Erik gave a pretty good report on what we did during the Phinal
Phour... and a lot of you saw the games, and everyone else has already
commented on them, so you know about (most of) the hockey, so I won't
repeat it all... but a couple of things are worth commenting on.
 
OUR CRUISE DIRECTOR
===================
Carol really did a super job as Cruise Director. It is a lot of work,
but having someone organize the core events (other than the games, of
course) really made it that much easier to just have fun!  The pins are
great, and this year's additions to the Hockey-L collection (shirts and
sweats) really look sharp!
 
OUR OTHER HOSTS
===============
Erik and Paula brought their Ceramic Dalmation, and the 8-ball.  They
goofed and forgot to be specific enough when asking the 8-ball if the
Gophers would beat the Terriers (it said yes ...  now they are
wondering *when* it will happen). Also, Erik and Paula generously let
the party move to their their hotel room every night.... (although they
said something about it being on Pam's credit card).
 
THE NEW MARIUCCI ARENA
======================
If you haven't seen the new Mariucci Arena, you haven't seen the best
college hockey rink. I'm a Badger, not a Gopher, and even I will admit
it is the best (I wanted to take it home, but it didn't fit in my
suitcase).
 
The tour was really nice. Skating on the big ice (Olympic size) was
lots of fun. We really need to skate somewhere in Providence, and a
game would be great (probably soft puck, since we have people at all
levels, and an injury would really ruin the Phinal Phour)!
 
STUB & HERB's
=============
I'd heard about Stub and Herb's for years.... and it lived up to its
reputation. The Vegie Chicken sandwich is great. Make sure to go there
when you visit the Twin Cities.
 
THE VULCANS (USHL) GAME
=======================
Erik was generous in his description of the game. Good, clean hockey it
wasn't. We determined that 2-line passes are only called if
the puck crosses an even number of lines (3 are ok?), and cross-checking your
opponent when the linesman is standing BETWEEN you is ok too.
 
Depite that, it was a lot of fun -- more time to talk to people and
compare observations on a game, plus cheer for the "shootout"
contestants. When the scoreboard wasn't updated, and we started
chanting "2 plus 1 is 3!" some of the regular patrons began (?) giving
us dirty looks... but we had fun!!
 
CLASS ACT AWARD
===============
The BU fans in general, and especially Hockey-l's own Tony and
Adam (and Tony's dad), deserve the Class Act Award. They cheered
on BU to the very end... and stayed for the awards ceremony,
applauding the Lakers for their win. When we found them later at
the hotel, they had recently finished an indoor whiffle-ball game
with some of the LSSU fans (The cop was still keeping an eye on
them, however).
 
NEXT YEAR
=========
If you missed this year's Phinal Phour, you missed out on a lot of
good hockey and hockey-l fun. If you haven't already, order your
tickets now for Providence! I hear they may go *real* fast.
 
        --david
 
ps: Mike M. has some quotes he promised to post ...