Not surprisingly, the other night, I was stood up for a hockey date. I was supposed to meet someone at my usual sports bar for some Friday night Ducks festivities, but was left sitting at the bar alone. I thought I would have better luck posting on the Orange County Craigslist, but I realized that I’m kind of far away from Orange County and it might just be too much of a hassle for a person to drive this far. I found this particularly flaky person from the posting. However, I anticipated this entire situation because of his age. You can never trust a 22-year-old. In fact, I find that anyone under the age of 25 is just not trustworthy. I get the whole auto insurance industry now.

Other than the Friday night flake, I can positively say that I had a much better response from the Orange County population than I did from the horrifying Los Angeles crowd. I could go without seeing “Kings Rule!” e-mails one after the other. That’s considered hockey abuse and I don’t have to put up with it.

Regardless of the fact that I was stood up on Friday, I still got to drink beer and enjoy the Ducks vs. Blackhawks game. I got a prime seat at the bar, enjoyed my veggie burger, and mouthed off to the bartender for the duration of the game. He tried to get me to go out for drinks with him after his shift and I declined since a few moments before he had asked me what he should get his girlfriend for Christmas. I’m not sure if this situation was better than when I had to listen to another bartender hit on the chicks next to me. Anyway you look at it, I need to start watching hockey with people other than bartenders.

The Ducks beat up on the Blackhawks, whooping them 5-2. Also on that magical night, Scott Niedermayer announced he was going to get back in the game. The audio was low on the TV in the bar during the press conference, but I could tell what was going on. I’d already resigned myself to the idea that he and Teemu Selanne were gone for good, so I was a little shocked to witness the conference. I’m very happy to see that Niedermayer is going to put his amazing Conn Smythe self back into the game. I can’t wait to see him and the always powerful Chris Pronger out on the ice together.

I was on the Inside Hockey radio show on Saturday and the hosts put me on the spot a little bit by asking me which defenseman the team will cut in order to give Niedermayer ice time and, well, salary. I honestly have no idea. You never really know what moves teams are going to make. And call me naïve and crazy, but I was surprised when Ilya Bryzgalov was released. It will be interesting to see how it ends up with all the strong defensemen on the team. All I know is that I’m glad to have Scotty back!

In a previous posting, I mentioned a certain cutie on the train. I said that maybe in my search for a hockey buddy, I should ask him if he’d like to be mine. Oddly, outgoing me has been too embarrassed to say anything to him. Too afraid to bust out with the line, “Hey, do you like hockey?” So in the year or so that I’ve been riding the train with this guy (I could be exaggerating on timing here), I’d pretty much said about three sentences to him total. Once I told him he had nice shoes (which he did). The other time I praised the moustache he was wearing for Halloween. That gave me a way to casually ask him if he liked hockey. Then told him I wrote a column on Inside Hockey and had just written one on George Parros, the man with the best moustache in hockey. That was the extent of our communication.

Just recently, I was shocked to see a message sitting in my inbox from him. He had forgotten what site I wrote for, but remembered the important details. Apparently by doing some kind of search on moustaches and hockey he found me online. I hadn’t even told him my name. The Internet is amazing. Now I just have to get him to watch a game with me.

I’d like to say thanks to everyone for sticking by me in this rough time. Hope you all have happy holidays, enjoy some great games, and, as always, wish me luck as I continue on this challenging quest.