The Severed Cortex

Link: http://blues.nhl.com/team/app?gameNumber=894&gameType=2&page=Recap&season=20072008&service=page

The Missouri Chapter of BBBS has their personal poop together. The Southwestern Illinois chapter I can't always say the same. How do I know this? Because my friend Nancy is a Big Sister in Missouri and she receives offers for cool stuff all the time. We got an offer to see a puppet show in Belleville for free, which is cool, I guess. Nancy got an offer to see the Blues play. Since her little sister doesn't care for hockey, she was extremely nice and got a pair of tickets for Robert and me. I guess since I've gone ahead and lifted my ban on hockey, why not? They were awesome tickets too; 12 rows from the glass on the Blues shoot once end. I know everyone likes to sit on the shoot twice end, but let's be honest, the Blues have no offense this year. If you want the real story on the Blues, you should look no further than the goalie Manny Legace, who is having his typical steady, solid season and by doing so he has kept the Blues in a few games. He put on a solid show for us.

Robert wasn't sure what to expect. We talked about stuff before the game and he knew very little. I tried to explain the basics of the rules. I skipped icing altogether and glossed over what constituted offsides. He got the gist of it. Put the biscuit in the basket. Luckily that happened a lot for the Blues, pretty much right off the bat. Robert was caught off guard. We talked about how you had to pay attention because hockey is a very fast game. And then Columbus hit the Blues back right in front of us. He caught that one, and at that point he started to get into it. We missed the first two goals of the second period buying more food and souvenirs but fortunately we were treated to yet another Blues goal once we made it back to our seats. This one, of course, right in front of us. Sweet. At that point the crowd starts yelling We Want Tacos. For those not in the know, if the Blues score five or more goals, tacos at participating Taco Bell restaurants are on sale at a reduced price. It used to be 35 cents and it used to be for everybody, regardless of whether you attended the game or not. The Blues have since changed that policy to the much less friendly, you gotta bust your hump and come down to the box office at a certain time the next day to claim your free taco voucher. That, or get one of your downtown working friends to schlep over there for you. Taco Bell tacos are barely worth the 35 cents apiece, no matter the quantity. No way are they worth going downtown to pick up a voucher for just one free one. Anyway, the Blues scored another goal in the third and after a nice little bit of fisticuffs, which resulted in a hefty gash on face of Barret Jackman, sent Columbus packing 5 - 1. The Blues announced it as a near sellout crowd, but if you click on the photo link in the URL for this post you'll see plenty of that crowd disguised as empty seats. I'm sure that cuts down on the number of free tacos you have to give away, but for those with a hearty soul willing to brave the traffic and elements of a St. Louis winter, a free taco. Life is grand.

I have to say that Robert really enjoyed the hockey game. We've watched basketball a couple of times and that holds his interest, but he was really into watching hockey. Maybe it was the fight, which we didn't talk about before hand ... (fighting in hockey these days is a somewhat rare occurrence) ... or maybe it was the fast pace, but he definitely thought it was cool.

There were other, obvious, BBBS folk there. In fact, one was sitting in front of me and as chance would have it, it was their first time hanging out. I talked to the 'big' about how its been a positive experience for me and gave him my card in case he ran out of ideas of things to do.