Did you go to game 6?

[WingsFanInDC 0]

Topic says it all. I was at the game. (yes, the fugly igloo). Actually, i'm going to tell you all what I endured.

If anyone was watching the channel 4 news out of Detroit, and happened to be recording it, please PM me. I didn't see it yet but a friend of mine called me up and said she saw me. I was the guy wearing Osgood's jersey standing next to a tall blonde reporter and the other person was a pen's fan.

I'm also on the freep.com site - http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery...mp;Profile=1053

(I look like crap.. happens when you're walking around and it starts POURING outside).

Anyways, back to my lovely story. I live just outside of DC, and my co-worker and his family all went to the game with me. They're die-hard pens fans. The plan was leave DC at 10 and arrive in Pittsburgh at around 2pm. We arrived on time, and parked the car. I was the only person wearing a wings jersey, and already, i was drawing stares from people. I felt so alone, so lonely, knowing i might've been the only wings fan in town. wink.gif then down the grass a bit (they had a jumbotron for projecting the game outside) and saw a red car, saw a wings logo on it, and saw some gal holding the famous octopus. i ran down screaming "my frieeennddsss!" (ok, i'm exaggerating here...) But it was the news 4 channel from detroit. That's why i asked if anyone might've taped it.

Ok, it's been an hour.. time is now around 3pm. I'm hanging out across the street at the mariott hotel. There's a live radio show going on hosted by ESPN (i think it's 1520 AM), and they had some people encouraging the pen fans to make signs. I made one for myself. On one side, i wrote "GO WINGS" and on the other, i wrote "Only Wings Fan In Town" with a couple of arrows pointing down at me. Few minutes later, a couple of pens fans made some signs.. couple more fans showed up, then a couple of wings fans shows up. Actually, the first person who i THOUGHT was a wings fan was trying to make some money. asked him how much a ticket was. one thousand he said. I cringed. So, i've been in the lobby for about 15 minutes or so, finally a pens fan tries to taunt me with a sign. i started laughing and asked if they needed 10 playoff games to win instead of 8. They looked puzzled. I had to point out that it's an octopus that should be on that sign, not the word "squid" with a circle around it and a line through it. smile.gif

We then started walking across the street to pick up our tickets. I saw some people selling tickets outside.. took one look and some were fakes. It spelled "melon" arena. i told one person to look at the name of the building. On the way up to the box office, i heard some evil things said my way. Above the garage where the teams drive in, there's an overpass where you can watch for some players to drive in. One guy standing up there screamed "RED WINGS SUCK!!!" then had a doll with red wings clothing on it and it was being hanged by a rope on a stick. i wasn't impressed.

Finally we get our tickets from the will call office. it was around 6:30pm. in my head, the sounds of people saying "boo", "you suck!" "Wings Suck!" "Osgoooood" were echoing in my head. Nah, it wasnt traumatizing.. just never thought the people here would hate me so much because of my jersey. Actually, i encouraged it. I have several jerseys with different names on them. Kozlov, Yzerman, Osgood, Chelios, and my last name. I wore Osgood on purpose. biggrin.gif So, back to my stroll around the outside of the arena.. we walked up to the area where the jumbotron was again. There were probably about 250-300 people there, the unlucky ones that didnt get tickets. My friend decided to blow his horn and divert all attention my way. Little by little, the boos got louder. about 10 seconds later, i had 200 people screaming at me, booing at me, giving me the pretty one finger salutes, and all i could do was just shrug my shoulders. It sorta felt like i was in the movie "300". biggrin.gif

While i was walking in front of the rabid fans, i put my hand in my pocket and felt the ticket. This was where i was building a great comeback. I screamed out... "awwwww you're all out here in the rain??? Oh my! look what i have here?!?!? It's a TICKET to tonight's game! YES! WOOOO! WOOOOO! SUCKS TO BE YOU!!!!. lol (thank god no one chased me down for that).

Finally, i'm inside the igloo. that place is an absolute s***hole. i don't know if any of you have been in there, but the seats are really screwy. I was in the lower level, but the bottom part of the upper level blocks the scoreboard view. It's a good thing they're building a new bldg for the team. still, the boos continued. But then came some "wooo! yayyys!" I was seeing people on my side. loyal red wings fans. We were the small army that attended the event - the bold, the proud, and the GUTSY. Game finally went underway. Detroit drew first blood... again, the gustsy wings fans stood and cheered. out of over 17,000 people at the event, i'd say just around 650-700 were wings fans. There was one section reserved for friends and family of the wings. everywhere else, you'd see a speck of red in the crowd. game's gone underway.. end of the 2nd period, i decide to head to the rest room. i'm the only one in red in there. so far, so good. (it was pretty packed) Finally it's my turn to do my business and while i'm standing there, some 10 year old kid starts poking my back screaming "red wings suck! red wings suck!" i was sort of thinking.. what the hell??? i had two options. 1) turn around and just whiz all over him, or 2) just nod and say "yeah yeah yeah..whatever." (last thing i'd want is a brawl in the men's room....)

made it back to the seat alive, more boos, jeers, taunts are thrown my way. finally it came to the end of the game. I did what everyone in tje arena WISHED they could have done - scream as loud as you can in celebration. some jerk in front of me was cussing me out and i ignored him. Then he started to try and pick a fight. I left my seat and went down to the ice level to greet the other fans.

I took a bunch of pictures but from where I was, it was the opposite end of where the trophy was being displayed. but standing there, with the fans, and seeing the expressions on the players, it was just priceless. My friend's sister went out to the back of the arena to try and get pics and autographs of the players when they leave. I managed to get Ryan Malone to pose for a pic with me. (he's TALL!) Also got a pic of Lebda up close.

I have a bunch of other pics, but i'll post them up in a day or two when i get a chance. One thing i did notice, all of the pens players shaved their beards after the game. Is this sort of part of the playoff beard ritual or they just decided on their own?

Time to catch up on sleep.

Check back for pics soon.

-B

Edited June 6, 2008 by WingsFanInDC

[truebladearmy 33]

Topic says it all. I was at the game. (yes, the fugly igloo). Actually, i'm going to tell you all what I endured.

If anyone was watching the channel 4 news out of Detroit, and happened to be recording it, please PM me. I didnt see it yet but a friend of mine called me up and said she saw me. I was the guy wearing Osgood's jersey standing next to a tall blonde reporter and the other person was a pen's fan.

I'm also on the freep.com site - http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery...mp;Profile=1053

(I look like crap.. happens when you're walking around and it starts POURING outside).

Anyways, back to my lovely story. I live just outside of DC, and my co-worker and his family all went to the game with me. They're die-hard pens fans

Yeah yo, I use to date a girl in colorado. Die hard avs fan. Was in the Aebischer fan club, so had tons of free tickets to his games. I went pretty often but I always wore a wings jersey, and aside from having lit cigarettes tossed at me a dozen times, it was great fun