Great day of Games

Today we had 4 really great games.  We all meet for breakfast around 9.  From 10-12, the supervisors had individual meetings with us.  My meeting went really well, I got a lot of positive feedback and have a few little things to work on.  After our meetings, I took a quick nap then met my crew for lunch before heading to the rink for the day.  While I can't give specific details about my game, I can say that it was an awesome - probably the 2nd best game I worked all season (USA/Canada takes my #1 spot).  My partners and I worked really well together and we had a blast.

I mentioned in an earlier blog that the USA and Canada were expected to dominate the competition.  And while it is still going to be USA and Canada in the finals, based on the results today I'd say the gap is shrinking.  Even compared to when I was at this tournament 2 years ago, the teams are all improving.  It will be interesting to see if this carries over to the women's worlds in the next few years.  However, Katie made an interesting observation.  All of the girls in this tournament have yet to go on to college, where they will go through some pretty intense training over the next 4-5 years.  Will the girls that attend NCAA schools improve significantly?  And will they improve more than the girls from Europe who choose to play closer to home?  Like I said, I'll be interested to see the results at women's worlds over the next few years to see the carry over effect.

After the games today we had a quick dinner then it was off to bed.  Apparently Europe does their daylight savings time the last Saturday in March (vs North America who does the 2nd Saturday in March) so lucky me gets to lose an hour for the second time this spring!  Now if we were gaining an hour I certainly wouldn't complain, but losing an hour for the 2nd time sucks!  I seriously had no idea (nor did any of the other North Americans) Europe did their time change differently.  How about the whole world compromise and we do it the 3rd Saturday in March?  That would make a lot more sense!  Any idea where I can send my suggestion, lol?  Goodnight!

Another Day Away From the Rink

Today was our 2nd day off.  Unlike last time when we still had some IIHF related activities, this was truly a complete day off.  We are getting to crunch time in the tournament so it is nice to step away to give yourself both a physical and mental break.  We all planned to meet for breakfast around 9.  We had arranged for a bus to take us downtown again at 10:30.  This time we were dropped off at Castle Hill on the Buda side of the river.  I had actually never been to this part of Budapest so I was excited to see something new.  The views were phenomenal.  After taking lots of photos, we headed back to the bus and were dropped off near where we ate lunch on Tuesday.  We walked all around that area and through a little open air market where many of the girls did some shopping.  Mom, you will be very proud of me.  Knowing that I am moving 2 weeks from tomorrow, I refrained from buying any little Budapest trinkets.  The only thing I will be bringing home from this trip other than the clothes I was given is chocolate.

Following the shopping, we ate lunch at an awesome outdoor cafe overlooking the city.  The weather today was perfect for it - it was in the mid 60s and sunny with a light breeze.  Maria (from Slovakia) decided she thought our waiter was cute so she got his email address!  It was really funny, she said she would come back to visit on her next holiday! After our lunch we headed back to the main part of town to be picked up by the bus to go back to the hotel.  Once we got back to the hotel, everyone changed into their swimsuits and headed down to the sauna and pools.  After our pool time everyone got cleaned up and went to dinner.  The food here in general has been pretty good.  My only complaint (and this is partially my own doing) is I've been eating way more carbs (think bread and pasta) than I normally do. Once I get home I need to get back on track with my diet.  Dinner tonight just wasn't doing it for many of us so we decided to walk to a little strip mall that had a grocery store and some other shops after we were done eating.  I have been absolutely craving something chocolate so I was able to get some gelato.  It totally hit the spot. After walking back to the hotel, everyone headed back to their rooms to relax and get ready for tomorrow.  The semifinals, game 2 of relegation and the 5th/6th placement game are all tomorrow.  Every game has huge world ranking implications.  To see what I'm working click here: http://stats.iihf.com/Hydra/365/IHW365000_58_9_0.pdf.

I can't believe we only have two more days of games and the tournament ends on Sunday.  I say the same thing every year but it feels like we just started the other day!  I have one or two more games left in my season, I'm hoping to make them my best ones yet!

Quarterfinals

Today was a really busy day!  We got up early to head to the rink for pictures.  We did individual head shots, a formal group picture and a few informal, fun shots.  After the photo session we stayed on the ice and did a few drills to work on things the supervisors wanted us to focus on for the rest of the tournament.  Just as the teams are getting better each day we have to continue to get better as well.  After the drills Romana was able to get us a bunch of sticks and we played shinny.  Unfortunately all of the sticks were lefties so I wasn't able to show off my sick hands (all my hockey friends should sense my sarcasm there).  We had split up the other day by age - older half of the group on one team and younger half on the other.  I am the youngest on the old team.  I'm happy to say that the old lady team took it to the youngsters!

