Thursday, March 10, 2011

The Hockey Hall of Fame!

Chris and I went to the Hockey Hall of Fame on Sunday! I'd been wanting to go for a while, but this weekend was such a good time because I've been getting more into hockey whenever we watch it with Chris's family when we're over on Saturdays. I'm starting to understand the game a tiny bit more, but mostly I just follow the puck and get excited when people crash into the boards or punch each other.

We'd had kind of a boring week, so when I asked if it was okay to go to the HHoF, Chris was pretty excited and said yes. We got dressed and headed out. While we were walking down Yonge St., I got a whiff of somebody's hot chocolate and had to have some as soon as possible. So we went to a Tim Horton's, which was particularly exciting because they're in the middle of their Roll Up the Rim to Win contest, a promotion they have every year where any warm drink that comes in a coffee cup gets you a chance to win things like free coffee, Tim Horton's gift certificates, TVs, and cars.


But first, we had to endure a delicious hot chocolate and a chocolate chip muffin. We split them, so that translated to 330 calories. Yes, 330 calories is only half of a muffin and half of a hot chocolate. Oh, well. That's what you get when you eat out. So we finally finished the muffin and drink and it was time to roll up the rim and win!



I said and win, darn it! Oh, well, maybe next time. So we headed to the Hall of Fame.



This is a picture I took outside the entrance to the museum, which is actually inside a larger building with lots of offices and a restaurants and even another, smaller building inside it! The most important thing to note is that these adorable hockey-loving children are absolutely terrifying and mean you harm.

Don't ever forget.

Inside, the architecture is modern and airy and just wonderful. I had a bit of trouble with the above and below pictures because of all the light and the fact that my camera is the devil, but I hope I captured a bit of how exciting the building, Brookfield Place, is. It's spectacular, and I don't even know anything about buildings.



That mass to the left is the old building inside the snazzy new one. Take my word that it was pretty. Also, those tiles on the floor? Glass. Why do you keep making me stand on glass, Toronto? First the CN Tower and now this.

So we went downstairs and found the entrance to the Hockey Hall of Fame, paid to get in, and used some coupons we received when we were at Casa Loma to get sweet blue Hockey Hall of Fame wristbands. Yaaaaay free stuff!



The inside of the HHoF was overwhelming! There were a lot of glass cases dedicated to specific players, coaches, and referees with pictures and equipment inside. I didn't take any pictures because it was kind of dark and everything was in glass, so I assumed the flash would just be a giant shiny reflected spot in an otherwise dark picture. Sorry!




There were, however, some very photogenic parts of the Hockey Hall of Fame, like this recreation of the Montreal Canadiens' locker room. While everything is attatched by glue and nails and cables to the exhibit, I love that there's no glass or roped off portion or anything keeping you from reaching out and touching the equipment in there.


Chris and I ended up watching a 30 minute movie about the Stanley Cup, from the early days of hockey to Lord Stanley's gift of the silver trophy to how it came to be the exclusive prize of the NHL after previously being open to amateur and then professional hockey teams from all kinds of other hockey associations. Then the movie showed a recap of the most recent NHL championship between the Philadelphia Fliers and the Chicago Blackhawks. It's one of those things that isn't too exciting, but is pleasant enough to watch while you just get to enjoy sitting down in a comfy chair while in the air conditioning





Apparently, there are all kinds of hockey trophies, though, not just ones gifted by Lord Stanley of Preston. These are just a few housed at the Hockey Hall of Fame.




Some of these are still in use, some are retired.




After the crazy trophies, we looked around at more random hockey displays. Then Chris tricked me into playing virtual goalie and I was AWFUL. If you know my natural athleticism and quick-learnerability, you may doubt this. I understand your skepticism. For you, I present this video of me being the worst goalie ever. In the world.


I think I'll stick to spectating.


This picture doesn't have much of a story behind it besides hey, it's me and a big helmet! What up?



Next we walked around a bit on our way to the Stanley Cup. We happened across this picture of Elvis playing hockey. I needed a picture of it so very badly.



Then we went into the Stanley Cup area, which is officially crazy. It looks like a bank. There's a vault and a desk and everything! But there's also a stained glass dome in the ceiling, which looks a little like this:


Click here for an even better picture of the dome, but this one right here is the one I took, so it's special!


So it's a bank and there's a churchy element to it and, oh wait, there's also a whole bunch of giant trophies. First we have the Stanley Cup in the middle of the room with ramps leading to and from it. Around the room there are other trophies, too, like the Hart Memorial Trophy and the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, all encased in glass. Inside the crazy bank vault is the original Stanley Cup. What do I mean by "original?" Well, there are three, didn't you know? So that's where the original cup is, as well as all the rings that there is no longer any room for on the Authenticated Cup.


The original, looking like a pretty good bargain for its original price of $48.67.


Then we went to the big one, the Authenticated Cup. It's no replica, baby, they only put that out when the cup is making the rounds among the players on that season's winning team, and that's only in the summer.

Here's me with it, trying to act casual:




Also I'm wearing my Toronto Roller Derby shirt. Yes. I am in Canada. Loving sports. Chris went up to the cup and shared a moment, but he didn't want me to take a picture. We wandered around a bit and finally headed up the stairwell to the gift shop. There were lots of lovely pieces of novelty plastic crap, but we didn't end up getting anything besides this snazzy picture of the store's entrance:




I aspired to be a brick wall when I was playing virtual goaltender, but perhaps I should have aimed for whatever this guy is made of.

2 comments:

iamninjabuni said...

I too have seen the original Stanley Cup! When the Blackhawks won they had a huge parade downtown. Last year's win was probably the biggest thing that has happened to Chicago since 2005 (when our White Sox won the World Series) and was definitely the biggest thing that has happened to the Hawks in 20 years.

Confession: I totally love hockey.

Whitney said...

I had no idea that I loved hockey, but it's wonderful! I don't know much about it, but it's a bunch of fun to watch, more than football and baseball for sure.

I kind of like ice skating, what little of it I've done, so that might be a fun thing to try to do one day. Just not, apparently, as a goalie.