and headed off to sleep with the luxury of being able to sleep in Saturday morning.

So, the recap: One extra hockey game (Anaheim) squeezed into our attendance record, two (pathetic) losses, I didn't get to meet Derek Boogaard, but I got to meet his girlfriend, and my jersey remains unsigned.

I'm off to Minnesota the first week in April (supposedly for the American Academy of Audiology Convention, but the fact that there were two Wild home games played no small part in my decision to go) and will be catching games with Crystal, my sister in law, and Mike, one of Bryan's friends. One last chance to get the jersey signed, and one more arena to add to the NHL Arena Tour list.