As most of you reading this are aware, I am a bit of a Detroit Red Wings fan. Okay maybe more than a bit. So when I got an opportunity to take a short 10 hour road trip to watch a 3 hour hockey game, I had to think about it for a while.
I can't tell you how long I thought about it, because my watch doesn't record nanoseconds (that's nerd-speak for an extremely short time). After all, I had never been to watch my favorite team in my favorite sport play in their home rink. Pathetic, I know. I did manage to see them play at HSBC Arena a few years back, but that doesn't really count, because well, there were Sabres' fans there. Ewww.
So not only was I going to finally get to see the Wings play at the Joe (fanspeak for the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit), but it just so happened to be Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals. So yeah, pretty big game.
By the way, I fell into this opportunity through sheer luck - my friend Nick, who is the captain and organizer of our OCD hockey team (that's our company name - we're not a team of guys that all have OCD) grew up in Detroit and still has family there who are season ticket holders. Nick originally got an extra for a friend of his - a Pittsburgh fan who cancelled out after the Pens went down 2 games to 0 in the series. So thank you, anonymous fair weather Pens fan. (oh and Nick, too, for remembering that I was a Wings fan and asking if I wanted the ticket).
So I got the clearance to go (thanks hon) and we left Saturday morning for the 5 hour trip to Nick's brother's house about an hour outside Detroit. Once we got there, we decided to drive into Detroit early to soak in some of the atmosphere around the arena (insert Detroit joke here). Of course we had to make 1 stop first - a result of which I discovered that I actually like Miller Lite - who knew?
When we got there we headed down to the Detroit Riverwalk, which is pretty much right behind the arena. There was a band playing, some face painting (I passed), a couple of promotion booths giving away free stuff, a net set up to shoot goals to win a T-shirt (which they started giving away for free after I had been in line for 10 minutes), souvenir vendors, and of course food and drink. It was small, but it struck the right mood, and I got a couple of cool freebies out of it.
They also had photographers wandering around taking pics of fans to put on the website. Mine are
here, DSC-0186 and DSC-0187.
After the Riverwalk, I got to go on the insider's tour of pregame festivities (at least their version), heading to the Anchor bar for burgers and beers and then prepping for the walk into Joe Louis (that beer was cold stuck in my waistband). After making a drunk call to my brother (sorry Steve) to crow about me being at the game (and not being able to hear a word he said back to me), we took some obligatory fan pics:
Oh yeah, I didn't have our camera (I didn't realize it was in Nancy's purse before I left for the game), so these pics are all courtesy of Nick. The guy and girl on the other side of Gordie are Nick's brother and sister-in law (wife of a different brother actually), whom I didn't know were there until after Nick snapped the picture. A couple of souvenirs later and we were in our seats - upper deck end zone, with a fantastic view of the entire ice surface.
The pregame psyche-up session was pretty cool, and Nick got a bunch of pics, not all of which turned out because of all the motion down on the ice. But this is probably one of the better shots:
Now the game. I won't detail it too much because those of you who are hockey fans know how it turned out, and those of you who aren't probably couldn't give a rat's ass. But a little background info couldn't hurt.
The Wings were coming in limping after losing two straight in Pittsburgh to tie the series after taking a 2 games to 0 lead in Detroit. So I was a little nervous about how they would respond in this game. The good news was that their best player (and my current fave) Pavel Datsyuk was returning from the foot injury that kept him out for the previous 7 games. Nice to get a Hart Trophy (more NHL geek-speak for league MVP) finalist back in the lineup, eh?
In the end I needn't have worried. After taking a 1-0 lead into the 1st intermission, on a shot that Pens goalie Fleury should have stopped, the Wings cruised in the second with 4 more goals (3 on the power play) on their way to a 5-0 whitewashing. Each goal was met with raucous celebration, high fives, and maybe just a bit of taunting for the row or two of Pens fans sitting behind us. It was also nice because all 4 of those goals were scored at the end of the rink we were in, and I managed to see all of them despite taking a bathroom break each period.
The Penguins took some stupid penalties out of frustration (that didn't stop some Pens fans from whining about the officiating. again), and the Wings made them pay for most of them - although I wished they had scored on the 5-on-3 power play resulting from the twin slashes by Crosby and Talbot, but I'll settle for 5 goals. Now Detroit can take a 3-2 lead back to Pittsburgh tomorrow night, and only need to win one of the next 2 (with one of them back at JLA) to win the cup for the 2nd straight year and 5th time in the last 12 seasons.
Aside from one of our group (not me) spilling some of his beer on one of the biggest muscleheads I've ever seen in my life, we were able to make it out of the arena without any trouble. After a quick stopover back at the Anchor Bar, we headed back to Nick's brother's house for some much needed rest before making the 5 hour trip back Sunday morning. But not before I took one last souvenir.
