It's a Wrap

Our job is now done and everyone involved with the skills competition is heading home. It certainly was quite the night. I know how the zamboni driver fealt when he drove into the big time rink. There were 15 thousand fans all watching what I was doing. Once the timing started the crowd disappeared. It didn't quite go off as planned. There were a couple of false triggers on the timers that causes problems and we had to use the back up hand times. That's the first time I have ever had to do that. Part of the problen is that there are a lot of people arounf the photo eyes and they sit on flimsy tripods than can cause the eyes to move a bit. That's not good. Just to add soem interest, one of the goalies actually went under the eye, and we hand triggered the clock to stop it. |So there;s a lot to worry about. All in all it was ok,

The other part I was involved in was the hardest shot. That went good until Ovetchkin's shots. The cable feeding the display decided to go intermittent just then and it took a couple of shots to isolate the problem. We were able to pull off displaying Chara's record breaking shot. He can really shoot. They all were impressive. I had a chat with Chara after his turn at the shootout challange and he knew exactly what his old record was and what his new record was. These guys are still competitive even for the skills competition. I have to thank Mike Walker for getting the great shot of me and Zdeno Chara chatting. I was giving him pointers for next time.

Mike also took some picture of the Mascot Scrimmage. This doesn't go to air but was fun to watch. The fans in the stands got a real treat. Some of the mascots were actually great skaters and hockey players.

Tomorrow is going to be another long one, but just because of the flight connections and waits in airports. Time for a nap.