Epinal vs. Amiens

Last night did not turn out how we had hoped at all. After a great 1st period where we led 3-1, some key defensive mistakes on our part put us down 4-3 heading into the third. Starting the period short handed, Amiens capitalized on the power play and then added another on a 3 on 1 break to make it 6-3 only 2 minutes into the 3rd period. Not long after they took a penalty and we went to work on the power play getting our 2nd pp goal (Salmivirta 1st period) of the night as I received a great pass from Jan Plch and one timed it 5 hole. We carried the play for the rest of the game but it was too little too late and lost the game 6-4 on home ice. It was not so much of Amiens playing a very strong game, it was more of us beating ourselves with some costly defensive errors, directly resulting in goals.

This is one of those pictures where you add the captions.
"Geez aren't you goona buy me dinner first? "

After the game there was nothing to celebrate but previous arrangements had been made to have a little get together at Lionel Simon's house to celebrate his 28th Birthday. A rather mellow evening, we stayed there for a few hours. Most of the guys relaxed with a few beers, I was driving and really didn't feel up for any beers anyways. The food I did not hold back on though and indulged in a few "Croque Monsieurs." This is a very tasty snack, originated here in France. It is a hot ham and cheese grilled sandwich with cheese melted on the outside. This tasty treat is found in all cafes in France and has been around since it first appeared on a Parisian menu in 1910. The story behind it is that a long time ago, French workers would take their sandwiches to work with them, some ham and cheese, and not having the luxury of a fridge or cooler, they would put their sandwiches by the radiator and the cheese would melt!

Traditional "Croque Monsieur"

Maybe that was too much information on a sandwich for everybody, but you can see I am very passionate about it haha! So at Lionel's house, his wife was making mini ones, I ate about 1000.

Since our games don't start until 8:15pm, we don't end up leaving the rink until about 1130pm, so having stayed at Lionel's house for a few hours I got back home around 1:45am. As I am getting out of the van with John Paulson (Pauly) he mentions that he sees our new Slovakian roommate Marek, getting out of his car. My first thought, "hmm I wonder where he is coming back from?" Then Pauly said "no dude the door was locked, I think he was waiting in his car the whole night for us to get back!" Poor guy, he has just arrived in France, doesn't speak English or french and he was left sitting in his car for hours after our loss. Oh I did I mention that Marek scored 2 goals in the game? Great reward for the guy, I bet he'll be a bit hesitant to score a few goals again after this! Sorry buddy