Tag Archives: Hockey

Nassau Coliseum: Islanders – Penguins.

After spending the afternoon at Citi Field, Julie and I headed out to Long Island for the much anticipated Penguins – Islanders game. We made pretty decent time and were at Nassau Coliseum in time for the National Anthem. To say our seats were good is an understatement. The last time we went out the the Coliseum we were probably closer to the glass but not quite center ice and we but this time were were and we were five rows back from the Penguins bench. Best seats I’ve ever had at a sporting event. The Pens won in the shootout 3-2.

The game started off well with the Penguins taking an early lead and then the fighting began.

Fights

The face off right after Mike Rupp’s goal led to a Trevor Gillies – Eric Goddard fight. Which is great since these are the two who were suspended from the last game for more than 10 games each. The Islanders fans wear clearly pleased as if some how this was going to swing the game. It did not and Goddard more than held his own.

Later in the period Aaron Asham took on Zenon Konopka.

Spotted on TV

Julie and I got a couple of texts halfway through he second period that we were spotted on TV. I find it pretty amusing that people from three different cities were by chance watching a regional hockey game and spotted us for the 10 seconds were were on the camera. Hilarious.

Shootout

Marc-Andre Fleury shutdown the Islanders during the shootout and Cris Kunitz was the only Pen to score. It was great to walk away with the victory.

Side Note:

* The View From My Seat.
** Blue Point Brewery had a beer stand right outside our section and it was glorious. Toasted Lager… can’t go wrong.
*** The rest of my photographs are here on Flickr.

Blackhawks – Penguins at the UC.

Yesterday was our Semi Annual Blackhawks – Penguins game at the United Center (I say semi because for some reason the NHL thinks it makes more sense to play teams in your division 6 times a year than play a home-and-away with every team in the league). The depleted Penguins forced Overtime with a Brent Sterling goal late in the 3rd period but weren’t able to put away the game while on the power play. The Hawks won the game on a Patrick Kane shootout goal with all other shooters getting stopped. For the game being the only matchup all year of the past two Stanley Cup champions there was little hype for the game and it didn’t really feel like a big event. Nonetheless it was good to see the Pens go down to the wire even if they didn’t get the full two points.

The Shootout:

A lot of people aren’t a fan of the NHL’s use of the shootout to settle tie games, I’m not one of them. I like the idea that a regular season hockey game has finite amount of time and the Shootout is always entertaining. I’m just hoping since Patrick Kane won the game he celebrated at Stanley’s agin.

Boston Hockey Trip.

This weekend was my annual hockey trip which took us to Boston for the Penguins – Bruins game at TD BankNorth Garden. The Pens have been coming off a rough stretch since Crosby has been out but they have recently been able to string together a couple of wins, Saturday being on of those wins. Boston looked sloppy throughout the first two periods and then scored 2 goals within 1 minute in the third period. Eventually Jordan Staal put the game away with a goal in the 3rd marking the first victory for any of these sports trips I’ve taken.

After the game we headed out for the Steelers – Ravens AFC Championship game where we verbally assaulted during the first half of the game. Finally with things not looking good we made a decision to move to the Boston Beer Works near the arena where everything turned around and we were treated with the respect of champions.

We covered a lot of ground throughout the trip. Some of us ended up walking more than 2 miles home because the Boston cab system is in shambles. Seeing the Pats lose while we were in Boston in conjunction with the Pens and Steelers win was considered a sweep of the city. We had several interactions with locals who thought it was their god given obligation to confront us. We also came across several people who for some reason or another wanted to leave their parties and join ours. And in conclusion a large variety of beer was consumed from the following establishments: