That was it. That was the only sport I ever cared about. I call the 2003-2004 team, THE Portland Pirates. They started it for me and they were great. I remember the exact moment I realized hockey was the best sport in the world. It was the first period and I don’t remember who they were playing, but I saw Maxime Ouellet (the goalie) and that was it. He was incredible back in those days. Unfortunately after a few seasons they traded the affiliate to Anaheim, and Maxime’s career went downhill. A few season ago, he came back for a couple of games as the 3rd goalie. I saw him sitting at the top of the arena, but couldn’t imagine that it could possibly be him, so I said nothing. Later I was told it was him. I wish I could have told him that he was the one who changed it all for me.

I have favorite players, but he’s always been #1.

The other guys on the that team that I admired were Colin Forbes, Graham Mink, Steve Eminger, Boyd Gordon, Louis Robitaille, and Alexander Semin. You might recognize a few of them. Boyd Gordon and Alexander Semin play for the Washington Capitals and Steve Eminger plays for Anaheim. Graham Mink plays for the Rochester Americans. Louis Robataille, ever so feisty, plays for the Lowell Devils. Colin Fobes now plays for the Mannheim Eagles.

When you think about it, it’s crazy how many Portland Pirates have gone on to the NHL. I just named 3 from the first season I saw.

2004-2005: Tomas Fleischmann (Washington Caps)

Then suddenly they were affiliated with Anaheim. I didn’t like it. Nonetheless the 2005-2006 team went pretty far into the playoffs. Among them: Tim Brent, Simon Ferguson, Aaron Gavey, Ryan Getzlaf, Trevor Gillies, Curtis Glencross, Kent Huskins, Zenon Konopka, Chris Kunitz, Drew Miller, Shane O’Brien, Pierre Parenteau, Dustin Penner, Corey Perry, Aaron Rome, Bobby Ryan, Ryan Shannon, Ladislav Smid, Jordon Smith, Bruno St. Jacques, Mike Wall.

To the NHL: Drew Miller, Ladislav Smid (he was my favorite), Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, Dustin Penner, Bobby Ryan, Shane O’Brien, Drew Miller, Aaron Rome.

Ladislav was sent down to Springfield after being traded to Edmonton in the 2006-2007 season. I talked to him and I remember him commenting on how much the team had changed.

One of the few who was there for all 3 seasons affiliated with the Ducks was Simon Ferguson. He hasn’t made it to the NHL, and honestly, I’m not sure he will. He’s still one of my favorite all time players though. He’s a little bit of an enforcer. Mostly he’s funny and like a man-child. I saw him play against Bridgeport last season and talk to him. I’m going to see Syracuse play Lowell on the 13th. It’s always nice to talk with him and catch up some.

The last season the Pirates were affiliated with Anaheim was the best season I have ever seen and that’s the team I miss the most. I would probably trade any other team to have them back. It sounds bad, but they were good hockey players and good people.

Now this isn’t to say I don’t like the team now. I’m happy that they’re affiliated with my favorite NHL team, but they just don’t make a big impression on me. I must excuse Nathan Gerbe from this generalization though. He’s the little guy, among a pack of much larger guys, but he’s extremely talented and doesn’t give up. That says a lot.

Of course my favorite NHL player is Ryan Miller. I think his record speaks for itself and his generosity with charity does too.

Last but not least, I like to remember that they’re all men. Some of them are star athletes, but they’re still people and that’s how I treat them. Like I’ve said before, we’re all good at something, but we all have flaws too.

Why is he my favorite? As I said before, he’s 5’5 and a brilliant hockey player. I love that he doesn’t let the bigger guys get the best of him. He’s extra tough. You have to be when you’re small. When he scores a goal or does well, his whole face lights up. He has that childish grin that is pure happiness. Few other players truly appreciate scoring each goal as much as he does. A lot of times they think of the overall number of goals, but he seems to enjoy each one as well. I have also enjoyed talking to him occasionally. He’s very down to earth.

As for the Buffalo Sabres, I’m thrilled that they’re 6-1-1. This could be a great playoff season. Let’s hope Ryan Miller remains uninjured and the team has finally come together…and of course that they always beat the Bruins.

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I must admit, despite being an avid Sabres fan, the Pens are growing on me immensely. It doesn’t hurt that my one of my best friends is originally from Pittsburgh and a die hard Pens fan. What appeals to me aside from their talent, is their heart. Despite going into the third game down 2-0, they hold their heads up high and seems to be thinking clearly, as is apparent from the scoreboard (2-2 end of first). Already in this first period they have shown their ability to keep up with Detroit.

