Ambassador

I love St. Louis and I love America. I want people to have a great experience when they come to my city or country.

Last night at the hockey game, Sallie and I met a Finnish air force pilot named Miku. He and three of his buddies were in town to do some simulation testing at Boeing and they all decided to see a NHL hockey game. Luckily for them, the Anaheim Ducks who have the largest Finnish roster in NHL, were playing in St. Louis.

We met Miku because he kept apologizing every time Anaheim scored saying, "I'm sorry, but this is very good for me. I hope that the game goes to a shootout."

Miku is a season pass holder for his Finnish league hockey team, (Sorry Miku, forgot the name of your city) and said their arena was larger, it maybe held another 8,000 people, but that we were louder. (USA USA!)

Sallie and I were chatting him up in between plays, telling him some things he should see while in St. Louis and he told us about his 8 year old son, who plays goalie for his hockey team. Miku incredibly excited to be at the game and wanted his son to be there with him. Instead he was going to buy his son a t-shirt of one of our young players. I suggested Oshie, Backes, and Pietrangelo, but Miku sounded like he wanted a Halak shirt

Then, sitting on the other side of us, is this little 7 year old badass. He's always rocking an Oshie jersey.  He's got a half season pass and is at every game with either his mom or dad. Anytime the Blues score, we give him a high-five and chat him up.

I guess what I'm saying is its important to be great ambassadors to the things you love. My hope is that Miku goes back to Finland and tells everyone how much love there is for hockey in St. Louis and how the people there were nice. And that little boy that sits next to us will remember being included in the celebration with the adults around him.