Day 2 – Atlanta

Today started bright an early with breakfast and a morning pre-game skate. It was a beautiful 60 degrees outside today. However, that means inside the rink it was hotter than a sauna inside the rainforest. Without a doubt the hottest rink I have ever played in. It got even hotter when the rink was full of people later on, but we’ll get that later. After practice, Dom and I met up with his dad and family for lunch at “Herschel Walker’s”. The food was good, but the service and overall restaurant was crappy and Dom’s dad being a restaurant owner made sure everyone knew it was crappy. Long story short, Ro’s dad is hilarious. We had a small pre-game meeting about what is expected of us over seas both on and off the ice before we were ready to play against the “Atlanta Elite”. This team was composed of players that played collegiate and pro (AHL and ECHL) hockey so they were not going to be a breeze. I played the first period and gave up three goals on ten shots. Not the best numbers, but I’m happy with how I played and how the goals went in given the fact most of these guys went pretty far in their careers. The final score ended up being 9-8 in what ended up being something like a high tempo men’s league game. it was pretty cool to play in front of a large crowd. It was announced that around 200 people came out to watch us play. Afterwards we went out to a bar and grill to grab some wings and watch the rest of the Canada World Junior Championships game. Tomorrow we get up even earlier than today to get everything packed and ready to go to the airport for our 4:00 flight. We have a game tomorrow night once we land in Germany and bus over to Switzerland so that should be quite interesting. I will update more when I can tomorrow!