Tuesday, April 15, 2008

HOCKEYFIED

As I mentioned yesterday, I was invited to a NHL playoff game between the Nashville Predators and the Detroit Red Wings.

Until yesterday, I had never been to a hockey game. Hockey always seemed like a sport that I wouldn't really enjoy. The rare times I have been subjected to it on television, I could never keep up or understand what was going on. It takes enough out of me just to learn all the rules about the other sports, like football and basketball and baseball. Hockey is so northern. It never interested me.

So I was very apprehensive about the game. I likened it to taking a baby to the ocean for the first time: will she hate the sand and the salt water, or will she love it? It could go either way.

We parked and hurried to the Sommet Center in time to hear the National Anthem and see the puck drop. I was thrilled before we evan even sat down - our seats were kickass. I mean, we were practically on the ice and if not for the glass partition, we would have been in the box with the team.

They had the mascot drop down from the ceiling all Mission: Impossiblesque and then the team skated out right beside us. Vince did okay with the anthem (as okay as a grown man can do when singing the whole song in falsetto, that is). Then they all got situated and the game started.

As someone who has the attention span of a flea, I was in heaven. There was so much to look at and see, especially since we were so close and the game moves so fast. It's not like football where time stops every few seconds so they can move chains. And they are mean to each other! One Detroit guy skated right up next to a Nashville guy, and kind of shoved him, and the Nashville guy reached out and swatted at the other guy's face. But then the ref skated up so we'll never know what could have happened. But the players ram one another into walls and break each other's sticks and it's very exciting/frightening.

So much, in fact, that I really don't see why they have rules in hockey. The only rule should be do whatever you have to do to get the puck in the net. The end. To my naked eye, that's what was going on anyway. So it should be a free-for-all with one exception - the Penalty Box. That is without a doubt my favorite part about hockey. When a player did something wrong or drew a penalty, he had to go sit in a box on the other side of the ice for two minutes. It's like timeout: go sit over there and think about what you did! At one point, Detroit had two people in the box. I think that's SO FUNNY. They don't have that in other sports do they? Rather than be allowed to join their team on the bench and wait it out, they have to sit in the box because they were not playing very nicely. Genius.

Other highlights of the game:
• The guy in front of us scaling the glass and almost jumping onto the ice after a goal was scored.
• During the second intermission, these inflatable character animals called Zooperstars came onto the ice to entertain. Peyton Manatee, Tiger Woodschuck and Mario LeMule were funny-looking just standing there, but when they started doing the Soulja Boy, I was HOWLING. It was hilarious. Then, as if that wasn't enough, they went into Cotton Eyed Joe and just started running amuck on the ice, banging their heads onto the glass.
• Dierks Bentley was there! Guess the CMT Awards were too boring for him...
• We were able to go visit a suite, just in time to enjoy the dessert cart. Delicious!
• On the way in, everyone was handed some noisemakers called Bam Bams - two sticks that you inflate and then whack together to make noise? LJ + noisemaker = bad idea.
• Like I mentioned, we were more or less sitting in the Predators team box. One player just skates right on up to the box and someone else hops out to take his place. It's an art form how good they are at rotating. I was fascinated just watching that.

And course, the last three minutes were the best. Apparently people are calling last night's game the greatest Preds game ever. They were down 2-3 with like 4 minutes left or something and scored 3 goals. Two of them were back to back. In fact I was watching the jumbotron, thinking what I just saw was a replay of goal from like 30 seconds before, but it was another point! Hooray!

So the verdict is in: hockey games are fun. And I am very spoiled because that was an awesome game with awesome seats.

Actually, I think it's less about the sport of hockey - which I find horribly boring on TV - and more about being in an arena with 17,000 people cheering when the underdog hometown team gets a victory. So, using that logic, what other live sporting events have I have been missing out on? Who knows, I might just go to a NASCAR race or wrestling match next!

7 comments:

  1. look at you using the lingo -- "Preds"

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  2. Lindsay... admit it, you were thinking of me when you wrote this entry:

    "I was thrilled before we evan sat down - our seats were kickass"

    So glad you had fun. It's MUCH better than the fence. ;)

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  3. But do you know the story of why they are the nashville predators? No? Well let me explain- long ago (i dont' know when) the bones of a sabertooth tiger were found under one of the buildings in Nashville. I want to say it was the Amsouth Building and that the skeleton of the tiger is on display in the lobby of that building. Thus, the predators were born!

    Lil History lesson for ya.

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  4. Did you not believe me when I wrote about how much fun hockey games are? I'm glad you got to see for yourself. As much as a love football, nothing beats watching a hockey game in person.

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  5. I will take an Auburn game over a Predators game any day of the week. What kind of person are you? Oh wait, I know. One that was born in the NORTH.

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  6. 1. We are in a fight
    2. I never said I would choose hockey over football, I just said the games are more fun in person, because they move so much quicker.
    3. I choose Auburn football over pretty much every other sport, and unlike most girls, I know what's going on in the actual game, not just what the cheerleaders are doing.

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  7. Wow, that came out a lot meaner than it was in my head.:)

    ReplyDelete

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