After our time at the rink we came back, ate breakfast and had a meeting to review some things from the previous days games.  Following the meeting, just about everyone went to take a nap!  I find that I sleep so much more at these tournaments than I do at home.  I go to bed earlier, wake up later and get a nap in here and there!  If only I could sleep this much at home, I imagine I'd feel much more refreshed!

Following nap time I headed to the rink for my game.  Today were the quarterfinals and the first game of the relegation series.  To see what I worked click here:  http://stats.iihf.com/Hydra/365/IHW365000_58_9_0.pdf.  My game was a lot of fun to work.  Both teams were evenly matched and battled hard.  An IIHF tradition is at the end of the game the anthem of the winning team is played.  The team that won my game was belting out their anthem!   It is pretty cool to be a part of something like that.  After skating my game I had to be a goal judge for the Hungry game.  The host provides goal judges for all games that their team is not a part of .  Us linesman rotate being goal judges when the home team plays.  When you goal judge you sit behind the net with a clicker.  When the puck crosses the goal line, you click your light on.  I was nervous, I didn't want to click the light by accident!

It is pretty crazy that we now only have 2 days worth of games left!  Time flies when you are having fun!  Tomorrow is another off day.  Ramona is arranging a bus for us to do something in the city - I'm not sure what!  It is so helpful to have someone who speaks Hungarian and knows the area.  I'm not sure what we would do without her!  Have a good night!

Back at the rink

After a nice day off yesterday games started back up today.  We had a quick meeting at 10:00 this morning to get the rest of our IIHF gear and review a few logistical items.  Afterwards, I went to the hotel gym and rode the bike for about 45 minutes to keep the legs loose.  We then had a quick lunch and it was off the the rink for the day.  To see what I did for the day, click this link: http://stats.iihf.com/Hydra/365/IHW365000_58_6_0.pdf  Hint - SBL is short for stand by linesman.

Following the games, we headed back to the hotel to eat.  A few of the girls have found they like the cold tubs here at Aquaworld but I am definitely not one of them!  I thought this might be a good entry to talk about who all is here:

Referees
Draha - Czech Republic but lives in Switzerland
Gabby - Sweden
Katie - Boston, MA.  I went to France with her a few years ago!
Meghan - Canada (New Brunswick area)
Maria - Slovakia
Ramona - Germany

Linesman
Bettina - Austria
Jana - Slovakia (and my roommate for the week)
Jenni - Finland
Veronica - Sweden
Kaire - Estonia
Jennifer - Canada (Toronto area)
Anna - Norway
Malene - Denmark

Supervisors
Stacey - Richmond, VA.  You might recognize her name from when I went to China.
Todd - Canada
Simon - Great Britain
Kim - Denmark

As you can see, we have quite the mix of nationalities in the group!  Everyone is really nice and their English is pretty good.  I write this every time and this will be no different - I am so impressed with how everyone else here speaks multiple languages.  I wish I could speak something other than English!  

Tomorrow morning is team picture day now that we all have our gear.  Unfortunately my hair straightener is not working, even with a power converter so I don't think I'm going to have a great hair day!  Quarterfinals and game 1 of relegation start tomorrow as well so we should have 3 great games to look forward to.  Good night!

A day away from the rink

At most IIHF tournaments, they give the players a day off every few days to allow them to rest and recover.  Today was the first of those days.  This morning we started bright and early and completed all of our testing in one shot.  Everyone (myself included) always gets stressed about testing so while it was a lot to do in one morning we were all glad to get it over and done with.  Once we were finished we all relaxed for a bit before catching a bus to downtown Budapest.

After arriving downtown, the group split up.  Some choose to go shopping and the others choose to do a little sightseeing.  I went with the sightseeing group.  Fortunately we had an awesome guide who spoke Hungarian in Ramona.  Ramona is from Germany but her mother is from Budapest so she knows both the language and the city.  Most people don't know this but Budapest is actually split by the Danube River into two parts - Buda and Pest.  We walked across the famous Chain Bridge from the Pest side to Buda.  From there we walked up a huge hill to the castle district and saw the changing of the guards.  Of course we took the standard tourist photos of us next to them!  After watching the ceremony we walked around a bit more to a portion called the Citadella.  This is a huge church and then some ornate stone walls overlooking the entire Pest side of the city.  I remember this well from when Dina and I were here a few years ago but it is still just as spectacular.  While we were walking around there were two guys with giant eagles that you could pay to hold.  Katie and Maria decided to go for it so we all were laughing as they held these giant birds!  Then Ramona took us to this beautiful outdoor cafe at the very top of the stone structures.   There we had traditional Hungarian soup for lunch and listened to a 3 guys play music.  I'm not sure who was enjoying it more, us or them because they certainly seemed to get a kick out of us!  Lunch took a little longer than expected so we had to rush to catch the bus back to the hotel but it was a great afternoon spent away from the hockey rink.

