Alright, so after a trip to Scandinavia, a holiday tournament, a road weekend, and a home stand I figure it might be time to start posting again. Actually, the NCAA blog site went down for a bit and I lost a couple of entries so I'll see if I can repost them later but for the time being I'm going to try to play catch up.

 

Our team trip to Sweden and Denmark was a great trip, just as we had anticipated. For a recap of everything that went on, Heather Croze kept an up-to-date blog that can be reached at:

 

http://dartmouthsports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=48935&SPID=4728&DB_OEM_ID=11600&ATCLID=3630465

 

At a glance, the trip was a great opportunity for us to see some amazing cities, play some good hockey, and hang out together as a team for ten straight days which was definitely the best part. It was also cool that a number of parents were able to make the trip as well, including my Dad, who became the unofficial team photographer. Accompanying us on the trip was a Dartmouth alumni team made up of some great guys who kept us entertained during the layovers with stories from their time at school. Needless to say they're not going to end up in one of these posts...

 

Denmark

 

To start the trip off we caught the red eye from Boston to Amsterdam, then cruised over to Copenhagen. Once on the ground, we boarded a bus and headed straight to the rink for what we thought would be a grind of a practice that turned out to be alright. At the ICG rink we found that dozens of youth, junior, and semi-professional players had stuck around in anticipation of watching us practice in a display that would be repeated everywhere we skated. In total, we played one game in the four days we spent in Denmark, a 9-2 win over the ICG team that included former Dartmouth captain Bill Kelleher '96. Off the ice, we took in two guided tours of the city and footed it through Copenhagen's pedestrian malls, parliament buildings, palaces, museums, and historic Tivoli Garden. The morning of the fifth day we caught a train to Stockholm.

 

Sweden

 

After a relatively easy schedule in Denmark we upped the pace in Stockholm, practicing the first two days and playing three games in the following three nights. Our practice ice was an outdoor rink located a short walk from out hotel and despite the fact that the youth players found it hilarious that we were using "the young ones' rink" we had a great time. Once again I was amazed at how many people showed up to watch us again, as there was a solid line of bodies around the end boards every time we skated.

While in Sweden we played Sodertajle (4-3 OT), Djugardens (3-3), and AIK (6-1).

 

Holland

 

Although not a scheduled stop on the Big Green's trip we ended up spending a night in Amsterdam after our plane was stranded in Boston. As interesting a city as Amsterdam is to be stuck in, with a holiday trip home on the line everyone was ready to get home. Also, the theme-park style hotel the airline stuck us in was a bit much to deal with this late in the trip.

 

Thanks and No Thanks

 

Special thanks to the ticket agent in Amsterdam who rerouted the entire team's flights through to our final destinations saving us all hours of travel.

 

No thanks to another airline (that according to NCAA.com regulations will remain nameless) for leaving Connor Shields, Robbie Smith, and Kyle Schussler stranded in a six hour line in Seattle only to find out that they didn't have a flight the last leg home. No thanks also for sending my hockey bag on a two week vacation while I was left to play our holiday tournament in borrowed gear.

 

Thanks to Margot and Rod, my aunt and uncle, for driving six hours through a blizzard to pick me up from the Bellingham airport at 2am.

 

No thanks to the bus driver in Seattle that plowed our bus into a snow bank and then made everyone get out and push.

 

And finally, a special thanks to all of the generous supporters that made this trip possible, from the alums to the moms and dads. We can't even begin to say how grateful we are for having been given this opportunity and I hope it can become a tradition for other Dartmouth teams in the future.

 

I'll catch up on the last two weeks in the next day or so here, sorry again for the delay.