Skating and Ice Hockey

On Thursday Anna and I took our classes (43 kids) on our annual skating trip. We have been doing this for four years in a row, and it is a really enjoyable trip. We now know exactly how things work, and have our routines to make everything go smoothly. We skated for about two hours, and all had a great time.

I spent quite a while skating around with a penguin - both to find students who needed one, and because it is kind of fun.

Me, Caitlyn and Anna, taken by one of my students.

Finally, after four years of waiting, the hockey team practiced for part of the time we were there. After half an hour of skating we had to move outside, because the inside rink was taken over for their hockey practice. Caitlyn and I both spent some of our time inside just watching ...

Getting ready for their playoff match versus Kassel the next day. I think the practice was partly in English - they have 8 Canadian players and their assistant coach is Canadian.

We had 12 parents (plus a few more that just dropped by to skate for a bit?!) helping out. Fun for the kids to have their parents come, and so helpful for us. By the end the kids are pretty independent, but at the beginning 16 adults and 10 penguins don't seem to be enough to help everyone who is scared to skate on their own. Some of the kids spent most of their time falling, but at the end were refusing to use a penguin to help. One of mine even ran nose first into the boards, ouch!

Trying to return all the skates we rented!

Then last night a large group of us went to the playoff game Frankfurt Loewen vs. Kassel Huskies, at the same rink we skated the day before. It was the first round of the playoffs, and Frankfurt was down 3 games to none. Given the opponent was their biggest rivals, we were expecting a large crowd and a great game. We definitely got the crowd, not so sure about the great game. It ended 1-8 ... though it was not as lopsided as the score. I felt things went in waves. At the very beginning there was a lot of energy and excitement in the crowd.

Then Kassel scored two goals very quickly ... and the whole atmosphere deflated. Frankfurt fought well despite trailing, and in my opinion were outplaying the Huskies. Unfortunately it felt like every puck the opponents shot at the Frankfurt net went in. For a while Frankfurt was really playing hard, and the fans got back into it. Then there started to be penalties all over the place, and then it got a bit silly. One fan group took down their large banner and put it up backwards. A lot of fans were yelling insults by the end, but mostly in a joking manner, kind of let's have fun even though the score is ridiculous.

Probably right before Kassel scored a goal.

Overall it was a fun evening, and hopefully I will be able to catch an early season or pre-season game in September before I go back home.