Hockey.

This is the quickest blog post ever. While it is super vague in the grand scheme of things hopefully it will help out my tweety friends just a little bit! Hockey consists of three periods each 20 minutes in length. Here in the US we are headed into quite the nail biter with one period left in our game against Canada. If one team is up over another at the end of those three periods, game over. If not we go into overtime. Overtime is considered a sudden death extra period meaning the first team to score is the winner. At the end of OT if the score is still even we will head into a shoot out. In a shoot out players take turns shooting one on one with the goalie. Usually, a shoot out is a 3 person shoot out. Whichever team scored the most after those three shots wins.

Terms you will hear frequently-

Faceoff-  Reff drops the puck in between two players who fight to snatch it and pass it off to a teammate.

Penalty- Same as any other sport penalties can be earned for a variety of different reasons. However, there are three different penalties a player can be given. A minor, major or misconduct. The most common penalty is a minor in which the player is sent to the penalty box for for two minutes giving the other team a power play.

Power Play- A one man advantage on the ice due to a penalty by a player on the other team. If the team with the PP scores within the two minute mark, Power Play is over and the offending player can return to the ice.

Icing- There are variations on icing however it is basically when a player shoots the puck across the center red line and the opposing teams goal line without it being touched.



I saw a lot of tweets asking about fighting. Fighting is not encouraged however it happens and is occasionally allowed. In the political sense most teams have 'enforcers' they are on the pay roll to fight when necessary. When there is a player playing chippy or throwing dirty hits the enforcer takes over. You will often hear "dropping the gloves" as players literally drop their gloves while squaring up for a fight.

Hitting is totally allowed and a HUGE part of the game. To keep everyone safe there are many rules that go along with hitting i.e.- no hitting from behind.

Post questions if you may have them! We can revisit this with more detail after the olympics. GO USA!!!!

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Heart Cookies.

Hello all! Tomorrow is Valentine's day so I'm here with a super simple cookie recipe and my unfortunate attempt at making cookies in the shape of hearts. However there is something a bit more important than the cookies. USA hockey, duh! US is up 7-1 over Slovakia and I am just too excited to contain myself. The only issue is hearing "scored against Chara." It's really hurting my brain. I'm so used to that being a negative thing.

One more issue- I really really really dislike Brooks Orpik after the whole Thornton incident earlier this season. If you missed out here is a short recap- Brooks Orpik (Penguins) threw a dirty high shoulder at Loui Eriksson(Bruins) during a game injuring Eriksson and leaving him on the IR for close to a month. Sean Thornton, the Bruins "enforcer" approached Orpik after the incident who declined a fight. Later in the same game Penguin, James Neal, skated by Brad Marchand who was down on the ice and kneed him in the head. Thornton had enough, skated over to Orpik pulled him out of a scuffle and sucker punched him leaving him temporarily KO'd on the ice. Orpik was taken off on a stretcher and diagnosed with a concussion. The part that still frustrates me so much is that Thornton was given a 15 game suspension for an incident that 9 times out of 10 will be nothing more than a fight. Neal was given 6 games, when my opinion, kneeing someone in the head will injure them more severely than a punch in most cases. While Orpik was back skating just a few days later the same could not be said for Eriksson. I don't want to hear about Orpik but if he can help team USA be team gold then I will deal with it.

Okay, cookies.



 

The pictures pretty much speak for themselves, huh? I was looking for some simple cookies to make with the little girl I nanny, when I stumbled across the Betty Crocker sugar cookies in a bag option. If we're being honest I prefer the Pillsbury slice and bake as far as pre-made is concerned. Betty crocker was easy though, requiring just one egg and a half cup of butter.

Maddie helped me roll the cookies into balls and stick them on the cookie sheet which is why they are kind of all over the place as far as size and thickness. As for the hearts- I really tried! Once they cooled a bit we added some Nutella and red sugar sprinkles. I would also like to mention they taste significantly better than they look.

Tomorrow I'm thinking I will put up a little Valentine's Day makeup tutorial! Enjoy your Thursday and go USA!

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Olympics.

I absolutely love the Olympics. I love watching athletes that have worked so hard for their goal perform and have the moment of a lifetime competing for their country. A lot of the sporting events, winter olympics primarily, are not something you see frequently. I just wonder how the hell people get into some of these sports. Do you wake up one morning and have a "I would like to fling myself off a jump higher than Big Ben on skies" moment? Because I have never had that. Yet here I am,  completely entranced with the incredible athleticism it takes for these horrifying and outrageously cool events.

Opening ceremonies? Amazing. There was one minor mishap when the fifth snowflake didn't turn into a ring which left me momentarily concerned the show would be a disappointment. Nope, amazing. The little girl performed with a broken arm, I would too but what a strong gal.



Side note- When the ring didn't open I cracked a joke that the man responsible would be killed for it. The next day I saw an article telling me his body had been found in a hotel room. Come to find out it was a satirical newspaper but I still thought I jinxed the poor man. 

I am definitely most excited to watch the hockey. US plays Russia at 7am Saturday and you can be sure that I will be up and about for that game. GO USA! As a Bruins fan I am thrilled that we have five guys competing but bummed that none of them are playing for the United States. A quick overview- Patrice Bergeron playing for team Canada, Tuuka Rask, the Bruins goalie, for team Finland, David Krejci the Czech Republic, Louie Erikkson for Sweden and finally, Zdeno Chara the flag carrier and captain for team Slovakia. Chara grew up under soviet rule making carrying the flag for an independent nation of Slovakia a great honor.

My other favorite NHL team also has five guys competing in the games however, we have some team USA love in there. Team USA's captain Zach Parise is going to bring us a gold medal along with Wild defenseman Ryan Sutter. The Wild also have Nino Niederreiter playing for Switzerland and Mikael Granlund playing for Finland. While Mikko Koivu was also named to Finland's olympic team he made the decision to not play. After sustaining an ankle injury, Koivu decided he was unable to play at the top of his game and represent his country.

What are you predictions on the games and do you have any favorite events?

XOXO

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