As for their two top scorers…Well let’s just say once upon a time I had doubts about Sidney Crosby. Not his talent at all. We all know he’s extremely gifted. When it comes to analyzing professional players, I judge by talent and personality. Of course it’s impossibly to judge personality completely as far as NHL players go. However, from what I’ve seen of Sidney lately, I now understand why so many people attracted to him. Men find his talent awe inspiring. And women who know anything about hockey should too. To be so young with so much talent and so much maturity is a rare gift indeed. Meanwhile, Evgeni Malkin is also awe inspiring. He’s generally pretty solid on the ice and seems to be able to keep himself focus. I guess his mother’s special borscht helps him out too.

Let’s hope they can keep their momentum going in the second period and pull off a win. Also hope that they won’t lose their composure when they return Detroit if they happen to win tonight and thursday night.

The Skills competition was my favorite event because the players could interact with each other and with the fans more. Joslin from the Worcester Sharks had the fastest shot, but he could not out do Portland Pirates, Mancari’s score from last years competition. It was a surprise to see former Pirate, Brandon Segal, at the event. I talked to him after the competition about Mike McKenna’s mentioning that Segal wanted to visit Portland but was injured and couldn’t when they played against Portland. Segal signed my all star jersey and talked a little about his injury but mostly said he wished he could have been in Portland. I also talked to former Pirate, Brian Salcido. After hearing rumors about how he has become arrogant (to put it lightly), I wanted to see if it was true. He was little standoffish but recognized me. When I asked him how Iowa was compared to Portland. He said it was different. He’s certainly different than he was in Portland but I’m beginning to wonder if he wasn’t always like that. Maybe he tries to hide it from the fans of the team he plays for. I don’t know him that well so I can’t say for sure but from what I can see, I don’t like anymore. Also saw Joe Motzko but didn’t get a chance to talk to him.

Team Canada

Team Canada Close Up (Current Pirate, Mancari, and Former Pirate Segal)

PlanetUSA

Past Winners for Hardest Shot

The All Star luncheon was quite interesting as well. It’s a little awkward to be facing so many hockey players and seeing them eat. Some of them chew kind of strangely too. I enjoyed listening to form NHL and AHLers talk about their experiences and give advice to the young players sitting up front. The advice I heard the most was to have fun playing the game and smile as much as possible. Also something that struck me was when one man talked about hockey as a fraternal sport. It’s true. The players establish bonds with each other as well as with the fans. That’s part of what makes it so special.

Brian Salcido

The game itself was pretty good. I never find all star games as interesting as regular games though.  I cheered for all of Mancari’s assists as well as his goal, although I was actually rooting for PlanetUSA. I decided that even though Gerbe and Kennedy weren’t playing, that I still preferred that team and I shouldn’t change just because 2 people weren’t there. At the end Ross of the Philadelphia Phantoms received the MVP award and PlanetUSA won 14-11.

Chris Bourque

Team Canada

PlanetUSA

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The Pirates started out very strong with the first place position in the Atlantic division. However, with the inconsistancy of the team recently (win one games, lose another, win one, lose three etc) the Pirates have slipped into fourth place. Unfortunately with 5 concussed players, 3 with the flu and 1 with a hand injury, it’s no wonder the Pirates are having a difficult time. Kennedy was recently injured in a game against Manchester and was out until the game last night, in which he seemed to be tentative. I also noticed his less cheerful and tentative attitude at practice. Hopefully a few missing teeth won’t keep his spirit down for too long.

The flu has caused problems for Nathan Gerbe, Mike Card, and Marc-Andre Gragnani. Gerbe has been missing from the line up since the game against Manchester on the 17th, which is a huge loss for the pirates team. He was missing again last night, despite being at practice that morning and seemingly better. Mike Card came down with the flu and had to leave the game part way through the first period on Monday’s game against Hartford. Fortunately Gragnani has been fighting the flu and playing anyway. Hopefully they will all be better and able to play tomorrow night against the Bridgeport Soundtigers.

In regard to the actual players, I have found this team not nearly as colorful as last seasons team. There are a few who stand out such as Gerbe, Kennedy, Gragnani and Bouck but many of the others all seem distant, especially from the fans. Not nearly as many pucks are being passed to kids over the glass and there is much less interaction between fans and players during warm ups. A couple of the players present themselves as a little arrogant and above the fans. What they forget is that without fans to pay to see the game and players, there wouldn’t be professional hockey. Without Kennedy and Gerbe to interact with each other and the fans, the games, to me at least, would be not nearly as interesting. During practice especially they tend to goof off with each other toward the end. Practice is also where I found out that Gragnani is quite funny and that Mike Card likes to use his hockey stick as a guitar. If the players brought the personalities shown during practice to the public, then perhaps this season would be more exciting despite all of the  losses.

from right to left: Dylan Hunter, Trent Campbell, Matt MacDonald, Mike Kostka, Jhonas Enroth, Paul Baier, Zach Tarkir and Marc-Andre Gragnani is the player in front.

