Hockey on Ice

Richard's car got ran into in a few weeks ago by a guy in a Hummer, pretty seriously damaging his door (damaged to the point he can't use the door). As a good will gesture, I guess, the guy asked if he liked hockey or basketball. Richard said hockey, so the guy gave him 2 tickets to the New York Rangers game at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night. Given that he had 2 tickets and only one person, he asked me if I wanted to go along. My interested was piqued - my experience with hockey before then was restricted to Blades of Steel on the Nintendo Entertainment System and also to the epic grand final matchup of Green vs Blue that I watched in person at Warners Bay Ice Skating Stadium. Oh, and a little from the Mighty Ducks documentaries with the kids in them. Richard had been told the seats were supposed to be good, so he read me the ticket details: Section 77, Row A, Seats 1 and 2. I looked at this map:

"Yeah, they should be good seats!" I said.

I left work on Wednesday evening and called Richard from the train. He met me on board and we rode to Grand Central. From there we wound over to the Times Square Shuttle, then onto the 1 train downtown to Penn. We wandered up through Penn Station to the entrance to the Garden, arriving about 15 minutes before play was due to start. After avoiding the guy trying to sell me a ticket while looking at the venue map, we navigated the hallways until we found our gate and went down to our seats. This was what we saw when we sat down:

Checking the tickets, they were valued at $240 each, and were fancy enough that people came and offered to go get us food and drinks. We didn't take them up on it at any stage, but it was cool that it was there.

A few minutes went by and the Atlanta Thrashers, the Rangers' opposition for the night, started to come out. Some of their guys started clambering onto the bench, which was right in front of where we were sitting.

The backup goalie gets onto the bench

Next came the Rangers to loud cheers. Both teams lined up for the anthem. It reminded me of Blades of Steel. I kept getting Blades of Steel flashbacks all game...

The lineups, how they would have appeared in Blades of Steel

The teams got into position, and I could almost hear the 8-bit voice saying "Face off" as the puck was dropped.

The game was underway! It wasn't long before New York were on the offense, and something happened, I don't know the rules because Blades of Steel seemed to have "icing" as the only rule, and there was a face off near the Thrashers goal.

Less than a minute into the game, GOAL!!! Rangers 1, Thrashers 0. It stayed that way for a while until the Thrashers scored. It was 1 - 1 at the end of the first period. Not sure what to expect because Blades of Steel just went straight to the second period, I thought it was cool when little kids came out to play hockey. They would have skated circles around me, even the littlest kid who kept falling over.

The kids looked even smaller thanks to the comparison between them and the adult players.

The zamboni cleaned the ice and it was time for the second period. From what I remember the Thrashers went ahead before the Rangers quickly equalized. Anger threatened to spill over. Please, fight!

The striped shirt guy (I don't know if hockey officials are referees or umpires) broke it up, so I had to imagine it in my mind. Again, it ended up being Blades of Steel style...

Atlanta scored again, making it 3 - 2 and that was how it stayed until the end of the second period. I knew what was to come at this interval, because on Blades of Steel there was the space game:

I pretty sure I used to be able to destroy the big ship...

What?!?! No big space game? A kids penalty shootout competition instead? Fine... the kids didn't get many in, and the goal tenders didn't have to do much work. I kept wanting to call out to them to do the triple deek, because it almost always worked for the Mighty Ducks (that reminds me, does anyone know if Adam Banks went pro?). The penalty shootout ended in a 1-1 tie. I recorded video of it, but it ended up being not so dramatic with the tie and all...

The third period began, still 3 - 2, of course. In about 5 minutes of the third period the Thrashers scored twice, making it 5 - 2. All the Rangers fans started to get disappointed and dejected, including the ginger screaming girl who was sitting next to us. Luckily for my ear drums she was next to Richard. But that sparked something, and the Rangers tried to come back. They scored twice, bringing it back to 5 - 4. They had another chance, but it hit the bar. Both teams were frantic: the Rangers trying to equalize, the Thrashers trying to keep them out. But in amongst it all, one of the Thrashers' coaches still had time to draw. It probably relieved anxiety or something:

Coach (thinking): "What am I going to draw???"

Coach (yelling): "Hey, check it out! I drew a robot! Welch, look at my robot, damn it!"

(as the players/lines change)

Coach: "Check it out - I drew this robot. Yeah, I drew it!"

In desperation, the Rangers pulled their goalie, leaving an extra man on the ice but also an empty net. The puck got away from them and with 23 point something seconds left the Thrashers put the puck into the empty net. Having little faith in their team's ability to score 2 goals in 20 seconds the Rangers fans moaned and turned to leave. Richard and I hung out until the end and then left, timing our runs well to the subway and train home.

It was a fun night. Never having been to a hockey game before I was surprised at how quickly it went. And how warm it was in there, even by the ice. I'd go to another game, but probably wouldn't sit that close again, especially if I had to pay for the tickets.

Rich, if you read this, thanks for asking me to the game.

Now, if only I had a NES and Blades of Steel... an emulator just wouldn't be the same...

Note: Photos were taken by me at the game, all from our seats. The game screenshots came from other websites, including ign I think... and I know the colors of the uniforms keep changing...