Taking in the good old (college) hockey game

I guess I'm as lucky as Mr. Jibblescribbits; for Christmas, Mrs. Forechecker got me tickets to tonight's University of Michigan vs. Lake Superior State hockey game. And since we live just outside Nashville, that means a weekend getaway to the old sod, Ann Arbor, Michigan, with the Little Forecheckers staying with relatives for a couple days.

Of course, our car just barely made it to our location before petering out, so this morning I'm taking it to a local dealer to see what's up, but still we've got a day or two in a grand old college town and get to take in the action at Yost Arena tonight, which, if you've never been, is a great venue for a hockey game. Back in the 1989 when I first came to Ann Arbor you could sneak into the games for free after they started, as the program was still mediocre and Red Berenson hadn't been here very long. But we got to see the likes of Aaron Ward and Chris Tamer physically dominate their CCHA opponents, and later on of course championship teams led by Brendan Morrison and Jason Botterill. As street hockey devotees (before the rise of inline skating), we used to play with a couple wood & chicken wire nets behind South Quad. Occasionally we'd pick up discarded U-M Hockey sticks that were left in the garbage bins behind Yost the next day after games; there were usually several with the most minor of cracks in the shaft, so they were still useful for our purposes.

Please forgive the long-winded reminiscence, but suffice to say I'll be off the grid for tonight's Preds game vs. St. Louis, and most likely tomorrow's vs. Minnesota as well as we head back to Tennessee. In the meantime, I'll be cheering on those #1 Wolverines... Go Blue!