Multiply 365 Day 85 - Visual evidence

This would indeed be a followup to the last blog entry, which was incredibly short due to time constraints.  Allow me to start with a brief description of what happened that led to all of the following events. 

I was at work Friday, trying my best to complete what was a grueling week.  The Pepsi order on Thursday was particularly tough, 236 cases in all, but it wasn't the only thing.  I had to fight with a couple of vendors to get some repairs done, one cooler went down, the other was an issue with our fountain soda machine, there was rearranging required for us to get a new dairy cooler, all of the ordering that I do and the fact that our beverage sales have gone up, which means more up and down the steps with product for yours truly.  Our Pepsi rep told me on Wednesday that our sales for the year are up 49% over last year at this time, which I am sure is due in large part to a few specials that we have signed up for.  But all of that extra sales means extra work as well. 

Perhaps with that in mind, Brian pulled me aside Friday before he left.  When he first asked to speak to me I thought it was going to be bad news, after all the Pepsi invoice was over $3500 on Thursday, the Sledd order was another $18,500 so I have been spending money, which is not always a good thing.  After all, while we make money we are not a bottomless pit of money, which I try to take into consideration.  As things turned out though, it wasn't bad news that Brian had for me, but he wanted to know if I wanted to go to the Penguins game that night.  Which anyone who knows me knows the answer to that question before it is even asked.  So Brian reached into his briefcase and pulled out two tickets for the game, he asked if I could find someone to go with and I said I was pretty sure I could.  The tickets weren't the same as the ones I had earlier this season, which I won on Facebook from Isaly's, these were better, Captain Morgan club seats with a face value of $152 each.  To top it off he handed me an additional $40 in case I wanted to get a couple of beverages while I was there.

So my first issue was getting someone to go to the game with.  On short notice and with me still at work for a couple of hours that isn't as easy as it would seem.  I snuck into the office and dropped a message to my aunt Amy to see if her husband Fred would like to go.  He went with me to the last game, and given that he lives close to Pittsburgh.  But because I was at work I didn't have access to any other phone numbers or what not and I can't just sit and play on the computer, so until I could get home that was about all I could do as far as finding someone to go with.

I got back to my apartment around 3:30pm, the game didn't start until 7pm.  From my apartment I can probably get to the arena in about 30 minutes, including time to walk to the bus stop.  So I had a couple of hours to work with on this end to see if my aunt had hopped on Facebook to respond to my message.    I checked but didn't see anything, so I made a couple of bologna sandwiches to tide me over, did some web surfing and worked on some Facebook apps. 

I was just about to the point where I figured I would be going by myself, I hopped into the shower, changed clothes and sat down in front of the computer again when just before 6pm Amy hopped online, I asked if she got the message and she replied that she had just gotten in (she was taking my cousin Sarah to get her prom dress) and that Fred was just pulling in from work, but she would ask him.  About two minutes later she said Fred would call me, and literally she no more than wrote that than the phone rang, Fred saying that he would like to go, but he might be a little late, it is about a 30 minute drive form his place into town, which can be made longer depending on traffic.  No problem I thought, I wasn't worried about missing the national anthem or anything.  We agreed to where we would meet outside the arena and then I darted out the door for a night of Penguins hockey.

I made it to the bus stop in about 5 minutes, and thinking I probably still had some time, fired off a cigarette.  One bus came by, but I still had half of a cancer stick left, so I passed on it in favor of the next one, which I caught as did a number of people in Penguins garb, so I knew I wasn't the only one with similar plans Friday night.

The bus ride took about 15 minutes and I was there in plenty of time.  All I had to do was wait for Fred, so I broke out ye olde trusty camera and fired off a few piccies, starting with the venue.

 

 

Since I was just waiting I took in some of the surroundings, including the crowd waiting to get in (amazingly at 20 minutes to game time they still hadn't opened the doors yet) and a little game that was set up outside by the Degree people where you could play virtual goalie, and by just playing you got a Penguins T shirt.

 

Eventually Fred did show up, and just about the time he got there they went ahead and opened the doors, so we headed inside.  I wanted to see how good the seats would be and lets just say that I was not disappointed in the section at all.  The Captain Morgan Club encompasses a few sections of seats, and you are first led into an area apart from the masses that have to rummage about the concourse for concessions and what not.  You pass through a glass door where they check to make sure that your ticket is one of the tickets that grant you access and then you are let in, and there is a full service bar, as well as a few concession areas for just those people that have access to the club.  Mind you, nothing is free in the club, you still pay the outrageous vendor prices that you would elsewhere in the building, but you don't fight through throngs to get anything either, and un;like others who could only get beer as the alcoholic beverage of choice, we could get anything just by walking up to the bar. 

Since it was close to game time we didn't do a lot of exploring in the club, rather we just tried to find our seats, and good seats they were, 18 rows back from the ice and they were all cushiony and stuff.  I never want to sit with the masses again, lol.  And we did make it in time for the national anthem, sung as always at Penguins games by Jeff Jimmerson.  Then it was time for hockey.

 

This is the part of the blog where I should be filling the page with lots of action from the game, pictures of goals being scored or fights breaking out, except there were none.  Not that the game was boring, just uneventful.  Consider that the shot total at the end of the first period was Pittsburgh 3  New Jersey 1.  It was like I went to a hockey game and a soccer match broke out.  Part of it was due to the fact that the Penguins had played the night before and the Devils were playing with only two defensemen (most hockey teams dress 6).

We went up to the club after the first period and grabbed a beer and bs ed for a bit before the second period got underway, but the second and third period, while a little more active were equally uneventful as by the end the third period the game was still scoreless.  So the game was headed to overtime, 4 on 4 hockey for the next 5 minutes, with the first goal being the winner.  Except it wasn't, because after the overtime the scoreboard still looked like this

 

That means for the first time in my life I was going to witness shootout hockey.  The shootout was a rule instituted a few years back to break ties, before that if a game ended tied after overtime it would be called just that in the record books, a tie.  But since the addition of the rule, each team picks three shooters and each one is given a chance to beat beat the opposing goaltender on a breakaway from center ice, with the teams scoring the most times winning.  The Penguins selected for their three shooters Kris Letang, Alexi Kovalev and Chris Neal. 

First up was Letang

But Letang's shot ended up sailing over the net.  New Jersey failed to score on their first attempt as well, so it was still 0-0.  Next up was Kovalev

Kovalev also failed to get his shot by Martin Brodeur, but again New jersey failed to capitalize and Ilya Kovalchuk couldn't beat Marc Andre Fluery, so the shootout remained deadlocked at 0-0.

Up next for Pittsburgh was Chris Neal.  If a shootout isn't decided after 3 rounds, the teams take turns selected one player off of their bench to participate and I am sitting there thinking that the way this had ben going so far, we could be there all night.  Thankfully Neal broke the Pittsburgh drought

Neal managed to get his shot up over Brodeur and it hit the crossbar and went into the net, leaving New jersey one last chance to tie it and extend the shootout but one last save by Fleury and the Penguins go home winners, 1-0.

So I am now 2-0 in games I have went to this season, and after a game like that I was left asking myself a simple question, why would anyone give up their hockey tickets?  Don't get me wrong, I am thankful that Brian gave them to me, but for the life of me, if I had season tickets, you would have to pry them out of my cold, dead paws before you would ever get them.