Round 1 Game 1: Pens v Flyers (W 4-1)

What a game! W.O.W. The Boys are looking so good right now. (Thank you, Mr. Bylsma!) The Flyers played terribly and couldn't stay out of the box. (Thank you for being such a tool, Scott Hartnell!) All the following pictures and videos were taken by either me or woodstock and can be clicked to be enlarged.


When we got to the Mellon Arena, we got sweet parking spaces. We tailgated for a while before heading down to pick up our tickets - which went much more smoothly than I expected it would.



We got to our amazing seats in C6. We were up behind the Pens bench again, even if it was much further up than we were on our anniversary. The seats were better than I had hoped for a playoff game! They were really great because our row was in front of the entrance for section C6 so there were no seats behind ours. Here are a few shots that woodstock took of Siddo's and Geno's pregame rituals and of the entire team warming up. I didn't take these shots because I was chatting with Pengylady! She came over to say hi and show me a sweet old school playoff towel from her collection:









I recorded the opening video for you again this year. Our seats were just a tiny bit too close to capture the ice surface in its entirety (what a good problem to have, eh?), but I did the best I could. Also, watch for a few times when the video gets a little shaky - most of the people in the row in front of us were late stragglers. With woodstock's help, I was able to get the entire video without anyone blocking my camera. You'll know a shaky point is coming when you hear woodstock tell me, "Stand up!" Enjoy:


A trip to the Mellon just wouldn't be the same without seeing Cotton Candy guy again:


Jeff Jimerson was clutch with the anthem:





The Pens were on a tear right out of the gate. And the first goal Penguins of the 2009 playoffs was scored by none other than our title man!!!


But WAIT! We had to go to the War Room for what felt like forever...




...and then we got the signal we all knew Siddo deserved:


WOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT'S A GOAL!!! :D

I got this sweet shot of Flower making a save:


Here's Hartnell taking the second of his four penalties of the night. This one was for - wait for it - goaltender interference:


I was stoked to see that they're doing the Power Play Jaws intro again this year even though Ryan Malone (who had suggested going back to it for last season's playoff run) is no longer a part of the team:



During the second period, I had a personal triumph. After more than a decade of attending Pens games with various cameras, I finally got the shot. Here is my photo of Tyler Kennedy's goal. I don't mind saying that it is one of, if not the best photo I've ever taken at a hockey game:


Here is the subsequent celebration:


At one point during the third period, I looked up and guess who I saw standing behind our row?


I don't have any photos of Geno's goal or anything related to it, nor do I have any from Eaton's goal. Why? Well, because I did something really, really embarrassing, and it took a few minutes for me to recover from it. During the second intermission, woodstock got some nachos. (Do you see where this is going already?) When Geno scored, we all jumped to our feet and waved our towels. Only, when I brought my arm down, I elbowed woodstock's arm - the arm holding the nachos, of course. It was almost like slow motion as they teetered and fell to the ground, splattering the two fans in front of us with nacho cheese.

I was mortified.

No, I don't actually think that is a strong enough word to describe how I felt. Luckily, they were both wearing black shirts, so there wouldn't be any permanent damage. I frantically summoned an usher for help while woodstock gave them his Pens towel to clean up. I'm actually soaking it as I type this; it looks like it will eventually come clean. Have I mentioned lately that I adore Pens fans? Both victims were incredibly classy and forgiving about it.

In fact, both of them even made jokes to try to make me feel better about it. The older man to the right made two - when he gave us our towel back after we got a wet one from the usher, he said, "Here's a chip that didn't break - do you want that?" Then he told me he'd only be mad at me if the Pens lost because he'd have to blame the cheese shower. Then after Eaton scored, the younger guy to the left turned around and jokingly ducked and said, "You're done with the nachos, right?" I didn't get to thank the older man for being so unbelievably cool, but I did thank the younger guy before he left.

About five minutes before the game ended I finally felt better enough about it to pick up my camera again. Here's a shot of what happened following the incident that may result in a suspension for Flyers d-bag Daniel Carcillo:


The Penguins won!!!!!!



