The Mendes Diaries

On the surface, a day-trip to Manhattan to rub elbows with the most powerful men in hockey sounds like a glamorous job.
I'll let you be the judge, as I chronicle my trip from Ottawa to New York and back within 19 hours.
4:25am - Wake up fresh as a daisy, after getting four hours of sleep. Would someone remind me why it wise to stay up until midnight watching Seinfeld re-runs I've seen 12 times before? My iPod alarm clock randomly chooses a Wiggles song to wake me up. No matter how cool I might try to seem on the surface, I have "Hot Potato" on my iPod.
5:25am - Check into U.S. customs and try not to laugh when I tell the agent I'm going to Manhattan to sit in a hotel lobby for 8 hours and then I'll be flying back to Ottawa this evening.
8:05am - Roll into the Westin Times Square in Manhattan. One by one, the league execs, team presidents and owners roll in. Given the demographic and combined earnings of these guys walking by, I better make sure this is the NHL board of governors meeting and not a Republican fundraiser.
9:44am - Brian Burke, David Poile and Glen Sather all walk together down the hall and disappear around a corner. This can only mean a three-way trade amongst the clubs is imminent. You heard it here first: Shea Weber-for-Corey Perry-for-Stephen Valiquette. (The No. 1 rule for starting a three-way trade rumour is to make sure one of the teams is totally getting screwed.)
10:02am - The meeting is now underway. I think it would be funny if we had a hidden microphone in the room, so we could hear everything going on inside. I even had the plan all set up. I would hug Flyers majority owner Ed Snider (because he seems so huggable) when he walked into the hotel. I would say, "Come here you big lug, I haven't seen you since Roman Cechmanek melted down." Then, when we were in the middle of an awkward embrace, I would slip the mic inside his jacket pocket. I will definitely try this tactic at the next board of governors meeting I attend.
10:22am - I notice Cam Neely is one of the attendees at the meeting. I wonder how many of the old guard NHL guys know they are sitting at a table with a guy who was in Dumb and Dumber.

11:45am - The lunch carts roll outside the meeting room. I can't tell what they are having for lunch, but until I see the board of governors eating flatbread sammies from Quizno's, I'm going to just assume the league is on solid financial ground and the cap is going up next year.
1:05pm - When you spend the day at an upscale Manhattan hotel, you can expect to rub elbows with some celebrities. Last time I was here, Catherine Zeta-Jones was filming a movie at my hotel. No such luck today with the celebrities. Although I'm pretty sure one of the hotel bellhops is Wesley from Mr. Belvedere.

3:55pm - After spending two hours aimlessly surfing the web (you don't want to know what my Google search engine has in its memory cache now), we get word the meeting is over. But as the doors open to the room, various GMs, owners and presidents transform from stiff office types into swift and graceful athletes as they push past us to the exit. "Sorry - got a plane to catch," is the number one slogan of anyone who doesn't want to speak with the media. I don't think I would win a foot race with Pierre Lacroix if he had a plane to catch.

4:18pm - I give Brian Burke a ton of credit for not making me eat my microphone after I had to ask him his obligatory Leaf-related conspiracy qestion of the day.
4:33pm - I shoot a one-on-one interview with Gary Bettman. But I actually screw up 15 seconds into the interview and have to restart. Bettman grabs the mic and says, "Maybe I should be asking the questions." Now Bettman takes a lot of heat from hockey fans, but I will say this about him: He's the most down-to-earth and approachable commissioner of a major sport in North America. (BTW: There is no sarcastic punch line here. I actually really enjoy dealing with Bettman.)

6:22pm - Pull into Air Canada check-in line at LaGuardia and find out my flight home has been cancelled. I'm advised to book a new flight for the morning and book an overnight hotel. Now I'm generally a lazy person by nature. I struggle to take out the garbage every Sunday night. But for some strange reason, I love a good airport challenge. I don't intend to go quietly tonight.

8:21pm - After convincing them to make me a standby passenger on the last flight out to Toronto, I watch as the plane gets loaded up and they don't call my name. In a last ditch effort, I go up to the counter and ask if there is one more seat open by chance after everyone is on board. And for some bizarre reason - there is one seat left. So I grab my boarding pass and resist the urge to look back at the other 50 standby passengers and do a sneak preview of my Lotto 6/49 dance.

9:55pm - I land in Toronto and have exactly 23 minutes to clear customs, security and make my connection to Ottawa. Suddenly, I'm the one running through a crowded hallway at full speed yelling, "Sorry - got a plane to catch." It really is empowering. You should try it sometime.
11:17pm - Plane safely touches down in Ottawa, thus concluding my 19-hour day. I can't wait for the NHL Draft festivities to start here in Ottawa on Thursday, so I can camp out in a hotel lobby NHL Jerseys
and rub elbows with NHL executives.