I have never been to a professional game of any sort. Really, I haven’t. I’ve been to two Binghamton Mets games, but other than that in all of my almost-19 years on this wonderful sports filled earth, I have never ever been to a game.
This was before last Friday. By the time the clock struck midnight on March 5th, I could say that I had attended a professional sporting event.
Through my college, I went to the Buffalo Sabres-Philadelphi
a Flyers game in Buffalo. For a first game, it definitely didn’t lack in excitement.
Anytime you’re going somewhere, getting there is half the fun. Unfortunately for the four others who were stuck in the van with myself and ten of my obnoxious friends, I really don’t think they saw it the same way. Let me revise this…the way there was pretty much my friend Nick and I being extraordinarily obnoxious. Lady GaGa karaoke anyone?
Walking in to HSBC Arena was like seeing the pyramids in Egypt. There were tons of people in blue Sabres jerseys. The escalators were packed tight and I was completely lost. If it weren’t almost 7:30, I would have loved to explore.
We went up the less-often-used cement stairs instead of dealing with the escalators. Our seats were in section 304. My friend Nick’s sister had told us they were crappy seats (I didn’t fully believe this based on past encounters with her) and I fully thought they wouldn’t be the greatest. I expected to watch the jumbotron to see the more precise aspects of the game.
We got up there and I realized that the seats were great. Maybe not as good as the 100s and the season ticket holders, but I could easily see what was going on on the ice down below. The only time I looked at the jumbotron was during breaks of play.
After the players were introduced to a darkened arena with spotlights on the starting lineups, the game quickly got under way. It was exciting to watch from the stands. And for those that always tell me “You know they can’t hear you, right?” whenever I yell at the TV: maybe they did hear me Friday night (it’s at least plausible…)
After a scoreless first period, the Sabres and Flyers both scored in the second. In the third, the Flyers went up 2-1 on a gorgeous goal that left captain Mike Richards completely alone with Olympic MVP goalie Ryan Miller.
And finally, the Sabres’ Adam Mair scored with precious time ticking off the clock to put the game into overtime. Yes, my first game went into overtime. What more can you ask for? (We did ask for a shootout, and almost got one. But that may have been too greedy, so I wasn’t pushing for it)
Tim Connolly scored on a pass from Mair halfway into overtime to win the game.
The game itself was great, as you can clearly tell. But what else was great was the experience of watching the game in HSBC Arena. First off, the arena invokes awe. When I first got to my seat, I felt like at any moment I could fall forward and catapult to the ice.
Secondly, the people were great. A guy in a Canada jersey was sitting in front of us and we talked for most of the game. He was cheering for the Sabres…at least I think he was. He may have changed a few times. The guys all around him were Flyers fans though. They enjoyed all of our Brockport cheers and even added to some of them. When we cheered “Hit him again, hit him again, harder, harder,” one guy chimed in “They weren’t hitting each other, they were making love.”
On our second goal, they told us we got lucky since that’s what we had cheered when they scored their second goal.
As everyone expected, I had some things to say to other fans. One guy was wearing a Sidney Crosby jersey and flew out of his seat to heckle us Sabres fans on a Flyers goal. I, of course, yelled right back: “I like your jersey, but sit down!”
Nick told me at one point: “Cassie, don’t mingle with the drunks!” (On a side note, if you lost any money in any sort of pool saying I would be on my best behavior at a professional sporting event, you, my friend, are a complete and utter idiot.)
I learned that you should really pay attention to who is yelling what, though. One guy yelled “Go Flyers” and I started to clap for it. I quickly stopped, but I had already made myself look dumb.
Winning the game in overtime and seeing the fans flying out of their seats to cheer—being a fan who flew out of a seat in HSBC—completely made the night. It was a great game to be my first ever in-person game. By the time we got to the van, though, I was beat. Lucky for me, it was a comfy ride back to Brockport with four close friends squeezed into the backseat.
By the way, we decided that a hockey game between the Power Rangers and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles would be a hit. The Canada guy agrees.
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