Mississauga Ice Dogs (OHL) visit my work.

[Braden]

Yesterday the Ice Dogs visited my work, Build-A-Bear Workshop, to make teddybears for sick kids in the local hospital. The bears were already made, but they put the hearts inside. The team had special Ice Dogs T-Shirts made for the players to sign to go on the bears.

Well what seemed to me like a fabulous idea turned into a PR embarassment. Imagine a group of big dumb cocky 18-20 year old guys rude and swearing like crazy where there's kids all around. They were even hitting on a couple of my female co-workers, bragging about their "huge penis"... again... with kids around. Some even gave rude names to the teddybears, which we had to go back and give new names to almost all of them. They came and left... in what seemed to me like around half an hour. I wouldn't be surprised if people called our feedback hotline and complained.

The only person who was nice was team captain Patrick O'Sullivan who I was able to talk to. He played for the USA World Junior team last month... also a Wild prospect. I asked him about his experience in the World Juniors. He said that it was an amazing experience but he was bummed that they weren't able to defend their previous championship against Canada in this year's finals. He seemed like a cool guy and I wish him the best of luck in the NHL.

Being a Brampton Battalion fan, the Ice Dogs' arch-rival from the north, I had this smirk on my face the whole time. Last night my Battalion beat the Ice Dogs 5-3, who now are on top of the OHL Eastern Conference. Seeing that yesterday made me be more of a Battalion fan.

See, the Battalion went to my high school. Jason Spezza was even there for one year. I was in the same class with a few of them including Lighning prospect Adam Henrich and current Battalion Center Tyler Harrison (who's a really good guy, and he already has 38 PTS this year!).

Anyways... I thought I'd let you all know about my experience today. But are these the kind of people we're gonna be seeing in 5 years as stars in the NHL? Are these the people who we'll be cheering for on our favourite teams? I hope not.

[DEAD!]

Well, they are teenagers. Testosterone must have really shown there. It's Square One, you don't expect to see hot chicks there?

Think of these guys as your typical high school jocks. Besides, Patrick O'Sullivan will probably be the only one who will make a decent career in the NHL (if it's still around). I'm not surprised he is the most mature player on his team considering what he's been through. The other players have not had the media attention and therefore they have yet to learn how to properly deal with the media and the public. Some of them will learn to mature.

You had players that went your high school? How much did the average IQ drop there? kidding

Oh and to your Batallion: We'll see what happens in the playoffs.

Why did Brampton had to build their arena at the southern edge of the city? and the Mississauga and Brampton arenas are only 5km apart, you can basically just drive on ONE street between them.

[twi]

You were in a class with Henrich? Cool. He strikes me as a humble and good guy, when I asked for his autograph at Lightning training camp the summer after he had been drafted he seemed honestly surprised anybody knew who he was and wanted his auto.

Sorry to hear about the fiasco, at least the bears go to charity.

[FiddySicks]

i know what you mean. im friends with Oakland A's outfielder Nick Swisher, and man, he swears and talks about just nasty things when were hanging out, but whenever fans or media roll around he is like a different person. strightforward, nice real clean mouth. i was really suprized to see how different some of these athletes are off camera and away from fans

[pcgd]

Sorry to hear about the fiasco....

We are all sorry about fiasco.