Is it sad when watching the Devils is more like Christmas than Christmas is? I was super excited the night before and almost left milk and cookies by the fireplace.
Back when the NHL schedule came out in July, I emailed various folk to see if they wanted to go to the game. I thought I was lucky in that the game was on a Saturday as I skipped the last Devils/Kings game which was on a Monday. But I also realized at the time that it coincided with the 2nd week of the NFL playoffs and that I fully expected the Chargers to be playing. So there'd be a 50/50 chance that there would be a Chargers game that same Saturday.
So unlike in previous years when I'd buy tickets as soon as they went on sale, I waited to see how the Chargers would do. After they were 4-8 and needed a miracle to get into the playoffs, I felt pretty safe in getting tickets.
But sure enough, they made the playoffs and won their opening round game against Indianapolis. But the scheduling Gods were on my side as the Chargers game was set for Sunday thereby allowing maximum nerdiness.
Going to Staples Center quickly reminded me of why I kinda stopped going there and instead have watched more games at the Honda Center in recent years. Just the amount of driving in comparison to time actually spent in the arena doesn't feel very efficient.
The game was halfway over and I kept thinking "It feels like I just got here." Devils won handily 5-1, similar to the first Devils/Kings game I went to (more on that later). After I told my Kings' friends before the game that the typical New Jersey game is typically decided at even strength, the Devils scored three power play goals.
The first goal was directly off the faceoff and you couldn't even tell in real time that Travis Zajac tipped in the Jamie Langenbrunner point shot. When I got home, I watched the DVR replay....I was highly amused that when the goal happened, it was splitscreened with the Kings' obligatory female reporter interviewing a Playboy Playmate. You could tell Kings' play-by-play announcer Bob Miller was a bit annoyed when they cut back to him.
The nice thing with the $11.50 promotion was that the arena was full. The ambiance gets killed when it's a bunch of empty seats (insert 2009 San Diego Padres joke here). And even though we were sitting in the yuppy section, it seemed like most of the people around us were legitimate fans.
As usual, I couldn't help but mention random tidbits about certain players:
"#12 on the Devils is playing in his 1000th NHL game tonight."
"Kurt knows a girl that used to do #9's math homework in high school."
"#26 on the Devils almost died from Hepatitis that he got from eating bad fish in Russia."
"#12 on the Kings has a restraining order against his Dad."
One sequence at the end of the game which I highly enjoyed was the one boisterous fan sitting in front of me standing and cheering loudly when Matt Greene got a big open ice hit on Zach Parise. Unfortunately Greene totally put himself out of position and the Devils scored on the subsequent two on one. Causing me to stand and cheer loudly. The other guy proceeded to leave.
Nothing says Valentine's Day like Devils/Sharks. (It's an NBC game, would they actually show Avs/Wings or Flyers/Rangers instead?)
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Bear with me, I was curious and wanted to catalog every Kings game I've attended.....not realizing I've been to at least 20. The really sad thing? I still have ZERO idea how to get to Staples Center without looking it up.
But since it's almost been ten years since my first game....couple games per year, that makes sense. I'm still mildly amazed that most of these games were from when I was in college......back when I shouldn't have had the money or the time.
For the record, I had to look up the dates and in many cases the final score.
Day - Visiting Team (Person(s) Who Accompanied Me) - Musings
10/20/99 - Boston (OJ) - This was my first NHL game. My previous attempts had been thwarted by my Dad who once opined that I'd get shot by gang members if I showed up to the Great Western Forum wearing the opposing jersey.
This game happened to be the first sporting event at Staples Center. The Kings christened the new building with a forgettable tie against the Ray Bourque led Bruins. While writing this, I initially thought the the Kings lost this game, but then I looked it up. I guess paying money to see a tie almost feels like a loss.
Only other notable memory from this game was running into my friend while trying to get into the building. I suppose being the jackass wearing a Red Devils' jersey made me stand out. Oh the days when I only had that one jersey.
1/23/00 - Colorado (OJ, Chris, Niki) - A couple months prior to this, I had sold a Transformer toy on eBay for $700. My Dad wanted the money since he was correct to assume I'd waste it on something frivolous. So I did the natural thing and told him I sold it for $300 and pocketed the remaining $400.
Used a portion of that to go to this game. The unnecessarily difficult thing about this game was that I agreed to pick up my UCSD friend in LA to bring to the game and subsequently back to campus--she had gone up for some party but didn't have transportation.
To make a long story short, she didn't have an exact idea of where she was aside that she was on Verdugo Street. We then learned that there is a Verdugo Street and a Verdugo Blvd in close proximity in Burbank.
And I'm ashamed to admit that I wore a Peter Forsberg jersey to that game. Why did I own that jersey? A: Because I got it cheap on eBay.
