A Hell of a Day, A Hell of a Hockey Game

So that was fun! And long, and quite exhausting, and often loud, and sometimes annoying, but mostly fun, if you're just here for the summary.

I left earlier than I would have just for the game, so that I could go to the Container Store; there are four on the east coast between Miami and Palm Beach, whereas on the west coast we don't have one south of Tampa, sadly. The drive over was fine, and traffic didn't get too bad until I was over there, when it was pretty crazy. But I made it unscathed (which wasn't guaranteed, with a car broken down in my lane at one point, surprise), and got out of my car to see this looming on one side of the parking lot.

According to the Google map, "A pegasus is depicted defeating a dragon in this huge sculpture with lighting & water effects." It does not explain why it's there, so I guess I'll never know. There was some sort of event going on, lots of people and noise, but fortunately, I was going the other way:

I had a good wander through the store, picking up a couple of things. Sadly, they were out of sheep bins, or I might have picked up one of those.

Other than a long wait to check out, it was all good. The wait did change my meal plans, though, as the Korean restaurant I had thought to try closed from 4-5, and I decided that walking in at quarter to 4 was not something I wanted to do. Maybe next time.

Instead, I drove on up to Sunrise, which is where the arena is, and went to PF Chang's at Sawgrass Mills, just across from the arena. There was no wait to sit at the bar, and I found a new favorite, the Mongolian beef, which was delicious!

Outside, I had to stop for a photo of one of their art installations, since how often do you see a gator version of Wonder Woman?

On to the arena! I sat outside for a few minutes, knitting, before the doors opened and I went in.

Rather than going directly upstairs, I wandered around the ground level first, which meant I didn't miss this panther on display.

Made of jelly beans. Because of course.

I finally did make my way to my seat, which was way up in the nosebleeds, along the blue line and with a good overall view.

Just below my row was an area that I thought might be for wheelchairs, but you can see the folding chairs there? People pulled them up to the front of the section and sat there. I feel like I was missing the point, somehow.

Anyway! Warm-ups started, and out came the boys.

Stretching.

Skating around.

I will spare you a half-dozen similar shots, and just show you that Marchand prefers to be the last player off the ice.

I only took a few pictures after this, including some of the anthem singer that washed out terribly in the spot-lighting. Given that he managed to flub some of the words, perhaps that was fitting! I don't just mean singing "for the ramparts we watched" instead of "o'er the ramparts we watched" (though he did do that), but a whole line of, essentially, random words. Unreal. How do you get to sing the anthem at a pro sports event, even if it's hockey in Florida, without knowing all the words? The really ironic part is that video of him was shown on the big screen above center ice there along with the words for the crowd to "sing along," so it was very easy to see what he got wrong. (He was below it and couldn't see them, so unfortunately they didn't do him any good at all.)

Mind you, since Rene Rancourt retired (finally), the Bruins have had a rotating cast of anthem singers, and some of them have been less than wonderful, so I suppose I shouldn't be too high-and-mighty about it, but, you know. This guy had problems. (My preference from those at Bruins games is Todd Angilly, who I've seen multiple times; the man can sing. And he seems to know all the words, too.)(Couldn't resist.)(Didn't try hard.)

Moving on! The arena people did a whole bunch of announcements pre-game, including a very specialized one for not throwing things on the ice: Please hold your rats until the game is over. So that was funny!

Less so was learning that, perhaps because I was so high up, the big-ass horn that they blow before periods and at each Panthers goal was insanely loud. I mean, I've never liked those horns generally (even when it's for a Bruins goal), and I've been to hockey games before and found them too loud overall, but the phrase 'cardiac arrest' has never crossed my mind at a game before. And they blew it once before each period, plus three long blasts for each goal, so I really heard it. After the first goal, I almost broke my elbow on the arm of the seat, whipping my hands out of my pockets to cover my ears. The Panthers scored three times, and by the third period, even with the Bruins comfortably ahead, every time play was in the Bruins zone, I was muttering, "Don't let them score, please don't let them score," just so I wouldn't have to hear it again.

Meanwhile, the Bruins played well if not perfectly, and getting goals from seven different players is great: take that, no secondary scoring! Also great was the soft pretzel, just for those waiting for that part of the report. In fact, I bought a second one to nibble on the road home, since a two-hour drive after a day like that is not the most fun thing ever. It wasn't awful, but by the time I was a mile or two out, I was fading fast.

My mother suggested that next season, I might want to try going to a game in Tampa instead (which is slightly farther away), and if I do that, I will definitely stay the night and drive home the next day, because two hours was pushing my limits. I got home at midnight, way late for me.

Basically: Very tiring day, totally worth it.