Morning all,,

Washington is a great city to visit, but the time of year (Spring
Break & Easter) made things busy. My feet gave out on Friday, so I
didn't get to nearly as much as I had intended. I got enough of a
taste to figure out what I wanted to do when I go for real. That said,
some of that was my doing, since I decided to go to Baltimore for a
lacrosse game on Saturday morning. The lacrosse game did at least
allow me to say that I at least saw the host institution play over the
weekend. :-)

The Verizon Center was fine, but all the new buildings look the same
to me. The downtown location was an advantage. My seats were in the
top corner, which was fine for the first game. It all went pear-shaped
for the second game when I got up to my spot and saw that BU students
had taken the section over. (The poor security guard & usher tried to
put people into their proper seats, but it was ultimately futile.) Had
UVM won the semi, I suspect I might have had some room to stretch out
for the final. As it turned out, thankfully a BU student caught me out
front and offered to swap. It took me approximately 0.2 seconds to
agree to it.

As for the dinner, the venue was great. I would have liked to do the
introductions, but the nature of the place we were didn't really allow
for it. Since this was my third one of these, I did know - at least by
face and/or jersey - most of the people there, but it would have been
more difficult were this my first. The hotel was fine. Being close,
and having a bar on the ground floor was an advantage, and I was
flattered to be carded for the first time in many years.

I don't know that there is much more than can be said about the games
(other than the last 30 minutes of Miami-BSU) that hasn't been said
already. BU's comeback was the most fitting end to a tournament
(season!) that had as many last-minute comebacks as this one.

Looking forward to seeing everybody next year. Not sure how much I'm
looking forward to Detroit itself, though.

John

-- 
John Edwards
I used to put quotes here.

On Sun, Apr 12, 2009 at 6:59 PM, Hampton, Nathan E.
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I know people probably wanted personal/event accounts AS they were happening, so I thought I would just throw the first stone out there and see what kind of ripples it makes.
> (1) The City: Loved it -- right up there with Anaheim and Boston as towns with so much to do, you cannot do it all in the few days you visit. Eric and Paula made the right move and got there early and are leaving late. DC is so good it made me sore -- physically aching legs from walking around so much. The monuments, the museums ("1934 A New Deal for Artists" at the National Portrait Gallery was my favorite), the cherry blossoms (particularly around the Tidal Basin where the FDR and Jefferson monuments are), and the weather we all so good that you have to go back for more.
> (2) The Venue: The Verizon Center is fine (no arena is great, except a few). Right on the metro stop, 2 blocks from the hotel, and right next door to the Hockey-L dinner.
> (3) The Dinner: great fun. Plenty of room for even the kids to run around, and the willing adults to table-hop (it was Easter afterall). The food kept coming, and  I really liked it. Two problems (differences) - first of all we are becoming a very small group, and the networking skills and abilities that Hockey-L presents are best when the group is big. We really need to work on that. We should have a person-occupied table with flyers (much like USCHO did a few years back in Boston) to let the thousands of college hockey fans that we exist and how to join. Secondly, The structure of the event did not allow for what is my most fun thing about the Hockey-L dinner (and one tradition we have not kept up), which is the standing up and introducing yourself and your group and where you are from. However, John and Mary Beth were tremendously gracious hosts and kudos to their choice.
> (4) The Games: better than expected, advertised, and some other frozen fours. I told my wife (who hates OT) when Miami got up 3-1 that "the way all the regional have gone this year, the game will get tied up in the last minute and we will go to overtime." The final was the FINAL, a great game of a great season. Bemidji State fans stayed and cheered, the Vermont-BU game was incredibly good fire-wagon hockey throughout the third period (and I am not a BU fan), and the locals who attended saw a tremendous display of what college hockey has to offer.
> (5) The Hotel: very nice and convenient. You are two to four blocks from hotel front door to Verizon front door. Plus they had a bar where the Vermont faithful gathered before the semifinal game. And it was right on the edge of Chinatown, with some incredible restaurants (a great restaurant is a hole in the wall, and these were). Plus less than two blocks from the Metro stop, which when arriving at 11PM at night, really helps.
>
> Nathan