Slap(shot) to the face

In honor of the Tri-City Americans re-tying the playoff series against their rivals, the Spokane Chiefs, I'll share a stressful Saturday story.

"But you don't get stressed, Kai," you may be yelling at your computer screen. "You, sir, are the picture of calm and composed."

"Calmposed, if you will."

Well, thanks. That's very kind of you. And, yes, I will.

I showed up plenty early to make sure I got a good spot to shoot from, but that turned out to be a wasted effort. The Toyota Center has limited spots to shoot from during regular season play. Between me, the three TV stations and another local photographer, there's just enough room from the designated spot below the press boxes.

Come playoff time, we have to share that space with the folks doing the live telecast and Western Hockey League bigwigs.

Did I say share? I meant forfeit.

I spent the night bouncing around between spots where I had to contend with excited fans jumping up between me and the ice or the dirty glass behind the net. On top of this, everybody was buzzing that Americans co-owner and Washington Capitals goaltender Olie Kolzig was in attendance, so I was on the lookout for somebody whose appearance I wasn't familiar with.

Finally, after regulation ended, we spotted him in the nosebleeds (which really aren't that high in a 6,000-seat arena). I crouched in the aisles after introducing myself to him and grabbed this shot of him laughing a kid who was trying to get the wave started.
After getting that shot, I made the erroneous judgment call to stick around. It was 3-3 going into overtime, so I figured it would be over pretty quick. I ended up running out to the car after the first overtime ended thinking "fuck, fuck, fuck..." over and over to myself and feigning a smile at the guy who yelled out at me, "gotta make deadline, huh?"

My computer was as cranky as I was while I multi tasked it into the ground. I was also responsible for sending a photo to the Spokesman Review and scrambled to find one for them and two for us as the rainbow pinwheel taunted me. One of my 2GB cards refused to download and ended up submitting a menage a trois of goalie photos for them:

And us:


My computer must have been running on the vulgarities I had been muttering because as soon as I sent the last photo through, my computer completely froze up, which somehow ended with some photos moving themselves to the recycle bin and a couple not getting saved. All while not noticing this photo before deadline:

To make matters worse, I had to be out at the Pasco flea market by 8 a.m. the next day.

But that's a story for another day.