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Petteri Wirtanen always smiled before and during games. Sometimes Kate and I would wonder why but eventually we stopped because…well that’s just how he is. He actually had two faces: his smiling face and his ogre face. If he had neither on, we knew to be worried. When I gave him a photo of himself he started talking to Birner in another language excitedly. Michal was laughing at him and clearly thought the picture I gave him was better. It was funny.

Simon Ferguson would always skate by us during warm ups and pretend we weren’t making him laugh. When the game started though, he was all business though. During a season ticket holder party one year he grinned and said, “you guys laugh too much…” and Kate said “It’s good to laugh sometimes; loosen up etc.” Of course that made us crack up again and Fergie said something along the line of “true.” Later, when I started handing out photos of each Pirate to them and I got to Simon, our conversation went like this:
Rosalba: (hands photo to Simon) “this is for you.”
Simon: *starts to sign it*
Rosalba: No, it’s FOR you not me. You don’t need to sign it.
Simon: “Well fine. I wasn’t going to sign it anyway!”

That pretty much describes him in a nutshell. He was childish and funny in his own way.

The Shorties: Geoff Platt and Andrew Ebbett. I adored them as did many other fans. For their size and ability to play hockey. It’s always inspirational when someone so small can be so sucessful. Currently Ebbett is up in the NHL. I miss them the most. They were very laid back and funny; Always nice to the children.

Michal Birner, the Czech. He was the most standoffish of the whole team. He was a bit of a loner, but nice enough once someone began talking to him. In fact Ladislav Smid (’05-’06), Michal Birner (’07-’08) and Marek Zagrapan (08’-’09) all seemed to have those traits. (I could go off on a Ladislav tangent since he’s quite interesting to talk to but I will restrain myself)

Tyler Bouck, captain! He’s still with the pirates thankfully. I think I would have felt a little lost without at least 1 familiar face. There is a reason he’s captain. Seeing him help Dylan Hunter do an exercise, despite the fact that he was obviously exhausted, was quite awe inspiring. He’s also great with the fans and his child is adorable.

Mike Hoffman was one of the taller guys on the team. He seemed a little awkward on ice but did just fine. He was one of the tough guys on our team until he broke his thumb or some part of his hand. After recovering from that, he concentrated more on skill. He and Brian were kind of like brothers. Since they lived together (with Ryan Carter while he was around), it kind of makes sense. Seeing them interact playfully during warm ups was adorable and funny. Anyone seen the old Costa Vida ad?

I feel that I should mention Stephen Dixon and Jason King. They were both good players but I didn’t get to know as much about their personalities. Sometimes I mix Dylan Hunter up with Stephen Dixon and then I’m sad and miss the team again.

Drew Miller was a very good player and yes I liked the fact that he was Ryan Millers brother. They are similar in the fact that they’re so nice to fans, especially the children and find it so important to give back to the community.

Bobby Ryan, the prodigal child. He had/has quite a bit to live up to seeing as he was picked in the first round of the 2005 draft and second after Sydney Crosby. I admire his ability to cope with the pressure of being compared to Crosby, as well as his ability to play hockey. What you see off the ice though is often more striking. One day Kate and a couple of friends and I decided to go to Costa Vida for lunch. After ordering, we realized we were sitting diagonally to Bobby Ryan and his girlfriend. They were sitting their eating and doing a crossword together in the paper, occasionally being bother by people who recognized him. Small things like that I find touching. There they were doing basic human activities and on the occasions that they were interrupted Bobby was quite nice to the fans and his girlfriend didn’t seem to mind either. Other than noticing that they were there, we went on with our own lives and let them have theirs.

Darryl Bootland. The name alone makes me shake my head and smile. He was the tough guy of our team, which the Pirates lack this season. No one is quite like him. During warm ups he would always stick his tongue out at kids, which they loved. He did it to me a few times too but I was never fast enough to get a photo of it unfortunately. Some women might not like him because he’s not exactly a one lady man but at least he’s honest about it. I personally thought he was a cool guy generally and didn’t really care what he did with women.

Matt Keith, how er…special. While not seeming like the smartest guy in the world, he was nice enough. The most memorable moment: Kate having him sign something. She gave him the jersey and he tried to sign it….twice before his girlfriend said “Babe, babe….the caps on.” That became his nickname. Sure it’s long but hilarious nonetheless.
On to Defense ’07-’08…

Brian Salcido, first and foremost. He was one of the nicest guys on the team to everyone, especially the children. He was very laid back. Of course he had a great deal of talent too. His problem was consistency, which is probably the main reason he’s still in the AHL. He became buddies with my friend Kate and often gave her a hug when he saw her. That kind of connection to the community says a lot about his personality.

