Best Dinner Ever!

This is our 3rd straight year hosting, but we like hosting.  I think it was 3yrs ago when we didn't have a kitchen, and no flooring, just subfloor.  I forget what we ate.  Might have been chilli.

But honestly we enjoy hosting.  Now that we have a new kitchen, and bathroom to go with our basement that's pretty much designed and set up for hosting our yearly game console Tag Team NHL hockey.  We love having the guys come.  We really want the rest of the family to come too.  It's not a big space, but it's cozy and warm. Like our furnace is a few years old and we've insulated this house from the inside out.  So it's good!  And who doesn't love a heated bathroom floor?  Your feet do!

I really like how Tresa puts a dinner together. It's simple and fresh.  A bit Euro-ish with a fusion of Food Network Canada.  If it were up to me, i'd be ordering 20lbs of wings and celery and carrots, and extra wet naps.

But instead we go through a fury cleaning house from top to bottom and inside out, and I'm not allowed to go anywhere near FoodBasics or NoFrills, for dinner shopping.

Although I love taste of the cabbage mango, pomegranate, and other fresh stuff with carrot dressing or something, it was giving me some gas fuel.  But still awesome.  Couldn't stop eating it.  Glad it didn't affect me for the game.

Maybe it was the 4 different bomba's she had me get from the Cheese Boutique or the cheeses Kieran and I got there too.   All of the above could have given me gas, including the beers I was downing trying to calm my nerves and be steady like a defensive rock for the game.

Or the cheese cake chocolate things.  I may not be lactose intolerant but gasiness is a family trait.

2010, that's the last time Tony and I had our names on the Cup.
Seems like it was NHL99.  It all fun, but no matter how you slice it, it sucks to lose!

I wore my Drake Toronto Raptors Tee for some #PoundTheRock inspiration.



Gm1 Derrick and Hong 6-2
This was a blowout game.  We just stank.  No team work going on and we were just getting schooled.  It didn't look good initially.

Gm2 Ray and Tony 2-4
We were up early and remained in the lead.  A bit of a scare in the last minute of the game with a late goal, but we held on for the win.  It was now a best of 5 series.  It looked to be a see-saw battle of two very evenly matched teams.

Gm3 Ray and Tony 4-8
This was crushing them like wine grapes.  It was total game domination.
The beer was flowing.  We were firing on all cylinders.  One team was on a mission this year.  A mission to win it all.

Gm4 Derrick and Hong 8-7
A 3-1 lead in games seems too much to overcome, but a team has come back from elimination to win the series. But did they want to be in that position again?   It seemed that almost certain.  But with a 1 goal lead with less than 3 mins remaining, it was about trying to not make a mistake.  You could tell we were tight.  And that usually leads to a turnover.  They needed a quick goal and we needed to play keep away for 2-1/2 minutes and prevent scoring opportunities. Sure enough a turnover in our own zone led to a tying heart breaker goal.  You could feel the room to the left sink.
Time was winding down and it was almost inevitable that OT would be coming.

But OT did not arrive, a cheap goal in the dying seconds of the 3rd put Gm4 away and level the series at 2 all.

Gm5 Ray and Tony 6-7
This was about putting that last game behind us and responding.  And respond we did.
Getting out to a quick lead.  It was insurmountable, but again as the clock was ticking down and the comeback duo stormed back.  But they had dug a hole early and it was too deep to climb out.
It was in the books and 3 games to 2.
Their backs against the wall. Again.  But if any team could come back it was this one.

Gm6 Ray and Tony 6-7
It was close.  We were up 2-1 after 1, and down 2-3 after 2.  And it seemed like all was lost late into the final frame at 2-5 with 2 minutes to go. It was frustrating watching them score as they were interfering with our goalie to score 3 third period goals. And that 5th goal was a cheap one.  I looked at the replay and we put the goal into our own net.

But magical things seem to happen in the last 2 minutes.  It's like time slows down.  The will to come back takes over. Passes that shouldn't get through do.  And teams in the lead, tighten up and blow the lead.  Teams should win when up 3 goals.  They should.  But not today.

Two quick goals swung the pendulum the other way.  Now it was our turn to put the pressure.  They were talking to themselves, questioning moves, what-ifs.  It was a whole new game within the game.

Fierce determination, and wanting that puck more than the other can and usually does make good things happen.  With less than a minute to go a Blue Line to Blue Line pass was on the tape, a spin-o-rama move to the net, tied the game! It was the tipping point.  Momentum had swung past the point of no return. One team trying to hold on to OT and the other going for the WIN!

With less than a minute remaining. 2 more old school Sega style goals put the nail in the coffin.  Five 3rd period goals by the same team is crazy! It was almost over.  Almost!  But with seconds remaining, a goal made it 6-7.  But it was too little too late.

Sorry, but WE WIN! Finally after years of 7 games series and always falling short.  Last time it was a blown 3-1 series lead and unable to win just 1 more game.  Redemption.

And it was well past my bedtime when we finished, and it took some time for the adrenalin of finally getting the monkey off our back that keeps saying "get it out!", and play keep away with the puck to frustrate us for the past 4 years, wear off and I was able to slip into a state of happy slumber.

So I was a bit tired in the morning when my alarm when off and shocked me out of REM.  I'm okay with feeling a bit wrecked, cuz we won The Cup.