4/19/00 - Detroit (OJ) - Game 4 of the opening round of the playoffs and the Red Wings unceremoniously swept the Kings and won this game 3-0. This was the game where I learned the difference between a regular season crowd and a playoff crowd. Fights broke out....between Kings fans.
11/23/00 - New Jersey (OJ) - What a sweet, sweet game. First off, it was Thanksgiving night.....you know, when most people have dinner with the family. Not me and surprisingly my parents weren't mad. Also scored cheap lower bowl seats on eBay since people couldn't make this game.
Mathieu Schneider scored to give the Kings a 1-0 lead. The defending champion Devils scored the next six. Jason Arnott (center of the pic) and Scott Niedermayer held out for the first 20 some odd games and they signed three days before this one.
12/16/00 - Tampa Bay (Brad, Shannon, Brian) - Tampa jumped to a quick lead and held on for a 4-3 win. My one clairevoyant moment was telling everybody how the lowly Lightning would be pretty good in three to four years.
1/13/01 - St. Louis (Aaron, Ning, Niki) - Normal guys would bring one cute gal to a game, but I got greedy and brought two. I likely scared off both of them in that Aaron and I talked hockey throughout the three hour drive up and the three hour drive back.
Smooth.
Game itself stunk as the Blues cruised to a 4-2 win.
2/10/01 - Washington (Brian, Brad?, Armin?) -- Our friend Brian was going to graduate a year early and work in Washington DC. So he decided to become a Caps fan.
Washington won 4-3, this being in the midst of the painful Jamie Storr era. If I recall correctly, he spotted Washington a 3-0 lead and the Kings battled back to make it 3-2. Then Storr proceeded to let in a soft goal with less than a minute left in the second period. The immortal Steve Passmore replaced him to start the third.
There was the "I have to scream everything, all the time" guy behind us which was driving Brian crazy. During the third, he started screaming "PUT IN PASSMORE!!!!! PUT IN PASSMORE!!!!!" I turned around and told him "They already did.....god damn." Thankfully he was pretty quiet from that point forward.
3/26/01 - San Jose (Aaron) - I think this was the game which signaled the end of ever going to LA for a regular season weekday game. Despite leaving San Diego at 4pm, we missed half of the first period.
This might have been the worst game I've ever seen live. 0-0 tie.
Although I forget if this was the "Craig Johnson" game. The Kings used to a run a promotion where if a randomly selected player scored in the second period, everybody in the crowd could redeem their ticket for a free McFlurry.
"And your McFlurry player is........Craig Johnson." -- public address announcer
(entire arena groans)
Still one of the funniest things ever. Johnson was a defensive forward not known for scoring. Sure enough, he got a breakaway that period and.....missed.
4/15/01 - Detroit (Mary) - Mary was a Kings fan who I'd torment throughout high school when LA was a mess of a team. Still remember winning a bet and her having to wear my Brodeur jersey at school for a day.
It was Easter Sunday and the game had a peculiar 8:30pm start; I think the Lakers played a daytime game. It was game 3 against the Red Wings and Detroit was up 2 games to none, looking to sweep the Kings for the 2nd straight year. A late third period goal from Mathieu Schneider gave the Kings a 2-1 win.
4/18/01 - Detroit (Chris) - Shortly after I had gotten tickets for Game 3, Chris told me he got seats for Game 4. This was the "Frenzy on Figueroa" game where the Wings blew a 3-0 lead with six minutes left in the third period. Eric Belanger would score early in OT to tie the series and the Kings would win the next two games to eliminate Detroit. The video never gets old.
5/6/01 - Colorado (N/A) - I ended up not going to this game because I had to study or something. But I still enjoy the Ticketmaster snafu in purchasing these tickets.
Brad had left me his credit card since he was in class when tickets went on sale at 10am. I tried to order four tickets, but the Ticketmaster screen seemingly timed out. So I started over and this order got processed. Later I jumped in the shower when Brad got home and discovered I inadvertantly purchased eight tickets. I can't adequately describe how mad he was as he was screaming me at me while I was still in the shower.
The next thought was to eBay the seats as the game had sold out and other people were turning a nice profit. We were thinking this was a blessing in disguise since we might make enough to go to the game for free. Unfortunately by the time we put our extra seats on auction, the Avs jumped to a 3-1 series lead thereby killing demand. Fortunately the Kings won game 5 and a classmate of mine agreed to buy our extra seats at face value.
As for game 6, I remember being in the room studying while listening to the game. Kings won 1-0 in overtime as Glen Murray flung a seemingly benign shot on net which handcuffed Patrick Roy.
