In my years as a reporter for The Concordian, I have been to too many hockey games at the Ed Meagher arena. Much of the time, I am relying on the announcer sitting on the other end of the arena to figure out goals, assists, and penalties. If I miss his call, often I am at the mercy of the rarely updated CIS website boxscores.
A lot of the time, I find the announcer to be annoying, either pronouncing names wrong, or miscalling goals and assists (although for that they are at the mercy of the referee).
But, at the men’s hockey game on Saturday afternoon, I had the chance to be on the other side of the arena as the announcer.
Before the game started, I wasn’t nervous, until the players started to take the ice and I had to start the pre-game introductions. But, as soon as that was done, it was clear sailing.
Almost.
A lot of translations for penalties I knew (thanks RDS!), others not so much, and never was it more apparent then when I had to announce a game misconduct penalty. I just ignored that and didn’t announce it in French.
That said, the job would have been infinitely harder without a translation partnet coveniently beside me (Thank you!), and I have to thank Catherine Grace and Eric Boghen for making the transition as seamless as possible.
Also, I have to mention the absolute best rendition of “O’ Canada!” I have ever heard at a university sporting event.
Two thumbs up to Megan Smith.
The hardest part was announcing the five penalties at one time, with players on both teams. I just hope I didn’t screw anything up and that there are no mistakes in other people’s reporting because of me.
I will tell you one thing, the view from the other side of the glass was different, and it was a lot of fun. Hearing players complaining about the penalties called against them was a nice added wrinkle.
By the end of the game, it was something I genuinely enjoyed; I just wished the game went into a shootout, but I have no complaints about the way it actually ended.
A shorthanded goal on a breakaway in overtime is a pretty good ending, don’t you think?
A new season, a new hope
With the men’s hockey season starting off with a split against Brock and Guelph, and the women’s hockey team starting the season this Friday at home against the Ottawa Gee-Gees, you can feel the excitement building in the Ed Meagher arena. Both teams are much more experienced then a year ago and both teams have high hopes to improve upon their season a year ago.
The women’s hockey team, if you read my season preview, only had three veterans who graduated from the team, and have all the other key members of the team back for this season. If a 3-2 pre-season record is any indication, this season the team should be able to win more games than a year ago.
Football team takes hard loss
Ouch. A tough road trip to Sherbrooke, and the Concordia Stingers face a very steep uphill climb to the top of the Quebec conference. After a loss to the Saint Mary’s Huskies, the Stingers lost their second game of the season, and now need the Laval Rouge et Or to lose one game in addition to beating the defending Vanier Cup champs in the season finale.
It doesn’t look good, and that means that the road to the Vanier Cup for the Stingers has to go through Quebec City.
Again.
And that is close to impossible to overcome.
