On Frozen Blog

On Saturday, the Capitals hosted their third annual Hockey ‘n Heels event.  (See recaps from previous years here, here, and here.)  Over 300 women attended the event, which sold out in less than two days.  There were some changes from previous years; most notably, this time it was held at Kettler instead of the Verizon Center, and it was on a weekend day instead of a weeknight.  The ticket cost was still $65, which included a ticket to the Mar. 3 Carolina game ($45 without the game ticket), but it’s an additional $15 to attend the cocktail party on Wednesday.  Still, the price of the whole event was more reasonable than similar events in other NHL cities.

After an introduction by 107.3’s Chilli Amar, the ladies were separated into groups, and each group attended the following sessions:

• Hockey 101 “chalk talk” with Rod Langway and Lisa Hillary
• On-Ice Demonstrations with Dean Evason, Jeff Schultz, Tomas Fleischmann, Boyd Gordon, and Michal Neuvirth
• Hockey equipment discussion with Brett Leonhardt
• Film session with Bruce Boudreau

By far the most popular event were the on-ice demonstrations.  Each attendee was able to take a slapshot, guided by either Schultz or Fleischmann.  They were also able to put on the goalie’s glove and, with Neuvirth’s encouragement, attempt to catch a (soft) puck lofted towards them by Gordon.  This also turned into an impromptu photo/autograph session, but that was to be expected.

That’s not to say that the other sessions weren’t worthwhile, though.  I was able to catch parts of the other sessions and found them to be engaging and interesting.  The chalk talk by Langway and Hillary was helpful.  Boudreau, not surprisingly, had everyone cracking up with his witty commentary.  The equipment discussion was also pretty funny.  Someone asked a question about visor size and if it was regulated.  The answer was no, and the example of Crosby was given: “He wears a big one, to hide the tears.”

I was able to catch up with Boudreau between sessions and ask him about his recent comment that he was happy about the planned “Slap Shot” remake.  “It’s cool; the timing is good, if they do it right.  Now, if they do it like “Slap Shot” 2 & 3, straight to DVD, not so much.”  Amen to that, though I’m still not sure if a remake is such a good idea.  But hey, if Gabby thinks it’s cool, it can’t be all bad.

As always, it was a successful event; so successful, in fact, that the Caps are considering holding two per season.  See below for some photos.