Big Wheel

If you know anything about hockey slang, you know what wheeling is ... and I will profess to being a bit of a wheel myself. I'm not as blatant about it as some people, but there's some fun to be had out there, so may as well indulge, right?

The art of wheeling is all about being in the right place, at the right time, and being smooth as fresh ice ;) Hockey players often throw out cheesy lines, or will try to tell you how important/cool/popular they are.

Use this to your advantage.

The other day, I was watching the game on TSN. On the panel, they've been having guests come and yap a bit during the intermissions. Over the weekend, the boy on there caught my eye and I said to my buddy, "who the heck is that boy!? I want me some of him!" and when his name flashed up on the screen, they included his Twitter underneath. Next thing I said is, "Where's your computer?" I did a little Hockey DB and a little Tweet that said something to the degree of "Your pink shirt looks cute."

An hour later, after the game was over. I got a direct message. If you're not familiar with Twitter, it sort of works like this: a Tweet is kind of like writing on someone's facebook wall if you tweet @so-and-so ... aka the world can see it. A direct message is like an inbox. BUT. On Twitter, you can only inbox someone if they follow you. So, hockey player can inbox me because I follow him, but I have to write on his proverbial wall so the entire world can see it.

We have been tweeting back and forth the last couple days, and last night on the panel, he said he liked to hide snacks in his blocker/trapper/knee pads during the third period in games where he was the backup. I tweeted something about "making hotdogs and popcorn for him to eat under the desk on the panel tomorrow night" (meaning tonight, his last night) .. and he tweeted back "nice ;)"

Tonight I wished him well saying safe flight back home .. he's staying in Toronto for a few days, and told me where he may be going for a drink later.

I've never really wheeled on Twitter before but if it's this easy, then I'm gonna keep doing it lol Paul Bissonette is going to be on the panel tomorrow night, and he's a big a wheel as they come. He was at the bar tonight, but my boy didn't make it as the Vancouver game went into overtime. Maybe I'll get to meet the infamous BizNasty?

Shane O'Brien recently got twitter .. if you have twitter, look him up, Obie is a wreck, mess and overall beauty. BizNasty, Upshall, Lupul and a few others are already touting Obie as going to be a big sell on Twitter.

I feel like this is a throwback to the golden oldie days of wheeling on ICQ ... back in the day before Facebook, or MSN, when you could get an ICQ number from voy or a friend and add players at random, chat them up and do what you liked. I used to chat with Dennis Wideman, Brad Boyes, Tomas Plekanec, Mark Popovic and a few others on ICQ (didn't try to pick any of them up ...) but did have some minor success with a few, like TJ Aceti and Rick Nash (who tried to hook up with me but crashed and burned. Ask me about the story some time.)

There are plenty of ways to go about this -- just try not to look like a creep. One guy I know (who I have hooked up with) has Twitter and some girl who's name is "___'s Girl" (his name) and Tweets at him. Awkward. I also threw out there that my current boy knows my neighbour. Just a little piece of info so he knows I'm legit and not awkward. Although wheeling on Twitter still FEELS awkward, he seems to dig it.

And so, I continue to Tweet in public in reply to his awkward private messages .....

I'll let you know how it goes.