Sunday, March 31, 2013

Easter = Christmas

Hello from Ottawa!  I made it here with no issues!  The Philly airport was like a ghost town - clearly people don't like fly on a holiday!  The plane up to Ottawa was super small, I think it held about 40 people and was only half full.  We arrived in 1:10 and I was able to get through customs pretty quickly.  After exiting customs I found our guide waiting for me with Marie, who had just arrived from France.  He took us back to the hotel which was only about 15 minutes from the airport.  On the way we drove along the famous Ottawa Canal.  During the winter the canal freezes and people skate up and down the city.  Unfortunately it is a little too warm right now and the ice has started to melt but I imagine that has to be a pretty neat way to get around.

Once I got to the hotel, which is really nice, I found out that I'm rooming with Stephanie Gagnon from Canada.  Stephanie was with me in Czech Republic last year and is super nice so I was excited to find out I was with her.  I was able to unpack my bags and get settled just in time for our meeting at 7:00.

The 7:00 meeting was quick but very eventful.  First received our meal money (in Canadian currency) and breakfast passes for the week.  Then we received per diem money from the IIHF in Swiss Francs.  Thank goodness there is a safe in the room because between Stephanie and I there is a ton of cash in here!  After getting paid we received all of our gear for the tournament.  I was given a jersey, helmet, small visor (so glad I didn't buy a new one before I left!), track suit, polo and a really nice jacket.  And shockingly, just about everything fits!  The only thing that is a little big is the sweater but at least it is wearable this year, unlike last year where it was literally a dress (for my hockey friends, I was given a 48 last year - I normally wear a 44 women's cut).  After getting all of our gear, the supervisors gathered us up and gave us the plan for tomorrow.  We have to meet early in the morning at Scotia Bank (the big arena) to have our headshots and group photo taken in all our new gear.  Following the photo session we are going to skate a bit to allow everyone to get used to the ice and get a sweat in.  After the skate we'll have our big meeting where we will go over all the details for the tournament.  Before we broke away for the night they sent us into a meeting room where we all had a welcome basket waiting.  We were all pretty speechless when we saw everything that was in there.  Along with a bunch of information on the city, there were two nice little bags, playing cards, stationary and some snacks.  However, the theme of the basket was clearly alcohol because also included was a bottle of cider, a bottle of Crown Royal, a flask, a shot glass, and a wine stopper, all with the tournament logo (including on the bottle of Crown Royal).  It was awesome!  I have to laugh though, does the tournament committee think we are going to need all this alcohol?  Plus I never drink during these tournaments anyway so if anyone likes Crown Royal stop by my house when I get home.  Regardless, they clearly went all out and it is very much appreciated, we all thought it was awesome.

After taking our haul back to our rooms, many of the Europeans crashed.  I feel their pain, adjusting to a new time zone that is 7+ hours different is really tough. A few of us ran out to a local pub to get a quick bite to eat before retiring to our rooms.  Early morning tomorrow so as soon as I'm finished this entry it is time to crash.  Happy Easter everyone!

Leaving today!

Happy Easter!  I must admit, it is a little strange not to be with my family today but if there was ever a good reason to miss a holiday this is it.  My friend Alison is picking me up and taking me to the airport in about 30 minutes (thanks Alison!).  I can't believe after all the months of training and getting ready it is finally time to leave!

As is standard practice before I go away, I was up until 2 in the morning last night doing laundry and packing.  One would think I would have figured out that part of these adventures by now but not so much.  And in typical fashion, I absolutely over packed!  Good thing I have a scale this time to weigh my bags, the one bag is 49lbs!  When I went to China I had to run over to my friends house at 12:30 at night to borrow her scale to weigh my bags, only to find one was overweight.  My mom read about it on this blog and when she picked me up from the airport she had a scale waiting for me in the car, haha!

Now that it is time to leave I look back over the past 6 months and I feel as though I'm in a really good spot.  One thing I did a little differently this time around is I was able to get more opportunities to line.  For the IIHF I'm a linesman but when I work college hockey I typically referee. While the two positions are similar, they are also very different - different positioning, things to watch for and even a different mindset.  I was able to line number of games in the Atlantic Junior Hockey League which was great experience.  A lot of the boys who play in that league go on to play D3 or even D1 hockey so they are big and fast - probably much faster than everyone but USA and Canada.  You have to have a lot of awareness when working that league because 17-20 year old boys are testosterone filled idiots who do stupid things behind the play so it was great preparation.  Physically I feel great.  I am stronger than I've ever been.  I continued to do crossfit 4 days a week, swam once a week and ran some.  This winter I really focused on working on my efficiency and worked on my weaknesses and the improvement has shown.  I finished week 4 of the Crossfit Open this week and my results are definitely much better than last year.  And mentally I feel ready.  I know I've put in the work so I'm confident.