Brendan Mikkelson otherwise knows and Mickey and occasionally Brendy when I accidentally mixed up the names. He was a great guy. As far as hockey is concerned, he’s a very good defenseman. What he has that Brian Salcido doesn’t is consistency. I never saw him play worse than good. He seemed shy and tentative at first but after talking to him a few times I found him to be quite laid back and interesting. My first run in with him was when he was signing with Mike McKenna at Shaws in Portland. Mike and I talked about hockey quite a bit. Mostly about goalies since they’re usually my favorite players on the team. At one point Mike said “aw so you don’t like defensemen?” and gave Brendan an elbow to the ribs. I laughed and said they’re cool too. Then later in the season I gave him a few photos of himself. He seemed quite happy about them and told me that his parents would put them in a scrapbook that they kept of him. After that, he thanked me every time for the photos I had given him the first time around. It always makes me laugh to think about it because I don’t think I could count the thanks you’s if I tried. Then after one game Kate and I were headed downtown and we were walking behind his parents. They were quite adorable and funny. They let us pass saying they were slow and thought we would be more graceful if we fell on ice than if they did. We assured them that was probably not true but might be true for their son. Last but not least, one game him tossed a puck over the glass to a little girl. Unfortunately he ended up hitting her in the face with it. After the game I went up to him and said “So Brendan, when you toss pucks to kids you might want to make sure you don’t hit them in the face.” He responded “I didn’t hit her in the face!” So I said “uh…yeah you did. Might want to get some practice in with that” and laughed. He said, “oh, well I didn’t mean to” and laughed. After that he never tossed another puck to a child.

Brett Festerling, the checker. One thing I miss most this season is his hard checking. Everytime you heard a loud check, you know it was Festy. Kate and I joked about how he did it just for fun and to hear the sound it made. He was a good, aggressive defenseman.

Goalies…

Mike McKenna. Honestly, I miss him so much. He’s incredibly nice and interesting to talk to. Recently when he came to Portland to play for the Norfolk Admirals, he knew exactly who I was. In Portland he would always acknowledge me and smile when he skated by. He did the same at the game against Portland. I talked to him afterward and the first thing he asked was “how are your photos? get any good ones?” He talked a little about his new team and we discussed Segal (who also use to play for the pirates). His skills have improved considerably. I remember the first night he played in the AHL, when he was clearly nervous.

J.S. Aubin. Okay well it was pretty cool that he was in that commercial against Ryan Miller. Of course Ryan Miller won because he’s amazing but Aubin was definitely good for our team. I definitely admire his talent, but he came so late in the season that I don’t know much about his personality.

Gerald Coleman, the diversity. He was pretty nice and I loved the fact that he brought diversity aka browness to the team. Standing between Mike Hoffman and him was quite interesting. I felt like a midget. Of course he and his tiny girlfriend were adorable together.

Notes: I feel it’s important to note that 7 former Pirates from last seasons team are now playing for the Anaheim Ducks. On offense: Ryan Carter, Bobby Ryan, Drew Miller and Andrew Ebbett. On defense: Brendan Mikkelson, Brett Festerling. In Goal: Jonas Hiller. Good luck to all of you and I hope that this seasons team can make me as proud.

During the season the Pirates played 2 games against the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins and were 1-1.

Former Pirate Tim Brent also returns with the WB/S Penguins on May 18 for the game in portland.

Game 1: Wednesday, May 14th at WB/S, 7:05 PM
Game 2: Thursday, May 15 at WB/S, 7:05 PM
Game 3: Sunday, May 18th at PORTLAND, 4:05 PM
Game 4: Tuesday, May 20th at PORTLAND, 7:05 PM
Game 5: Wednesday, May 21st at PORTLAND, 7:05 PM*
Game 6: Friday, May 23rd at WB/S, 7:05 PM*
Game 7: Saturday, May 24 at WB/S, 7:05 PM*
*If needed

Ticket prices are located here and can be purchased at the Cumberland County Civic Center (207 775-345 or at ticketmaster.com.

Game 1: Wednesday, April 16th in Hartford, 7:00 PM

Game 2: Thursday, April 17 in Hartford, 7:00 PM

Game 3: Saturday, April 19 in PORTLAND, 7:05 PM

Game 4: Sunday, April 20 in PORTLAND, 6:05 PM

Game 5: Tuesday, April 22 in Hartford, 7:00 PM*

Game 6: Thursday, April 24 in PORTLAND, 7:05 PM*

Game 7: Saturday, April 26 in Hartford, 7:00 PM*

*If needed

Ticket prices are located here and can be purchased at the Cumberland County Civic Center (207 775-3458) or at ticketmaster.com.