Once-In-a-Lifetime Events at Staples Center last night

[pavyaz19 1]

I had an INSANE time at the Wings / Kings game last night and thought you all might like to hear about it.

This is gonna be long, but worth it... Hey, a LOT HAPPENED... I still think you should read it.

1. (this is the only boring part but it's vital to the story...) Brief back-story, I grew up in Ohio loving the Wings. Moved to LA and have begun to like the Kings as a distant second-favorite. I go to a lot of their games now, but the Wings are still my #1 and will be forever...

2. I was able to work it out that my girlfriend and I could shoot pucks at the net on the ice of Staples Center before pregame warm-ups. It was AWESOME! We brought along our Kings jerseys so the building personnel wouldn't get ticked about our red and white (although, we had our Wings sweaters with us for game-time).

3. Here's where it begins... A Kings intern walks us down to ice-level and we had to pass the Wings locker room. What's going on? The pre-game soccer ritual... Draper shout's "stop the game, stop the game" while Lilja jumps in a grabs the ball. There we are, my girlfriend and I in the middle of Draper, Lilja, Maltby, and Kronwall. (HOLY CRAP!) My girlfriend is frozen in her tracks. I'm shaking. WE'RE WEARING KINGS STUFF! Damnit! So we walk through the dudes, I'm getting off a couple, "Good luck tonight guys" and "hey man, have a good game." All of them were all smiles and super cool to us. When I was near Draper I leaned in and said, "Hey man, we're from Detroit, we're Wings fans but live here now." Draper says, "Well you have the wrong jerseys on!" and my girls says, "I know we do now, but look." She shows him the rest of the dudes are change of clothes... Red Wings sweaters. They laugh. It was awesome... then we went and shot the pucks at the net for 15-20 minutes (sorry to those Wings fans I scared behind the net when I shot one hard off the glass, I knew you'd laugh though!) They also gave us a sweet official NHL practice puck, one that we used when shooting on goal.

4. I uploaded some pictures of us on the ice at UncleHockey.com, we didn't want to bother players for pics and stuff, plus we were too star struck. Here's a quick link if interested (also in there is Jiri Fisher signing autographs for a mite team on an early saturday afternoon in Plymouth, MI before Christmas, he was SUPER nice).

http://unclesports.com/hockeyvideosearchca...rchtype=wings19

It gets better...

5.) So, after shooting pucks at the net we have to walk by the locker room again... PAVEL DATSYUK and Conklin have joined the soccer game... I had to say something to the dude with the sweetest hands in the world, "Good luck tonight Pavel." He nods, again, all the dudes are all smiles, being super cool even though we've disrupted their game for a second time. I asked Ty, "Hey man, are you starting tonight?" He said yeah as he was stretching and warming up. I said, "all right! good luck." Maltby laughed behind me, I can't help but think it's because of us wearing all of our Kings stuff... Conklin might have thought I was being sarcastic... I should've told him I was feeling a shutout.

6.) As we're getting back to our seats, another Kings employee stops us and asks if we want to be in a contest during the intermission with a chance to win a Toyota... an obvious "Hell Yes!"... Then we throw on our Wings jerseys and watch the game.

7.) At the middle of the second period, we switch back to our Kings jerseys getting ready for the contest. Again, not wanting to piss off Kings personnel... Between the 2nd and 3rd period, Megan and I have to go down to the ice again. She stands at one end of the ice between the circles, me at the other. The place goes pitch black, sold out 18,000+, a spotlight on Megan, then one on me, and a third putting a perfect circle on the center ice Kings logo. We each get to shoot 10 pucks, person closest to the center ice face-off dot wins a prize. Person with the most pucks in the center ice circle becomes one of five finalists for a new Toyota Truck.

8.) For being closest to the dot we got a stick signed by the whole Kings roster... rad! I tried to do a cool hockey goal celebration when I won by dropping to a knee and doing a couple fist pumps. I didn't get any reaction though, I think people were upset that I just whooped on my girlfriend in a friendly contest... she's cool, she understood. (there's a pic of me and megan with the signed stick in the link above - notice our Red Wings jerseys. HA!)

9.) For having the most pucks in the circle we're getting tickets to the Kings final home game this year... between periods I'll be down on the ice with 4 other finalists... we'll each grab keys out of a hat... whoever has a key that starts the truck gets the new Toyota. That will be April 11.

