Battle of the Blades is Back!

This past Sunday, I attended the season opener at the MasterCard Centre.  Let me tell you something people, it was NUTS.  They told me to pick up my ticket 15 minutes before the show.  I got there on time and the place was packed.  As I was about to take my place in the front row, one of the producers told a couple girls in the second row they could move up – I’ve NEVER seen people move this fast.  I decided not to ruin their fun.  The fascinating part to me was the audience.  Kids were dancing, women were dressed to the NINES (I had on sweats and flip flops) and doing their makeup before the show started. The whole place was doing the wave.  This was a PARTY!

Kurt Browning was warming up the audience.  I was slightly disturbed by his skin tight leopard skin shirt.  Okay VERY disturbed.  But women were screaming for him like they were at a Chippendale’s show. 

The show started with a tribute to Wade Belak, who was to have competed but committed suicide shortly before the live shows started. CBC did a great job in capturing his spirit and how his loss has bonded the competitors together.

Then the skating started.  All of the pairs were amazing – truly.  As someone who is about to transition from figure to hockey skates, I’m anticipating how hard this will be.  But to ditch your hockey skates and start figure skating, doing little jumps and holding women over your head while trying not to catch your toe picks – impressive!

To me the best pair of the night (well of both nights actually) and YES I’m biased, was Brad May and Anabelle Langlois.  Brad and Anabelle are skating for Autism Speaks – the charity closest to my heart.  Unfortunately, they skated first so they had to get lowballed!  Just wait until next week when they will RULE the leaderboard!!!

I had a blast on Sunday night.  The atmosphere was amazing.  There are so few shows that families can sit down and watch together and truly enjoy.  Battle of the Blades is one of them!