Lastly, a little bit about the other two Americans going with me.  Laura Johnson (from Rochester) is the other linesman going.  She is one of my closest friends in the officiating community so I'm thrilled to share this experience with her.  We were roommates at several camps as well as in China and we get along great. We always joke around that we are the perfect pair because she under packs and I over pack so she just wears my extra clothes!  Krissy Langley is the other American going.  She is a referee from Minnesota.  Krissy is also one of the nicest people you will ever meet.  We worked 4 Nations Cup together in Lake Placid as well as a number of national team events and national tournaments.  I'm so psyched to be traveling with both those girls.

Time to go to the airport, next post will be from Ottawa! Also, good luck to my men's league team in the deciding game of the championship series tonight! I'll be there in spirit!

Friday, March 29, 2013

Tournament Details

My out of office message at work is up and I am officially on vacation!  Now that work is taken care of I can get really excited and focus on getting packed and ready.  As I mentioned before, I leave on Sunday afternoon and arrive in Ottawa Sunday evening. I have to admit, it feels bit strange to be going to a World Championship tournament where my flight is shorter than the time I'm going to have to be at the airport in advance of said flight!  When I found out I was going to A pool in Ottawa, I was so excited because it is the top level tournament but I'm not going to lie, from a travel perspective this is the most "boring" location I've been to (compared to China, France and Czech Republic).  That said, it does make life much easier, I don't have to worry about packing food or the time change and if I forget something it will be pretty easy to go buy.  And working a tournament in Canada should be an amazing experience since hockey is their national sport.

So on to some of the tournament details and how the IIHF works.  I'm going to the Women's World Championship A pool tournament.  On the women's side, the IIHF sponsors multiple World Championship tournaments at both the senior and u18 levels.  At the senior level, there are 6 "levels" of tournaments.  The winner of each tournament moves up a level and the loser moves down.  Each Olympic year, the top 6 ranked teams automatically qualify and the lower teams have to go though Olympic qualifiers to try to earn the last 2 spots.  The first IIHF tournament I worked was Division 2 in France so I saw the mid-level countries - France, Italy, Great Britain, Denmark, etc.  Last season I worked the u18 A pool tournament, so I saw the top level teams in that age group.  This year I'm at the top level senior tournament, meaning the teams and players I see on the ice will look very similar to those that are on the ice in Russia next year.  Pretty exciting!

This year at the A pool tournament the following countries will be participating - USA, Canada, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Russia, Czech Republic and Germany.  In women's hockey, the USA and Canada are years ahead of the other countries, simply because the player pools are deeper and the national federations give the women's programs plenty of funding.  Because of this, in pasts worlds there were lots of blowouts in the early rounds.  In order to make the games more competitive, the IIHF changed the format last year.  The teams are placed in two pools, A pool and B pool for the round robin portion.  The A pool teams are the top 4 ranked teams from last year - Canada, USA, Switzerland and Finland.  B pool includes Sweden, Russia, Germany and Czech Republic, who moved up from Division 1 last year.  This means the very first night of the tournament will feature a USA/Canada game, which is always a battle.  After the round robin portion, the 3rd and 4th place team from Pool A will play a quarterfinal game with the 1st and 2nd place teams from Pool B.  The top two teams in Pool A will receive a bye to the semis and the bottom two teams in Pool B will play a 3 game relegation series, with the loser dropping to division 1 in 2015 (there are no worlds during olympic years).

The games are being played at two different venues in Ottawa.  A pool round robin games are being played at Scotiabank place, home of the NHL's Ottawa Senators.  B pool round robin games are being played at the Nepean Sportsplex, a smaller arena that seats several thousand.  I've read many of the team Canada games are close to being sold out so skating in front of 20,000 fans will be a new experience for me.  Many of the games are going to be broadcast on TSN and I believe a few games may be broadcast on the NHL network so keep a lookout.  Here are some links where you can follow the tournament:

Official Website - http://www.worldwomen2013.com
Hockey Canada's Site - http://www.hockeycanada.ca/en-ca/Team-Canada/Women/World-Championship/2013.aspx
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/WorldWomens?ref=ts&fref=ts

I'll probably post one more time before I leave.  I'll talk about my packing adventures, who I'm traveling with, how I prepared and what I'm doing after the tournament.  Have a good Friday!

