I just had the chance to see what I am praying is the future for the Jackets. I went to Philadelphia to see the Flyers play the New Jersey Devils. This was an amazing experience. We wanted to see Marty Brodeur in person and had this chance. God I HATE the current NHL schedule. I want to see the East's best too! Seeing the Canadiens , Penguins, Bruins etc. in Columbus once in four years just sucks.
Last night Philly played New Jersey with it all on the line, against the Devils and Brodeur. . Philly had to win or face possible elimination from the playoffs. Not an easy task.
We went to to the arena, the Wachovia Center, and the place was electric an hour and a half before the game. The parking lots had hundreds, maybe thousands of people tailgating. They had the grills out and were cooking all kinds of wonderful things. People were friendly but intense. They treated us like old friends, offering whatever they had to eat (brats, burgers, grilled corn, about anything that you could grill), a cold brew and lots of good cheer. I'm not too sure they would have been so nice if we had on Devils sweaters.
We went inside about 45 minutes before the opening face-off and the place was packed. People were totally up for this game. At the door, they were giving out these plastic inflatable sticks. You blow 'em up, then hit them against each other and they make a BAM! sound. They were these big orange cheeto looking things, a lot like the white Tabasco ones the Jackets give out. We got to our seats (6th row, lower bowl), and twenty minutes before the game started, it was already loud. There were cheers going around the arena, and lots of clapping, stomping and bamming of those sticks.
Philadelphia has a tradition before really big games going back to the 1970s. Before big games, instead of the Star Spangled Banner, they would bring in Kate Smith to sing "God Bless America".
When it was time to start the festivities, they went to THE Philly tradition before huge games their current anthem singer Lauren Hart burst into "God Bless America". When it was time for the second verse, Kate Smith came up on the Jumbotron singing the next verse. The place went BONKERS! Then for the rest of the song, Hart sang a "duet" with the recorded Kate Smith. Wow! If you haven't seen that, it's almost impossible to explain.
Once they dropped the puck, I looked around and there wasn't an empty seat in the house, not ONE that I could see. This crowd was intense. Every time any of the players made any kind of play, the place erupted! Brodeur was his supreme self. They were pounding shots on the Jersey goal over and over, and he just made the saves look routine and easy. Trust me, these were very difficult saves. I think with any other goalie, Philly would have scored about 5 goals. He is just that great. When finally, Philly scored the first goal of the opening period, the crowd just erupted! It was so loud, it was beyond loud, so loud you couldn't even hear YOURSELF. This whole place was running on a massive adrenaline surge. As the game wore on, the crowd never let up and the adrenaline kept coursing through the place. The score stayed a 1-0 at the end of the first period. In the second, it was just an intense up and down battle, with Philly dominating the action, but Brodeur holding his team in there with spectacular goaltending. I don't have any idea how the players, coaches or referees could communicate. Maybe they use hand signals. I don't know.
I can tell you I could SEE people next to me screaming their cheers, but I couldn't hear them at all. It was that loud! The whole place was on edge. The game was so one sided, that after two periods the shots on goal stood Flyers 31, Devils 12.
Finally, in the third period, Philadelphia finally just wore this supreme goalie down a bit. One shot finally got through. If possible the crowd just took it up another notch. Thirty seven seconds later, another Flyers goal. From that point on the entire arena stood and cheered, stomped, slammed those Bam! sticks until the end of the game. Once the final horn sounded, very few of the people in the arena moved for the exits. They stayed standing in this electrified state, with the ridiculous decibel level cheering their team for what seemed like a half hour. We left the place soaked in sweat and totally drained.
It was like nothing I've ever experienced. Now I'm not new to major sporting events. I regularly go to Ohio Stadium and have been part of a crowd in the 95,000-104,000+ range to see big games against Florida State, Texas and of course Michigan. I've been to the NCAA Basketball tournament, even a Final Four. None of them came close to this!
WOW!
When we get a cup contender- THIS IS OUR FUTURE!
PS. Oh yeah, then we got home and watched the Jackets/Blues game on Centre Ice.
Your passion in describing the playoff atmosphere in Philly is wonderful and real. I hope you injoyed it. I've been to games there several times in the last five years and the parking lot (which is the biggest parking lot in the world) was simply boring.
That said, what you experienced is not rare in established NHL towns, in fact, it's common. If you had gone to a Philly game a month or two ago you would not have seen the grills etc. You caught a game when the playoffs where on the line-there is a difference. I see what you saw often in HSBC parking lots...no biggie-but here's the tip-WIN! Or your lots will be empty and cold, forever.
Your passion in describing the playoff atmosphere in Philly is wonderful and real. I hope you injoyed it. I've been to games there several times in the last five years and the parking lot (which is the biggest parking lot in the world) was simply boring.
That said, what you experienced is not rare in established NHL towns, in fact, it's common. If you had gone to a Philly game a month or two ago you would not have seen the grills etc. You caught a game when the playoffs where on the line-there is a difference. I see what you saw often in HSBC parking lots...no biggie-but here's the tip-WIN! Or your lots will be empty and cold, forever.
lol, philly's just nuts, they have tail gaters out for hours for every eagles games, and alot of phillies games. On the Home Opener, there were guys out at 8 am.
I'll be curious to see how management will handle the playoffs. I wonder if they will allow tailgating......if you tailgate, you wont be hungry to buy $5 hotdogs and $8 beers
It was like nothing I've ever experienced. Now I'm not new to major sporting events. I regularly go to Ohio Stadium and have been part of a crowd in the 95,000-104,000+ range to see big games against Florida State, Texas and of course Michigan. I've been to the NCAA Basketball tournament, even a Final Four. None of them came close to this!
WOW!
When we get a cup contender- THIS IS OUR FUTURE!
PS. Oh yeah, then we got home and watched the Jackets/Blues game on Centre Ice.
My Buckeye Fanatic friends just don't get it. I've been to more OSU football games than I can recall, and its nothing compared to hockey, much less playoff hockey. Hockey opening night at Nationwide Arena is itself more intense than the OSU-Michigan game I attended. When you are in the C deck surrounded by semi attentive college students, squinting to see who just caught the ball and trying to understand why a play is being called back, you wonder why you didn't just scalp your ticket and watched the game from a bar stool.
The Arena experience > The Horseshoe, which says alot considering the relative success of the Buckeyes compared to the dismal 7 seasons of the CBJ.
