Something To Be Proud Of

I was waiting to update my blog until I cooled off after being extremely pissed off after our abysmal weekend. The Penguins game had me fuming. I don't really feel like going back and talking about it, because well, you all know what happened and I'm sure you don't want to hear about it again. As fans, there's not much we can do except hope that the next game will be better. So instead of playing Monday Morning Quarterback and posting a bunch of shoulda's, woulda's, coulda's, I'm just going to say I hope we have a better outing on Wednesday against the Bruins.

Now straying off from hockey but not really, most of you probably know that Ryan Miller is going to be lighting the Christmas tree at Rotary Rink in celebration of its opening season. He'll also be there promoting his Saves For Cancer campaign that supports Carly's Club. I just want to say how refreshing it is to see an athlete like Ryan Miller do something like this. He's obviously well aware of the influence he has around the city both as a professional athlete and as a celebrity figure and he's putting that celebrity towards a wonderful cause. I know it's something that someone in his position should do, but I think it's obvious that he truly cares about what he's doing and he's passionate about it.

If you haven't heard of his Saves For Cancer campaign, you should head over to the Carly's Club page over at RoswellPark.org and check it out (or just click that link that I graciously added). They have two commercials that Ryan is in promoting it and there's also a video of the press conference to kick off the campaign. It's a really sweet video, because in the video there's a little boy who goes up and talks about how Ryan helped him get through his battle with cancer by just being there for him. A sponser also talks about how Ryan was supposed to do an hour autograph session, but instead he showed up a half hour early to meet a patient who couldn't attend the autograph session, then he stayed for an hour and a half to sign autographs, and afterwords he stayed another two hours to watch a movie with the kids. It's also cute when Ryan goes up to the podium, before they introduced him they had a highlight reel of some of his saves, and then Ryan tells the kids that he had his eyes closed during all those saves. I think it's great that he has unique ways of giving back to the community and getting people involved such as his Saves For Cancer campaign and his Catwalk For Charity fashion show.

Speaking of his fashion show, on his Steadfast Foundation website, the date for this year's event is on Sunday, February 8th. I hope everyone who can will attend. I attended it last year and I had the best time. It was a really unique way for fans to interact with their favorite players. I mean, autograph sessions can be fun, but with an event like this, it's more intimate and personal. You get to actually have meaningful conversations with the teammates and it's just a great night overall. While it's a great thing Ryan offers for his fans, at the same time he's also raising a ton of money to help children with cancer....which is awesome.

While I admire Ryan for what he is as a professional goaltender in the NHL, I have come to admire him just as much off the ice for the kind of person he is. While we're lucky to have such a solid netminder between the pipes for us, we're also lucky to have him for what he does off the ice for our tight-knit community. Sometimes those don't always go hand in hand, and I am proud to say in Ryan's case, it does.