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

You're leaving the country for two weeks?!?

Over the last few days at work I've been busy trying to tie up loose ends before I go away.  When I've gone to tournaments in years past I've had no access to my work email, which is both a blessing and a curse.  It is nice because it is the only true vacation I get where I'm completely unplugged but it is also so overwhelming to come back to hundreds of emails. However, as technology evolves companies figure out more ways to keep their employees connected.  The Hartford has some new technology where I was able to download an app to my ipad that will allow me to check my work email while I'm gone.  I can't decide if I'm happy about that or not, we'll see.  Regardless, I've had a number of conversations with both clients and internal business partners that if they need something from me I need to know about it by Friday since I will be out of the country for 2 weeks starting on Monday.  Inevitably, I immediately get asked the question "oh where are you going?" At that point I can go one of two directions - I can either just say I'm going to Canada and leave it at that or I can explain what it is I'll actually be doing.  More often than not I go with the latter, just because saying I'm going to Canada for two weeks doesn't sound very exciting!  Most of the time when people say they are leaving the country they are going to a warm beach or some sort of European adventure! 

So when I decide to explain a little further, I've been starting the conversation with "Fun fact about me - I moonlight as an ice hockey official and was selected to go to Ottawa to work the 2013 Women's World Championships."  The reactions have been entertaining - some people are totally shocked, like they had no idea that girls hockey even existed or that I was involved in sports at all.  For the most part, once they get over the shock factor most people are pretty interested in hearing more about how I got started and what exactly I'll be doing so it turns into a 5-10 minute conversation.  In those conversations I learned that one of my clients is an NCAA lacrosse official and one of the home office employees I work with has a daughter who started playing hockey this winter.  It is always nice when you can connect with work colleagues on a more personal level.  I thought about going into some details on here about exactly how I got involved in officiating but in the interest of time I'm going to recycle an entry from last year. Click here for that blog entry. 

I'm on the road most of the day tomorrow at meetings then tomorrow night I'm playing in game 1 of the championship series for the Penn Men's League.  My team pulled off a big upset Sunday night in the semifinals to move on to the championship!  Game 2 is Thursday night and game 3, if necessary is on Sunday night after I leave so we need to just take care of business in 2! While I'm totally excited we made the championship and happy that I'm staying on the ice all week I'm a little stressed because that is less time I have to get stuff done before leaving.  Alright, off to bed.  Next entry I'll give some more details about the actual tournament that I'll be working.  Goodnight!

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Ottawa in a week!

As I promised, I will continue this blog in memory of my Grandma.  I hope she is reading this from up above! If you don't know the story, read my "letter" from Feb. 2nd, 2012.

Well here we go for Round 4!  Last time I posted, it was 181 days until the start of the tournament.  I don't know where the time has gone but this time next week I'll be in Ottawa for the Women's World Championships!  Every year the IIHF announces the tournament assignments in early October.  Last year, when I went to u18's, I only had to wait 3 months and the tournament occurred at the halfway point of my season.  Anyone involved in hockey knows the season can get to be very long.  The travel wears on you, physically and mentally you just get tired.  I must admit, I struggled a little bit mentally after the tournament last year because my big event for the season was over.  This year the scenario is much different.  I have had this huge reward all season to look forward to.  So on those cold, dark winter days when the last thing I felt like doing was driving to another ice rink, this kept me motivated and working hard.  It hit me today when I was getting changed after my last game before I leave - I've put in the work all season, now it is time for the reward.

So at this point here is what I know - I leave Philadelphia on Easter Sunday at 3:30 and arrive in Ottawa at 5:15.  Beyond that I really don't know much about the tournament in terms of where we are staying or our schedule.  That said, it doesn't really matter because the only thing I can think about right now is how much stuff I take care of before I leave!  The to-do list includes taking care of a bunch of stuff at work, sending in my tax returns, do the Crossfit Open workout #4, and running a 5k that supports a charity near and dear to my mom's heart (lbrun.org if you are in the Philly area). And did I mention laundry, packing, cleaning the house and paying my bills!  It's crazy how much I have to do to prepare to leave the country for 2 weeks!  In between getting all that done, I'll try to update this blog a few times with some more details about the tournament, my preparations and how I got to this point.  Off to meet my parents for dinner and give my mom my referee pants to hem (at least I can check that off the list), have a great Sunday!