Day 9 – Bled – Game vs. HDD Jesenice

Today, I woke up to the view of the castle and cathedral through our window through a dense fog. It doesn’t get more picturesque than that. We went downstairs for an early breakfast, and then back upstairs to take a nap before going up a steep snow covered hill and 200+ stairs to get to the castle. It was a bit bitter-sweet getting to the castle because once we were at the top, the fog had set in and there was not much of a view of the mountains in the background at all. Our group grabbed some lunch at the restaurant in the castle. I had one of the best steaks I ever had, which it better be if it wasn’t 25 euro. After lunch, we went to the museum to see the history of not only the castle, but also Bled, and the entire country of Slovenia. It was all very interesting and gave me a better perspective of the town. After the museum, we went to see the blacksmith of the castle who made tons of candle holders, sculptures, etc. out of metal. Then, we made our way to the castle wine cellar where I may or may not have bought a bottle of “Vino” from a Monk to bring back home. After we had seen most of what the castle had to offer, we got back to the hotel for an hour nap before leaving for the rink for our third game of the trip. Our coaches pulled the three goaltenders aside to tell them there had been a change of plans. Since the team we were playing had suffered a handful of injuries leaving them with only 10 players, we would split today’s game (with me playing in the second period) and the next game (with me playing in the first period) and then the kid who was supposed to play the full game today would get a full game in the final game so he doesn’t get stiffed in playing time. After the first period, we lead 7-0 and our coaches came up with the idea to add 5 minutes to the curfew for every shot on net and 30 minutes for every goal so our team wouldn’t just give up halfway through the game. I only had a total of 4 shots, but the first was a diving glove save on a 2 on 0 break halfway through the period. The guys were very happy I was able to make the save. We ended up winning the game by a score of 10-1 and only got a half an hour off of our 2:00 curfew because coaches cut us a break with the shots since we did so well. After the game, we went to dinner at the same place we went last night and then went to a bar down the street from our hotel. At the bar,Dom and I talked to the photographer that has been following us around for all three of our games, and Arthur, the man who planned all of our games for the trip. For about an hour, we talked about the differences between Europe and America and what we liked most about the trip so far. Both guys are really great guys and a lot of fun to be around. We are now back at the hotel and tomorrow we head to Vienna and then Slovakia to get ready for our next two games against the EUHL.