9/15/01 - Anaheim (Justin A, Chris R, Justin H) - I had bought eight tickets to throw a de facto birthday party. The one thing I hated about having a mid-September birthday while in college was that most of my Saugus friends had left for school but none of my UCSD friends had come back.
Unfortunately 9/11 happened and everybody was still shellshocked. Half my friends canceled, in particular one friend sayid her Dad wouldn't let her go anywhere that might conceivably be a terrorist target. I suppose that excuse was slightly more realistic than my Dad being fearful of me being gunned down by a gang member in a Kelly Hrudey jersey.
I vaguely recall the Ducks winning like 3-2. Being that it was preseason, I'm usually more interested in seeing the young players who might crack the roster. I was most curious to see Alexander Frolov's debut as he was the hugely hyped but mysterious prospect at the time. He was awarded a penalty shot in this game but didn't convert.
4/27/02 - Colorado (Brad, Brian, Armin) - First two quarters of Senior year of college were extremely hectic, so I don't recall catching any other games. Plus I think we had decided to save our limited funds for the playoffs.
Much like the previous year, the Avs jumped to a 3-1 series lead and the Kings won game 5. In game 6, the Kings won 3-1 to force a game 7. My one indelible memory of that game was when the Avs scored late to make it 3-1, this Avs fan jumped out of his seat, turned to the rest of the section, and angrily announced "THAT'S ONE!"
Everybody else just kinda look puzzled....like was he the Count from Sesame Street? Colorado wouldn't get any closer thereby sparing us from "THAT'S TWO!" and presumably "THAT'S THREE!"
12/19/02 - Anaheim (Lam) - My cousin grew up a Ducks' fan thanks to Paul Kariya. The only thing distinctive about this game was having lower bowl seats and wearing Santa hats. The hats made it easy to spot us when we rewatched the game later, plus it gave us a novelty item to throw in case somebody scored a hat trick.
1/25/03 - New Jersey (Lam) - My memory seemed to have conveniently blocked out this game. I recall going the previous night to see the Devils beat the Ducks 3-1.....if only because Aaron got pulled over on our way back to SD. Since he got pulled over in Orange County, he had to do traffic school in Orange County.......and I forever drive 65 mph whenever I'm near Capistrano.
Anyways, re-reading the article quickly jogged my memory as I now remember where I was sitting. Ziggy Palffy wripped a wrist shot that beat Brodeur glove side in OT. Still remember drunk Kings' fan getting in my face after the game. "DEVILS SUCK!!!!!"
Five months later: Stanley Cup, biatch.
Also in this game was a minor, but cool trick. Sergei Brylin got hit and he lost his stick which slid towards Tommy Albelin. Albelin then passed Brylin's stick like a puck....and Brylin caught his stick in stride. The entire crowd gave an "Ooooooooh." You probably had to be there to appreciate it. Actually, I haven't seen this again maybe because I think it's actually a penalty to shoot an errant stick like that....
1/13/03 - San Jose (Aaron) - We bought our seats off this guy on eBay who had the two seats next to us. He chose to bring his adorable nephew who was decked out in a Kings jersey. If only my childhood was like this.......
But other than that, I had no idea how this game ended. I thought I could narrow down the date since our seats were right behind the Sharks bench I distinctly remember the ugly defensive pairing of (*shudder* and future Devils) Dan McGillis and Jim Fahey. McGillis was traded to the Sharks in December of '02 and then dealt to Boston in March of '03. But alas the Kings hosted San Jose three times in that span and I have no recollection of how the game ended.
But in going through photos from this game, there's a "MON 4, CGY 2" on the out of town scoreboard which helped me pinpoint the exact date. Jason Allison apparently scored the game winner in overtime beating rookie Miikka Kiprusoff.
11/25/03 - New Jersey (Dad) - Had Premier Seats for this one and front row seats for the Ducks game the next night. Brought my Dad to his first hockey game.....which he seemed to enjoy while wearing my Kings' Deadmarsh jersey. Devils won handily 4-0 as the Kings were missing their entire top line of Deadmarsh-Allison-Palffy.
The next night was a 3-3 tie in a Stanley Cup Finals rematch against the Ducks. All I got with these glass seats is an awful photo of Vinny Prospal celebrating, with me 80% cropped out with my cousin celebrating while wearing one of the many awful Anaheim 3rd jerseys.
9/17/05 - Anaheim (lot of folks) - Our floor hockey group had been planning the annual Frozen Fury trip to watch the Kings/Avalanche in Vegas. I spotted a deal where if you ordered a ticket for Frozen Fury, they'd toss in a free ticket to this preseason game.
