A New World

Yesterday the Hat Trick began a 30-day voluntary furlough as part of the flight reductions all airlines are experiencing.  It was the right thing to do as the kids definitely need a little more support as they finish their schools years online.  Mrs. East Coast Wing continues to work from home and she was having to manage both schoolwork and her own work.  My station has seen some tremendous cuts since March, some seasonal and expected, but others a direct result of the Coronavirus pandemic.  Beginning yesterday we are now down to one flight a day, after having a high of 11 flights a day in mid-March.  Ironically we've gone from not having quite enough staff and struggling to having way too many staff onsite for the one flight.  So I'll take a month off and see where we are in June.  The break will be good after a very busy winter and spring that then crashed into stress and anxiety due to the Coronavirus and going to work each day with these new stressors.

With this 30-day furlough I'm going to try and use this opportunity to write more, both on this blog and in other projects I have worked on, with fairly unimpressive progress, over the past few years.  I'm also going to use this opportunity to change the focus a little bit on the Hat Trick.  This blog was created many years ago to talk about three different subjects:  Hockey, Politics and Travel and those were subjects I really enjoyed discussing.  I still love to talk about travel and my professional life has gravitated towards that love by my employment with a major U.S. airline working in operations at a small station.  I've gone from being a Brooks Brother wearing lobbyist to a regular guy on the ramp, loading and unloading bags, marshaling aircraft in and even performing the pushback of aircraft at departure.  It's a huge change and I do like it most days, even the rough ones.  However, the political world has changed a lot and I'm growing more and more weary of it and I just can't stomach discussing the antics of the current occupant of the White House.  And since the NHL season is on hiatus due to Coronavirus it looks like I will just be covering aviation, focus on happier times in aviation and not the current crisis we are experiencing. More old photos, videos and old memories will be covered here, plus an increase in out to Twitter.  Hopefully it will be a positive occurrence in these dark times.

Wings at Tampa Bay, March 30

Mrs. East Coast Wing and I had the opportunity to see the Wings in person when they faced the Tampa Bay Lightening on March 30.  This was a birthday gift from my wife's family and included babysitting from Nana, which is a huge help when you factor in the cost of a babysitter these days!

The Wings came out strong but then faltered with some shaky goal tending and Tampa Bay having a  greater need to win the game due to playoff considerations...unlike the Wings they are still in the hunt.  But, as always, it's great to see the Wings in person which is something I haven't been able to do in a very long time...when we lived in the New York City area it was really expensive and when we lived in the Philadelphia area it was terribly safe given the behavior of Philly fans!  But possibly the best result of the game was running into my cousin, who was down from Detroit, and came to the game last-minute...that was a great "Facebook worthy" photo!

It will be strange next week when I won't have Red Wing hockey to watch in the post season...this is amazing considering the last time this happened I was a senior in high school and George H.W. Bush was President (have to add some politics in somewhere in this post!) and some current players in the NHL were not even born yet...amazing!  Hopefully the Wings can use the time to rebuild and continue the process of developing talent.

In the meantime I'm just happy I got to see them play again...that is never a terrible thing.

New Year, New Era, Oh My

Happy New Year all.  While I had every intention of restarting my writing this past September, life did not cooperate.  The ongoing saga of buying a new home in our new state of Florida ended up being a far more complicated process than I could have imagined.  Add in the unexpected death of our family dog and it just didn't happen.  But, as with any New Year's Resolution (which I don't really believe in) I've decided to be more active in my writing in 2017.  Since today is January 27, I think it still counts as a resolution of sorts.

I'm also going to change the direction of the blog this year.  While I will address politics to an extent, I find myself completely dejected after the 2016 election.  To say Election 2016 was the worst election in a lifetime would be an significant understatement.  The Hat Trick was not a Donald Trump supporter at all...AT ALL...but I was also almost as equally offended by Secretary Hillary Clinton.  Considering the amount of talent in this country it's amazing that these two were the best we as a nation could do.  It is still amazing that Trump won, yet when you look at the data and the mood of the country, it becomes less surprising.  Unfortunately there is a lot of emotion and hysteria in the country right now and nobody on the left is very interested in looking at why Hillary lost.  And on the right?  Just a lot of gloating...

I have some pieces in various draft form on some of my aviation experiences plus some hockey observations...could this be the year the Red Wings miss the playoffs for the first time since the 1989-90 season?  They are looking shaky in the NHL Eastern Conference standings now but there is still a lot of hockey to be played from now and until April...added bonus, the Hat Tricks will be seeing the Wings live on March 30 in Tampa Bay.

All in all it should be an interesting winter and spring!

NHL Releases 2009-10 National TV Schedule

The NHL released its national television schedule on August 20 for the 2009-10 season. Thanks to the "Winging It In Motown" blog for dissecting when the Wings will be on a national broadcast.

Some interesting items:

• The Red Wings and the Washington Capitals have the most games nationally televised with Boston and Pittsburgh coming in at 21 nationally televised games each.
• The first Wings game that will be seen nationally is against the St. Louis Blues on October 2 on the Versus network.
• Last game April 11, 2010 at the Chicago Blackhawks on NBC.
• The following item is only interesting to the Hat Trick...the Wings will be seen nationally at the Columbus Blue Jackets on my birthday...December 28!

Even with lowered expectations for the Wings upcoming season the Hat Trick is happy to see that the Wings still hold fan attention for nationally televised games. The Hat Trick is also personally selfish for this since a cost-cutting measure became necessary and I cancelled by NHL Center Ice package which I had for the sole reason of seeing all the Red Wings games. Now if only the Hat Trick can figure out how to watch some of these games on CBC's Hockey Night in Canada and avoid the Versus/NBC crowd altogether!

