Jail Bird

So Leah and I are whole heartedly aware that we have gotten behind on this lovely little adventure. Let’s face it when you have 9 games in one month and that month happens to be the end of the semester of school (Go Broncos), a month full of holidays and a month when one of us turned a year older it gets to be a little difficult to keep up on all things hockey in the world. However, December was an eventful month in the world of Steelheads hockey.

December brought us the first and only look at the Ontario Reign for the season on our home ice. While they were here we came up with a fitting nickname for one of the players….Peter Lenes will always be referred to in Qwest Arena as Frodo. What can I say we love coming up with our own little nicknames for visiting players? And you want to know the best part….we know that they can hear us loud and clear.

Ontario left….Utah came (have I already mentioned how much I hate watching Utah?)…Alaska came…Utah came again and then we headed to Las Vegas for a midnight game. Now I would have loved to have traveled to Las Vegas for a game at midnight….yes I said midnight. As a fan this would have been a great trip as a player though…not so much. It was a rough week with a lot of traveling. After the game in Las Vegas the players had to load up and be back in Boise the next night to take on Stockton for a three game home stand starting New Year’s Eve.

Games with Stockton were entertaining to say the least. Stockton has done some change ups on their roster and the team that traveled to Boise was different than the team that had traveled to Boise early in the season. It wasn’t what happened on the ice that was so entertaining…. it was what was happening off the ice that was better. First of all there were 6 fans that had traveled from Stockton to watch the games….to start off the series they shouted “Idaho Sucks” right as the anthem singer was taking the ice, she screwed up the lyrics (who screws up the national anthem?) and it gradually went down from there. It was night two that was all the talk amongst the crowd.

Let’s face it Boise is a small town. Any player of any sports fame that ends up in the Ada County jail makes the news. Well, Stockton did not expect this to ever happen but guess what the most popular topic of conversation was at the New Year’s Day game… “Did you hear Judd Blackwater was arrested?” Guess what Mr. Blackwater, you may not even play for an Idaho team and you still made the news for being arrested for misdemeanor trespassing. Now this should have been simply dropped and moved on right….well it would have if it was not for the Stockton Thunder organization trying to cover up what really happened. See the team released a statement that first stated that Judd didn’t play because he was suffering from flu like symptoms…then they released a statement stating he didn’t play because he had broken team curfew and it was policy. It wasn’t until people read the article written up in “The Idaho Statesman” did people know the truth.

Now I am not going to make this a finger pointing at Judd entry because let’s face it he’s a 22 year old that is allowed to make mistakes and learn from them to make himself a better person. The thing that is highly disappointing is how the Stockton Thunder organization dropped the ball, put Judd out on that tree branch alone and made this fan a little disappointed that they can’t even stand behind one of their own in a situation like this. Instead what happens; Judd serves out his suspension (for supposed curfew violations), serves as an all-star for the Thunder and quickly gets traded to the Alaska Aces. No formal apology has been made to the Steelheads organization, Grove Hotel or the fans of either team from the Stockton organization. In fact it wasn’t until Judd was traded that the truth came out in an article published in the “Record” and yet it had only been days earlier that coach Matt Thomas had been praising Judd for make the ECHL All-Star roster.

Here’s my stance….I feel sorry for Judd and think he will be better suited for any team other than the Stockton Thunder. Who would want to be a part of a team that doesn’t want to be truthful with their fans? Did everything regarding the arrest need to be brought out? NO! To try and sweep it under the rug was not okay though. Someone would have found out either way and yes maybe it is because the arrest happened in Idaho and is public record from the minute you are booked but still DON’T LIE ABOUT IT! The Steelheads have had to deal with player arrest and have never once lied that it didn’t happen. Stockton Thunder I make this challenge to you…make an apology to those who deserve one…fans, teams and most of all Judd Blackwater…to feel like you have no support from your own team when it could have been a simple mistake is quite sad.

Outside of that, was lucky enough to make some great new friends from Stockton…oh and that is a funny story for another time…:)

Until that time remember HOCKEY IS LIFE AND THE REST IS JUST FILLER!
Monica :)