Saturday, December 12, 2009

Welcome to Spokane

Welcome to Spokane, WA....

It's a crisp, cool day as the Broncos get set to begin their U.S. division road swing against the Spokane Chiefs.

The Broncos arrived in the early evening and got settled in for the night. It was about 12 hours on the bus with a stop in Lethbridge for lunch.

Three or four movies, some comical NHL Trivia with host Matt Tassone and before you knew it we were here.

The Broncos take on the Chiefs tonight (8:30pm pre-game show, 9pm play-by-play on the Eagle 94.1 FM). As talked about, there's an NCAA basketball game this afternoon at 1pm at the Spokane Arena. Air Force takes on Washington State. The team unloaded their gear at the rink last night. Here's a few pics from the beginning of the trip:



One of the nicest rinks on the circuit. Could be 8000-9000 tonight for their Teddy Bear Toss promotion.



The team mulls around in the hotel lobby before getting a workout in


Boarding the bus in Swift before the journey. F Michael Stickland has breakfast to go.


F Matt Tassone helps load up


Bus driver Cliff will man the Bronco bus on the nine-day swing


"The 10 Pounder" This trip is notorius for adding some extra lbs before Christmas for the staff. I was tempted to weigh in and weight out...but passed on the idea.


F Cody Eakin is wished good luck by his Bronco teammates as he departs for Canada's World Junior Selection Camp in Regina. Eaks (facing) and Adam Lowry just outside the Broncos dressing room


We arrived to the hardwood basketball floor inside the Spokane Arena in preparation for the NCAA game this afternoon.


There just happened to be some basketballs lying around.

F Stepan Novotny is a pretty good player as he launches up a three-ball. Mike Brown awaits the rebound. It was good to get off the bus and use some energy.



(left to right) Jordan Evans, Justin Dowling, Michael Stickland, Travis Bobbee pose for a bench shot.


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I hope to get down and take some pics of the change-over from basketball to hockey. Today someone at the Arena said it would take about 90 minutes!
The Chiefs played last night in Chilliwack and bussed six hours home following the game. They will be without D Jared Cowen who is off to Regina for Canada's camp.
More later,
Jon

1 comment:

TigerTurf said...

These posts are fun to read!