Hat Tricks Doing Well

The newest member of the Hat Trick (and future Red Wings fan) family joined us on July 22, 2009. Our newest family member is a daughter and had a healthy delivery with Mom and "Peanut" doing well. Needless to say the whole family is happy and excited!

There certainly have been a lot of public policy issues, such as the health care debate, going on that the Hat Trick has been negligent in covering for my readers. However, with the Hat Tricks just trying to survive in this economy with my continued unemployment, I have not been able to develop the urge to comment. All I can say is that the Hat Trick has definitely experienced the challenges of health care reform personally with having to pay for COBRA coverage for the family. Even with the reduced payments due to the stimulus package it's still a big monthly payment that eats up a lot of the monthly unemployment insurance we receive. However, some of the ideas currently being debated in the Congress greatly concern the Hat Trick due to their long term ramifications for future generations. We'll see where the debate goes in September when the Congress returns from the August recess (where they are hearing a lot of backlash from constituents already!).

Best wishes to all my readers for a happy final month of the summer (and the 2009-2010 NHL season quickly approaching!).

NHL Releases 2009-2010 Schedule

The NHL released its 2009-2010 schedule this past week. The Wings will open the season in Stockholm, Sweden against the St. Louis Blues on Friday, October 2 for back-to-back games. The first game at the JLA will be Thursday, October 8 against the Chicago Blackhawks. The NHL season will officially start on Thursday, October 1 with four games.

The Wing's schedule is fairly basic and doesn’t have any excitement like the previous January 1 outdoor game at Wrigley Field in Chicago. One interesting change is that the Wings will play the Washington Capitals both at the JLA and at the Verizon Center in Washington, DC. This is unusual as they usually just play each once, either in DC or at the JLA. The Hat Trick is hoping he can gain employment by the Tuesday, January 19, 2010 game so he can see it in person!

Hard to believe we are talking about the 09-10 season already…didn’t Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Finals just finish?

Wings Are Down and the Hat Trick=Not Pleased

After dropping Game 2 in triple overtime on Sunday, the Wings dropped Game 3 in Anaheim in a pathetic game featuring some of the worst officiating the Hat Trick has ever seen and it very well could have cost the Wings the game. With less than a minute left in the third period, Marian Hossa scored the game-tying goal only to have it called back because referee Brad Watson blew is whistle and called the play dead because he was out of position and lost site of the puck. Unfortunatley for Watson, video of the play clearly shows the puck crossing the goal line before the whistle blew. Check out the video from the Puck Daddy blog on Yahoo.

Word to the NHL...this is the playoffs and you need to have competent offials out on the ice. Call it sour grapes from a Red Wings fan...and maybe we woudln't have won the game...but we definitely didn't get the chance to even try due to the massive screw-up (the video doesn't lie) by the Zebras.

Wings Lose to Blue Jackets

The Hat Trick just watched the Red Wings lose to the Columbus Blue Jackets in overtime...not a pretty game. The Wings looked rusty, especially without team captain Nick Lidstrom and Pavel Datsyuck who are serving their one game suspensions for not attending the All-Star game festivities in Montreal. The fact that we lost Henrik Zetterberg in the first period to back spasms didn't help...plus the fact that the Blue Jackets are having a good year and working hard to make sure they make the playoffs this year...a very realistic possibility for the team.

No need to panic at this point but hoping the Wings get back into form before they visit Washington, DC this Saturday to play the Washington Capitals (who also lost tonight in overtime). The Hat Trick isn't sure if he is going to attend the Wings/Caps game or not...my soon-to-be unemployment status makes purchasing hockey tickets a little difficult. Now if one of the Hat Trick's colleagues can come through with free tickets..well, that's a different matter entirely!

All-Star Game Tonight

The Hat Trick is spending a quiet Sunday at home today and looking forward to the NHL All- Star game tonight at 6:00pm…live from Montreal, Canada. The All-Star game is always a good time for me…the skills competition is great and all the talent on the ice during the actual game is truly impressive. The format for this year’s game is Eastern Conference v. Western Conference which is an improvement over the old format that had a North America team v. a World team. We should see a lot of offense tonight and it is great that the game is in Montreal, celebrating the Canadiens 100th year anniversary.

NHL Winter Classic

The Hat Trick is a little late in getting this post out on the NHL Winter Classic…but better late than never!

Needless to say the Hat Trick enjoyed the Winter Classic immensely. Not only was the Hat Trick’s Stanley Cup Champion Detroit Red Wings playing but they came from behind and won big against the Chicago Blackhawks, one of the NHL’s oldest rivalries. The game was fantastic and it was crazy to see Wrigley Field with an ice rink in the middle of the park…but the stands were packed with fans just like a Cubs game. Mrs. East Coast Wing, a former Chicagoan, enjoyed it as well and could even see her old building from some of the television shots.

The Hat Trick is a BIG proponent of the NHL continuing this game format. The game received some of the highest television ratings for ice hockey ever and it was a nice diversion from all of the college bowl game mania that takes place on New Year’s Day. There are so many good rivalries and venues available across the country for this kinds of game…Fenway Park in Boston, Yankee Stadium in New York, Mile High (INVESCO) in Denver, Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Heinz Field in Pittsburgh or even go to a neutral city like Cleveland, Ohio and play the game in Cleveland Browns Stadium, right on cold and windy Lake Erie!

It’s great to see hockey make a comeback after the strike year and the Hat Trick thinks that the NHL has found a great format to bring more fans into the fold. The Hat Trick plans to watch every year, even if the Red Wings aren’t in the game, although it sure was a nice way to start the New Year with a big Red Wing’s win in a big game. Since I’m sure Commissioner Gary Bettman is a Hat Trick reader we will be hearing about the next Winter Classic location very soon…