May 30, 2011
Game 7 Bruins-Lightning Trip Report
After the Bruins won game 5 against Tampa on Monday night my brother started planting a seed in my ear that if it's a game 7 we gotta go. I've mentioned before that he's always willing to take a road trip for something and this was no different. When Tampa won game 6 on Wednesday it started up again. I immediately dismissed it saying we can't tickets will be too expensive, etc. Later doing some quick research I found a cheap hotel across the street from the garden now the only problem was tickets. Fortunately, despite being expensive tickets went on sale on Thursday at 11. Now it was just a matter of beating the virtual line.
I got through at like 11:10 clicking best available on ticketmaster after about 40 failed attempts and we were able to get 3rd level tickets. Not great seats but at the same time it's really difficult to have a bad seat in a hockey arena and we were in the building. So the next morning we started on the 6 hour drive from Rochester to Boston. Got in around noon, our hotel wasn't ready yet so we took the T to quincy market to kill time and grab lunch. After taking a power nap it was game time.
I've been lucky enough to attend a lot of great sporting events in my life (baseball, basketball, football, hockey). As much as I love baseball, nothing really matches the energy of a big hockey game. There are no planned breaks so you're holding your breath for 3-4 minutes at a time with very little time to think and analyze what's going on. Everything is on the fly. Pre-game was awesome especially with about 10 minutes before the game started. Here's what Johnny Boychuck said pre-game
"You could hear the crowd all the way from the dressing room stomping their feet and yelling." Here's a video from youtube of some of the pregame.
The game itself was about as exciting as a 1-0 game could get. Being in attendance you always have an inflated opinion of the game, however after reading about it everyone was in agreement that it was an awesome game. It was 0-0 going into the third period and the Bruins had really carried play so everyone in the crowd was basically worried that Roloson might steal on for Tampa. When Horton scored with 7 minutes left pretty much all the tension was released out of the building.
For the goal we were on the opposite side but had a great angle for it. I thought Krejci was going to shoot the puck. It wasn't the best angle but he was in a prime spot and though he was gonna short side Roloson. The pass he made was obviously outstanding
The crowd was loud before the goal but it was pandemonium after. For about the final 6 minutes it was touch to hear the whistle and the final 4 minutes you could barely hear the music playing on the PA. Under a minute you couldn't hear anything. With about 45 seconds left Tampa went offsides and they actually played "Teenage Wasteland" and it was impossible to hear any part of the intro. After the game the party filtered out into the streets, I had to retire a little early as I needed to get up at 5 AM the next morning to drive back but the whole experience was outstanding.
Now onto Vancouver.
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There isn't a person anywhere who isn't capable of doing more than he thinks he can. - Henry Ford.
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