Here's one last short video of the night's 3 stars:



It was a truly awesome night. I got to see Pengylady again, we had great seats, it was a playoff game, WE WON, and I got to see how great Pens fans really are. :) We do this again tomorrow, folks! If the Flyers don't make a big change in their strategy, the Pens will have this series in 5.

GO PENS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-09 Home Closer

What a game! Another 6 goal game resulting in a win for woodstock and me! :D


I got to see another great Penguins victory, took a ton of photos, sat 4 rows up and one section over from a row of Pittsburgh Steelers players, met the G ladies (1WingAngel, Nicole G., and Mama G.), and had bar-none the smoothest drive home from Pittsburgh I've ever had in my entire life (← that's not a joke). WHAT A GLORIOUS NIGHT!! :)

When we got there, we saw a month of progress on the new arena. The second photo shows where the new arena (far left) will be in relation to the current arena (the base of the dome can be seen on the far right).



It is always nice to be in house for the Penguins award ceremonies. Here are my pictures of this year's winners:








The only thing that would have made it better would have been winning one of the sweet prizes. The Pens gave away T-shirts (in addition to the ones they gave us at the door), a dune buggy cart, flat screen TVs, a washer and dryer set, spa trips, concert tickets, autographed Pens gear, playoff tickets, shopping sprees, and - the best prizes - the shirts off their backs.


The complete domination on the ice + the fan appreciation theme = a fantastically entertaining atmosphere. The home closers are without a doubt the best regular season games to attend - unless, of course, one of those regular season games just happens to be played outdoors. ;)

Prior to the Boys hitting the ice, they showed the following video on the ice:



One of the reasons I love the Penguins so much is that Pittsburghers are amazing people. I don't know if I always remember to mention it whenever I tell you about my trips to the city, but I'm mentioning it now because there were so many things that happened that reminded me why I love Western Pennsylvania so much. Even the little things that Pens fans do for each other, like helping guide one another into the horribly cramped parking spaces, make the entire experience all the better. There were folks all over the Mellon collecting for the Fallen Heroes Fund for the slain officers. It was amazing. People were just stuffing money into the collection jars. We raised some serious cash for the officers' families.


The tribute to the officers was moving. Some d-bag arse in the seats behind us yelled, "Let's Go Pens!" during the moment of silence, but literally everyone else in the arena was respectful. You could have heard a pin drop. The Pittsburgh Police Honor Guard gave Jeff Jimerson, whose performances are always clutch anyways, a little something more. It was great to be in the building to see it.

This is the only picture in today's post that I didn't take. But when I saw it, I couldn't have a post about this game without it. This is a shot of Siddo, Duper, Bylsma, and Syko during the aforementioned moment of silence. As with all other pictures on this post, click to enlarge.

Our seats were really close to the seats of Jeff Reed, Chris Hoke, and Jason Capizzi of the Pittsburgh Steelers.




At the end of the game, we stuck around to watch the Boys give the shirts off their backs to lucky fans. Our seats were up underneath an overhang (we couldn't even see the jumbotron) and behind the protective netting behind the goal, so we knew we wouldn't be getting any of the T-shirts the Boys were tossing into the crowd. But even so, we stayed to watch them because, every year, they seem to have so much fun with it. Before last night, I would have said that Colby Armstrong was the player who I thought had the most fun skating around throwing T-shirts at people, but that title now belongs to Matt Cooke. He grabbed an armful of shirts from the table and started launching them in rapid succession. He looked like he was having a blast. :) Saint Siddo was having a good old time, too. Actually, they all did. Check out the Cheshire cat grin on Jordan Staal's face in the second shot:







Finally, Geno and Siddo were the final two to give their jerseys away:



After the final giveaway, woodstock and I headed out to PenStation (← which I finally realized I've been spelling incorrectly all this time, haha!) where we met up with the G ladies. All three of them were extremely sweet, and it was wonderful to meet them. We chatted for a bit, and woodstock took a photo of us with our Roamers. (Look for that one on the Roamer blog soon.) I really like meeting the Friends of The Show. :)

When it was finally time to hit the road, we didn't hit any traffic whatsoever. No construction, no accidents, nothing! The easy drive home was a great way to end a fantastic evening. I'm so glad I'll be doing this again in about a week!

GO PENS!!!!!!!!!!