It's A Sabretooth World

Last night, David, Madeline and I had another opportunity to head to the hockey game. David's boss originally had claim to the company's season tickets but had to cancel out of attending at the last minute. As a result, the tickets were passed back to David who had a hard time getting a business contact to attend on such short notice.......so, off to the game we went. The last time we attended the game was Madeline's first hockey game and she did well with all the excitement, despite the late hours. This time, however, Madeline was a bit more testy. I guess it was all old hat for her this time around.

The other comparison between games was that this game was a bit more heated. And for those of you that know anything about hockey, know that means a fight (or two or three or four) will break out on the ice. Luckily Madeline was usually in her own little world and didn't notice anything was really going on until the fight was breaking up. The one time Madeline asked, "What happened?" and we explained that one of the players wasn't being nice and hit another player so now they have to go into a "time-out"....and then we showed her the player skating off into the penalty box. Another time, as a bunch of players were in a heap on the ice, Madeline asked, "What happened" and David told her that "one of the players fell down and the other players were helping him up" Oh, brother!

At Madeline's first game, we were lucky enough to chase after and hug Sabretooth (the Sabres mascot). Madeline really has no idea how lucky she was for that to happen so I wasn't surprised when half the game she kept asking, "Where's Sabretooth?" and telling me, "I want to go see Sabretooth". Certainly, this girl was bound to be disappointed. With approximately 17,000 people, what are the chances of getting another close encounter with the team's mascot? Finally, half-way thorough the 3rd period, Madeline was getting more difficult. It was, of course 10pm and wayyyyy past her bedtime so the fact that we did not have to pay for our tickets made the decision to leave (even though the game was tied) easier. As we were walking down the corridor, we weren't paying attention to what we were doing. Mama and Papa were fidgeting with coats, etc, and Madeline was waving around her stuffed Sabretooth that she brought from home. Needless to say, we were quite surprised when we finally looked up and saw Sabretooth only about 5 feet in front of us and heading right toward us. As we were about to pass him, Sabretooth stopped, waved directly at Madeline and then bent down and gave Madeline a huge, over-sized Sabretooth hug. Wow! How exciting!! Of course, now, without a doubt, Madeline will assume that she will hug Sabretooth at *every* game.

BTW, we got home in enough time to catch the end of the game while Madeline was getting into her PJs. The game went into overtime and the Sabres ended up winning the game through a shootout. Go Sabres!