Last time I saw pink ice, I was ridiculing one of my buddies for sipping on one of those girlie drinks during a sabbatical down in Mexico.
You know, one of those slushy, fruity cocktails with the little umbrellas and a fruity flavor that has every guy in the bar shaking his head and chicas turning away with a laugh of disdain.
Memories of a long-forgotten friendship were rekindled over the weekend when the AHL's Norfolk Admirals actually painted their ice pink in the first Pink in the Rink event to raise breast cancer awareness.
And hey, with 11 wins in their first 40 games that had them in the basement of the 29-team league, it was an opportunity for the Admirals, for one night, to get away from the norm.
Stink in the Rink.
I'm checking sources as we speak, but so far no truth to the rumor that Richard Simmons was seen running around outside the arena aimlessly in Spandex screaming "Tickets! Who has tickets?!"
Now, to be fair, the pink party was for an extremely worthwhile cause. The game attracted plenty of deserved interest and cash for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure, an organization founded to educate the public on the perils of breast cancer while assisting survivors of the disease.
But, and you had to know there was going to be a but, things didn't go exactly as planned.
As most second-grade finger painters could tell you, the pink, when mixed with water, didn't exactly stay pink for long. In time, the ice took on a dark crimson-like tint and players had a tough time distinguishing where the red and blue lines were.
Uh, anything else to say other than "oops"?
To add to that pink haze and feel-good ambiance, a late-game brawl saw every player on the ice drop the gloves.
Oh, and there was no fairytale ending. The Admirals lost again.
Seems they are missing a couple of things down in Norfolk, namely a decent hockey team and astute engineers.
Pink in the Rink? Whatever.
The Admirals still stink.