February 8-9

Saturday lunch with Jenny and her mother, in the evening we were at the Arena for Royals hockey. The club went 3-3 on the recent road trip, this was the team's first home game since January 20. The Wheeling Nailers were the opponent for the opener of a two-game series, in celebration of the Olympic Games getting underway in Russia the Royals wore special jerseys saluting the various participating countries. Legendary professional wrestler George "The Animal" Steele was in the house, he dropped the ceremonial first puck and signed autographs. I met him years ago when he made an appearance at a local minor league baseball game, he's a very nice man (the exact opposite of the character he portrayed in his wrestling career). The Royals took a quick 1-0 lead on a score by T.J. Syner but the Nailers scored the next four, defenseman Mike Banwell made it 4-2 but another Wheeling goal wrapped it up at 5-2. Riley Gill returned from the AHL during the road trip, he made his first Arena appearance since December 28 and took the loss in goal. On Sunday afternoon we were back for game #2, the Royals turned the tables with a 5-3 win. The Nailers scored first but the Royals replied on goals from Michal Cajkovsky and Domenic Monardo to take a 2-1 lead. Wheeling would tie it at 2-2 before Sean Wiles restored the lead, third-period scores by Marvin Degon and Julien Cayer (empty-netter) put the ribbon on the box as Brandon Anderson picked up the win. The victory came at a price, in the second period Yannick Tifu fell awkwardly into the boards and suffered what was termed an "upper-body" injury (hockey is a sport notorious for keeping specifics on injuries very secretive, it's probably the only pro sport where a man can have a broken ankle and have the world believe it's back spasms). How long Yannick will be out is to be determined, hopefully it's not a prolonged absence. The club's record stands at 26-16-1, they play on the road twice during the week before hosting Evansville on the weekend. There was snow in the forecast, it arrived during the game. As we were leaving Jenny slipped and fell on the steps outside the building, she banged her right elbow and wrist. A fan came by who claimed to be an EMT, he gave her a quick examination and said there didn't appear to be any swelling or damage outside of the impact itself. The drive home took a little longer than usual but it was more wet than white, I just stuck to the main roads and avoided the shortcuts. The snow had all but stopped by the time I got them home, when I got back to the city I was more than happy to be there. Take care, thanks for reading.