GO LEAFS GO!

Wow, what a day.

Sunday involved a pretty wild afternoon/evening. I drove up to Pittsburgh and met up with my friends Steve, Phil, and Cedric who drove down from Ontario. We met up there to watch the Leafs take on the Pittsburgh Penguins. The parkinglot attendant noted that besides the Leafs, only the Flyers fans made the journey to Pittsburgh in such big numbers to follow their team.

We ended up eating at a pretty crappy sports bar before the game which was packed with loyal Leaf fans decked out in their blue and white. It was pretty funny having a chant of GO LEAFS GO, start up every time a Penguins jersey entered the restaurant!

The game started out pretty bland. Lots of back and fourth, dump and chaise hockey that the "new" NHL is supposed to be without. Both goaltenders were on their best game and the only real crowd nosie came from the big saves they were making. Again, there was a very heavy sprinkling of Leaf jerseys throughout the arena. Chants of "lets go Pens" were drowned out with GO LEAFS GO. It was magical.

There was one particularily loud fan in our general area that was a proud Penguins fan. I appreciate people like this guy that know their team inside and out and understand the game of hockey. I definitely felt like Pittsburgh was a much better hockey town than Washington DC where I see the Leafs play when they come to town. This fan spent the entire time arguing with the Leaf fans around him about which country/beer/hockey team/fans/measurement system/and even speech was better. It was pretty amusing.

And then things got strange.

During the second period the Leafs were on a big 5 minute powerplay. Twice during this five minute span the power went out in the arena. After the second blackout and pause in the action, the referees decided to start the second intermission and concluded the game with a 27 minute third period. Needless to say the 5 minute man advantage was pretty much in shambles after having two blackouts take place. I found out later that there was a fire in the building related to this electrical problem!!!

Anyway, the Buds ended up scoring in the third period on a controversial penalty shot. The place went nuts. It was great to hear how many Leaf fans were actually in attendance. Amazing how beating the worst team in the NHL can bring fans to their feet.

We ended up waiting by the players exit to try and catch a glimpse of some of our favourites, but no one ended up signing. I did get to meet the radio voice of the Leafs, Mr. Joe Bowen. He was very friendly and spoke with fans for a long time. It was very sureal to hear such a recognizable voice of my childhood just hanging out talking with people.

As the team bus pulled out we waived and cheered, and all of the players waved out the windows at us. It was really cool.

I ended up getting home close to 4am, not much time to catch up on needed sleep, but it was all worth it. A very fun day.

Oh, and I forgot my camera. I couldn't believe it.