a night at the arena

on christmas eve eve, my pops rented out the superbad MAYSA arena for my friends and i to play some good, old fashioned hockey on. this is the second year that we have done this now and it is so so so so so so so so so much fun. we got the ice for two hours. two hours is a reallly long time if you are getting old like most of us, but everyone paced themselves well and there were no injuries.

there were, however, many sore and tired muscles for the next few days.


here's some of the star players. taking to the ice for the first time since coming back from london was dave "the rising sun" eide. next to him stands the only man badass enough to wear a danzig shirt on the ice: larry c. totally intimidating, totally ridiculous. then we have les moore, a seasoned veteran of the OHL (outdoor hockey league). les brings finesse to the game.


here is me and some sailor moments after taking to the ice for the first time. woo hoo!!

there were probably around twenty or so people that showed up. once we divided ourselves into teams, it was time to drop the puck.

that's my pops doing the honors there.

the night featured many carlson's. here's l.c.:

and here's his brothers aaron and steve doing what they do best:

it was awesome to see some good carlson brother wrestling again.

even the patriarch of the reputable carlson clan, hjalmer, was there showing us kids how to put the puck in the net (unfortunately though, i don't have a good photo of him to prove it).

for as many carlson's that were there though, there were even more kulig's.


here's my (ahem) little brother gage looking mildly ashamed of himself after being schooled by his much older brother time and time again. (ok, i'm stretching it a bit there but those are the breaks)

here's my cousin curtis who stopped in from LA just to play.

for someone that i never saw play growing up, he is really damn good. i don't know how that happened exactly, but i am proud of him. his brother chris was there too, but again, i was slow and/or negligent on the camera and don't have a shot of him on the ice. next time.

all in all, it was a total blast. i love hockey. it's so fun i can't stand it. i wish we could do it every month somehow.

up next is part two of that night. the scene:

the Icebox.