10.) So we throw our Wings jerseys back on and head back to the seats... everyone around us were congratulating us and giving us crap about our frequent wardrobe changes.

HOLY CRAP!!!! What a freaking day... I hope you enjoyed the story, sorry it was long.

Edited January 16, 2009 by pavyaz19

[Zion 93]

Well done!

[Reds4Life 51]

Awesome! I am happy for you

[SouthernWingsFan 854]

I had an INSANE time at the Wings / Kings game last night and thought you all might like to hear about it.

This is gonna be long, but worth it... Hey, a LOT HAPPENED... I still think you should read it.

1. (this is the only boring part but it's vital to the story...) Brief back-story, I grew up in Ohio loving the Wings. Moved to LA and have begun to like the Kings as a distant second-favorite. I go to a lot of their games now, but the Wings are still my #1 and will be forever...

2. I was able to work it out that my girlfriend and I could shoot pucks at the net on the ice of Staples Center before pregame warm-ups. It was AWESOME! We brought along our Kings jerseys so the building personnel wouldn't get ticked about our red and white (although, we had our Wings sweaters with us for game-time).

3. Here's where it begins... A Kings intern walks us down to ice-level and we had to pass the Wings locker room. What's going on? The pre-game soccer ritual... Draper shout's "stop the game, stop the game" while Lilja jumps in a grabs the ball. There we are, my girlfriend and I in the middle of Draper, Lilja, Maltby, and Kronwall. (HOLY CRAP!) My girlfriend is frozen in her tracks. I'm shaking. WE'RE WEARING KINGS STUFF! Damnit! So we walk through the dudes, I'm getting off a couple, "Good luck tonight guys" and "hey man, have a good game." All of them were all smiles and super cool to us. When I was near Draper I leaned in and said, "Hey man, we're from Detroit, we're Wings fans but live here now." Draper says, "Well you have the wrong jerseys on!" and my girls says, "I know we do now, but look." She shows him the rest of the dudes are change of clothes... Red Wings sweaters. They laugh. It was awesome... then we went and shot the pucks at the net for 15-20 minutes (sorry to those Wings fans I scared behind the net when I shot one hard off the glass, I knew you'd laugh though!) They also gave us a sweet official NHL practice puck, one that we used when shooting on goal.

4. I uploaded some pictures of us on the ice at UncleHockey.com, we didn't want to bother players for pics and stuff, plus we were too star struck. Here's a quick link if interested (also in there is Jiri Fisher signing autographs for a mite team on an early saturday afternoon in Plymouth, MI before Christmas, he was SUPER nice).

http://unclesports.com/hockeyvideosearchca...rchtype=wings19

It gets better...

5.) So, after shooting pucks at the net we have to walk by the locker room again... PAVEL DATSYUK and Conklin have joined the soccer game... I had to say something to the dude with the sweetest hands in the world, "Good luck tonight Pavel." He nods, again, all the dudes are all smiles, being super cool even though we've disrupted their game for a second time. I asked Ty, "Hey man, are you starting tonight?" He said yeah as he was stretching and warming up. I said, "all right! good luck." Maltby laughed behind me, I can't help but think it's because of us wearing all of our Kings stuff... Conklin might have thought I was being sarcastic... I should've told him I was feeling a shutout.

6.) As we're getting back to our seats, another Kings employee stops us and asks if we want to be in a contest during the intermission with a chance to win a Toyota... an obvious "Hell Yes!"... Then we throw on our Wings jerseys and watch the game.

7.) At the middle of the second period, we switch back to our Kings jerseys getting ready for the contest. Again, not wanting to piss off Kings personnel... Between the 2nd and 3rd period, Megan and I have to go down to the ice again. She stands at one end of the ice between the circles, me at the other. The place goes pitch black, sold out 18,000+, a spotlight on Megan, then one on me, and a third putting a perfect circle on the center ice Kings logo. We each get to shoot 10 pucks, person closest to the center ice face-off dot wins a prize. Person with the most pucks in the center ice circle becomes one of five finalists for a new Toyota Truck.

