What are they? Ummmmmmm, 45 acp...sorry. Focus here, come on. Ok, when not shooting defenseless paper targets or teaching others to do so, I have been known to get crazy...I mean enjoy myself at a hockey game.
I had the pleasure of watching the Tampa Bay Lightning win the Stanley Cup in 2004. That was maybe the highlight of my sports fan experience.
One thing I remember distinctly about the 2004 season was when we defeated, whopped, smashed the stinkin Philadelphia Flyers in Game 7 in our building. We Lightning fans have taken a lot of crap from Philly fan over the years and this was a night of paybacks.
A perfect example was right before the start of game 7 we were sitting in front of the suites in Section 128 waiting for the pregame skate to start (this was and still is a tradition). And from the other side of the arena here come two little punk ass Philly "fans". I leaned over and said, what you bet they come over here. Sure enough, thing 1 and his gutter crawling buddy, thing 2 made their way to us and stood right in front of us and start giving us the business. This night however, a former US Marine bad ass grunt (that means an Infantry Marine with a 0300 MOS) who happened to be my son was with me. We chuckled as we stood up slowly and gave a fake lunge at the pair, who proceeded to stumble backwards almost falling over the seats behind them. "Little Ja" was letting em have it by now. I think I just stood there, arms crossed laughing at them. They crawled back to the puke hole they came out of earlier.
Being a third level fan (yes I am one of them and proud of it I might add) it gets a bit rowdy up there. At the conclusion of Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final VS the Flyers, instinctively it seemed, everyone I could see looked for the closest Philly Fan. It was coming, I could feel it building. Out on the concourse, every orange and black clad person was being deluged in insults. Going down the escalators was even better because they couldn't escape the barrage of verbal bashing which their kind had earned.
I would say there was more satisfaction in beating the Flyers for the Eastern Conference Final than defeating Calgary for the Cup. But that's just me.
My Hockey Girlfriend met her husband at opening night of the Ice Palace, now called Amalie Arena.
A good friend of ours allowed me to take her oldest son to his first game. My wife gave him the phone number of a bail bondsman, just in case I became overly enthused.
Sitting behind the opposing teams penalty box is awesome fun. And I know from experience, the players in the box can here you.
I was heart broken when Chris Gratton (the original #77) was traded to guess where? Anyone..Anyone. Yep, the dang Flyers.
I was once under the impression that hulking center Jason Bonsignore would be a good player. I apologize for that one.
Jasen Cullimore's hip check of the Panthers Peter Worrell still resonates in the building and I am sure was the inspiration to the song "Click-Click Boom by Saliva.
Thankfully, I have never been on the Jumbotron "Kiss Cam" And I still never had a Dippin Dot.
Vincent Lecavalier, Brad Richards and Dimitri Afanasenkov were drafted 1,2,3 in 1998. All three won a Cup together six years later in front of my eyes. Sweet.
I sat next to Coach John Tortarella's wife at training camp. When he came up and kissed her before the start of practice, I am certain we were giddy like kids starting school. Then security escorted us away.
The aforementioned male off-spring, Little Ja once spent the night in front of the Ice Palace waiting in line for playoff tickets for a friend. We ate pizza on the plaza into the eveing. Next morning we brought Fresh Krispy Kreme Donuts. We were very popular all of a sudden.
I never missed a home a home playoff game from 1996 through 2004.
Hockey is in my blood and I love it so. Make no mistake, I will be a Tampa Bay Lightning Hockey Fan until the day they put me in the ground.
O.D.T.T.B.L.W.W.T.S.C.A.
Ha, maybe I am two dimensional. You'll just have to wait and see.
Later.
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