After we got back to the hotel we found out that most of our IIHF gear had cleared customs.  The supervisors were able to give us our track suits, a polo and a really nice fleece lined jacket.  What makes it even better is they are actually women's sizes this year!  Once we got all of our gear we had to get ready for our next little excursion.  The organizing committee had arranged a bus tour of the city for us. The unique thing about this bus tour though was it actually drove into the Danube River and turned into a boat. It was kind of like the duck boats but it was definitely more of a bus than a boat.  One really funny moment happened when we entered the water and they asked Simon, one of our supervisors to switch sides because we were tilted to one side.  As soon as he switched the bus flattened out.  I don't think he will ever live that down!

After the tour we came back to the hotel, had some dinner then went down to the sauna/hot tub for a little relaxation.  Back to work tomorrow with the final preliminary round games!

Gameday #2

Today was the 2nd day of games here in Budapest.  As I mentioned before, the IIHF has set a very strict social media policy for this tournament so I'm not allowed to give too many details.  I can share with you this link that says what game I worked: http://stats.iihf.com/Hydra/365/IHW365000_58_3_0.pdf

This morning prior to the games we had a meeting where we reviewed the games from yesterday.  One cool thing this group of supervisors is doing is using the coaches eye app to help us see what they are talking about.  My crossfit friends are all very familiar with this app but for those who aren't it is a video app for your ipad/iphone that allows you to play clips in slow motion, talk over them, draw on them and do side by side compares.  I'm a very visual learner so seeing how they want us positioned is really helpful.  I also think it helps those girls whose english isn't as strong - less words and more visuals.

In general I think both my games have gone pretty well.  I've worked with some great people so far and had a lot of fun.  There are several challenges about working these tournaments.  Working with people with whom you've never worked with before is always a challenge no matter where you are.  However the biggest challenge for me is remembering IIHF rules and procedures.  Not only are we using a different rulebook here but the procedures for linesman are totally different than they are back at home.  For example, at home we often pass the puck off to our partner, here you never hand off the puck.  The IIHF wants you lined up in different places at stoppages of play - this is one thing Stacey pointed out to me on my coaches eye, I had to get out of my "American" habit of lining up inside the blue line during face offs.  However the biggest and most challenging one for me is icings.  At home, when you blow your whistle for an icing you raise your right arm.  The back linesman points to the dot where the face off goes and crosses their arms.  Here, when the puck crosses the line you just blow your whistle - no arm raise.  Then the back linesman does the opposite - crosses their arms then points to the face off dot.  Now these may sound like subtle differences but when 99% of the games you work do it one way it is really hard to get out of your habits!  I'm pretty proud of myself that so far I haven't raised my arm on icings once!  I always feel it starting to go up just because it is natural and I don't even think about it but so far I have caught it in time!  The IIHF doesn't care that I don't do it that way at home so it is really important that I stay focused and work the game according to their procedures.

Tomorrow we have the day off from games.  In the morning we are doing all of our testing, then we are free until the evening when the organizing committee has organized some duck boat like tour of the city.  I'm looking forward to it!  Goodnight from Budapest, hope those in Philly are staying warm and looking forward to our next round of snow!

Let the games begin!

Today the games finally started!  So much has happened for me in the past few weeks leading up to this point.  It felt good to finally do the thing that brought me here - officiate some hockey games!  This morning we had our first group skate at the arena.  The ice was really good but the rink was hot!  I haven't sweat that much during one of these morning skates in awhile.  We did some different relays and drills then we played iceball!  Iceball is a version of handball that is played at all the referee development camps.  Stacey, one of the supervisors who also happens to be an American (and taught at several of my camps coming up through the system), has helped introduce many of the Europeans to this awesome game.  Since our IIHF gear is stuck in customs we split up into teams based on what people were wearing.  I was on the blue track suit team and I'm happy to say we came away with the victory.

The IIHF has clamped down a bit on its social media policy so I can't comment too much about what actually happened during the games but I can give you some bits and pieces.  Today I worked and early game and was the standby for the second game on my rink.  Here is a link that tells you exactly what game I worked:  http://stats.iihf.com/Hydra/365/IHW365000_58_3_0.pdf

My game was a ton of fun and the crowd was great.  The teams battled hard and I think the game was closer than the final score would lead you to think.  It was really cute, before the game they had little girl hockey players lead the teams on to the ice.  Some of them couldn't have been more than 4 or 5.  You could tell they were so excited about it, very fun to see.  The other thing I learned today - when Hungry loses, the crowd throws candy on the ice at the end of the game to pick them up and give them energy for their next game.  Interesting theory, and given that they play the US tomorrow I think they are going to need every ounce of energy they can get.

After the games ended we all headed back to the hotel for some dinner.  Tomorrow we have a meeting in the morning then another set of games.  You can see what game I'm working tomorrow on the link above.  It should be a lot of fun, I'm looking forward to it!  Goodnight from Budapest!