8.) For being closest to the dot we got a stick signed by the whole Kings roster... rad! I tried to do a cool hockey goal celebration when I won by dropping to a knee and doing a couple fist pumps. I didn't get any reaction though, I think people were upset that I just whooped on my girlfriend in a friendly contest... she's cool, she understood. (there's a pic of me and megan with the signed stick in the link above - notice our Red Wings jerseys. HA!)

9.) For having the most pucks in the circle we're getting tickets to the Kings final home game this year... between periods I'll be down on the ice with 4 other finalists... we'll each grab keys out of a hat... whoever has a key that starts the truck gets the new Toyota. That will be April 11.

10.) So we throw our Wings jerseys back on and head back to the seats... everyone around us were congratulating us and giving us crap about our frequent wardrobe changes.

HOLY CRAP!!!! What a freaking day... I hope you enjoyed the story, sorry it was long.

Since you are famous now, can I have YOUR autograph?

[JayUp88 1]

Sounds like a great night!

[PROBIE4PREZ 58]

thats awesome

[NeverForgetMac25 483]

Great story, but I'm certainly glad you didn't say to Conklin that you were "feeling a shutout." That's a no-no on game day for not only most hockey players, but assuredly an NHL goaltender.

Congrats and best of luck on April 11th. Let LGW know either way whether you win or not.

[Jwo 7]

That's cool you got to do all that stuff. Glad you had a good night.

[Mckinley25 678]

I should've told him I was feeling a shutout.

You definitely should not have

Edited January 16, 2009 by Mckinley25

[yzefan 2]

Awesome..congrads on the chance and good luck with the truck.

P.s. your girl is pretty hot.. she'll look good in the new truck!!!!

cheers!!

[Duck Guy 86]

ahhh so that was you i was wathing you guys shoot around the pucks since i got there right when the doors opened haha nice man

[VladyIBELIEVE16 257]

Nice work! What i want to know is why you haven't met up with us for games before for RWNW

It was a great night all around! Puckhog419 got to meet Lilja, Cheli and Hudler after the game. He was texting me. I was like I hate you but I'm so happy for you! I can't be jealous I got to spend time with the dad's and the guys last January!

Keep a peeper out in the Group Event Forum

[puckhog419 0]

Nice work! What i want to know is why you haven't met up with us for games before for RWNW

It was a great night all around! Puckhog419 got to meet Lilja, Cheli and Hudler after the game. He was texting me. I was like I hate you but I'm so happy for you! I can't be jealous I got to spend time with the dad's and the guys last January!

Keep a peeper out in the Group Event Forum

o yeah i think the dads were there. there were a few guys that were waiting with us and lilja went straight to them and left with them.

[VladyIBELIEVE16 257]

Dang it,I knew I should've gone to the player elevator!!! They might have recognized me from last year!

[Konnan511 1,736]

Dude, that is awesome!!!!!!!

PS I HATEEEEEEEEE black in any jersey, but LA Kings third jersey is my third favorite jersey behind the Wings' home and away jerseys

[dat's sick 1,002]

Wow, I'm jealous of you

Seriously, sounds like you guys had an awesome time.

[T.Low 1,011]

[ashenhigh 9]

Nice man, you are so lucky I'd kill for that opportunity. Not only did you get to actually meet some wings and say a few words, but got to go on the ice?!?!?

I was at the game last night too, great stuff. LOCKED DOWN.

[MissyLKS8 6]

Now my first question... How do you get the passes? I want meet them!

[Yzersyukstromberg 0]

I'm jealous...but I'd have stuck with the Wings jerseys just to piss of Kings personnel. Something tells me your lucky night would've been stopped short by a couple of events if you did that though! Good for you man!! Must have been an awesome night!

[TheSupafly 50]

You are a lucky lucky man. Good luck...hope you win the car.

[Spinner 6]

Great story! I've never been fortunate enough to meet any of the wings. Good luck winning the truck.

[HadThomasVokounOnFortSt 878]

Sick, holy s***, your so lucky!

[Kira 451]

Sounds like you had a great time. I'm glad you at least got to talk to Pasha. What sweethearts the guys are.

I have one of those nifty little practice pucks too. Funny, but I also got mine at a Wings/Kings game. Coincidence?????

[Seraph 240]

I saw you guys!! I was wondering why your girl was wearing red during the competition!