This was another de facto birthday thing for me, so I got a handful of folks to go that normally wouldn't come. One of those was one of Kurt's college roommates who we picked up in Orange County. Unfortunately for him, his wedding was in a few months and his fiance decided to call it off literally the night before. So the rest of the car was treated to a very awkward thirty minute phone call between him and her dad. (The wedding was eventually canceled)
Also at this game was the only time I ever met my friend Rob in person. We had both been in a competitive Fantasy Hockey league since 2000 where both of us were typically #1 or #2 and we got to be good pals. I sent him extra goalie gear for his kids to use and he helped me out when I had been mail frauded by some guy in Buffalo. Unfortunately he died in a boating accident several months after this.
On a less grim note, this was also the Travis stalker game. The Monday after this game, I logged onto the Kings' fan site where I had purchased the tickets. I notice one post being like "Who was that cute guy in Section 216, Row 7, seat 14?" I pull out my ticket stub and sure enough it's exactly that seat. But since we had twenty concurrent seats, I didn't actually sit in that one.
"Lame, she's probably is looking for Travis."
Just to play along, I posted the group photo to confirm to the gal I knew who she spotted. Probably not the smartest thing to do on a public forum as other posters commented "Well, it's obviously not the Asian guy" as they were trying to deduce who she was trying to find.
Unfortunately, since that section was more or less reserved for people that had purchased Frozen Fury tickets from the site, the girl (and her cohorts) knew we'd be in Vegas the following weekend. And the site only had a couple sections in Vegas, so they kinda knew where to find us.
They would later tell me they found Trav, but only by looking for me first. I guess an Asian guy at a hockey game sticks out like a sore thumb. Wish there was some other wild story to tack on, but Trav just took a photo with the now very embarrassed girl at the behest of her friends.
12/10/05 - Florida (Kurt) - Scored some nice seats courtesy of Steve S. The Kings dominated the lowly Panthers for a 3-1 win. Nothing else notable other than running into the stalker girls again.....and they still recognized me.
12/17/05 - Phoenix (OJ) - My only time in a luxury box as OJ got a couple seats through his work. Kings won 4-1, I had a hot dog, and there was much rejoicing.
1/7/06 - San Jose (lots of folks) - I recalled absolutely nothing from this game from a hockey standpoint. I did remember telling Shira that I had heard "Chinese Democracy" would be released shortly. Oops.
According to an old blog entry, the Sharks won 3-2 in OT after tying the game in the waning moments of regulation.
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Last year's Celebrity Death Pool: 1 death, 366 days
This year's Celebrity Death Pool: 2 deaths, 2 days
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Time Warner crapped out and only a handful of channels were coming in tonight. So I caught the end of Jeopardy and saw some of the strangest and seemingly illogical wagers ever. Unless they've changed the rules recently and non-winners get to take home their final cash amounts.
Contestant 1: $11,200
Contestant 2: $10,400
Contestant 3: $12,400
Those are the totals going into the final clue of Double Jeopardy which happens to be a Daily Double to Contestant 3. To me, the main strategy here would be to maintain the lead in the case you got this question wrong. So a wager of up to $1,200 would make sense if you're playing conservative or if it's in a category you're not confident in. But if it happens to be a category you're feeling confident in, then it's understandable to make a sizeable bet. I almost think the amount to wager is independent to the category in this case.
The guy proceeds to bet $1,600. What is the upside to that bet?!? You get it right and you don't open up that big a lead. You still have to wager a large amount to protect against 2nd place undoubtedly betting everything in Final Jeopardy.
And the downside......you give up the lead?!? The guy proceeds to get it wrong, so heading into Final Jeopardy:
Contestant 1: $11,200
Contestant 2: $10,400
Contestant 3: $10,800
Logically to me, Contestant 1 has to wager at least $10,401 to protect against Contestant 3 doubling up. Contestant 3 has to hope Contestant 1 misses in any case, but also has to protect against Contestant 2 from doubling up. So a wager of at least $10,001.
Contestant 2 has the most freedom as she knows what both guys have to wager. She's at the mercy in that she likely needs both guys to get it wrong or for both to miscalculate their bets. As long as I'm not playing for the parting gifts, I'm either wagering $1 or $10,000 here depending on how I feel about the category.
The category was something about royalty. They reveal the answers in reverse order, so Contestant 2 gets to go first. She answers correctly and her wager is $5,600. I wasn't quite following the logic on that bet. If she backdoors the victory by everybody missing, she's either getting $4,800 or $16,000 depending on her getting it right. But like I said, she had the most freedom.
They reveal Contestant 3's response and he gets it correct. But then he wagered $4,200 for a final total of $15,000. Where the hell did $4,200 come from? I figure he wasn't feeling very confident in the category, but you PLAY TO WIN THE GAME. If he made the proper $10,001 wager he'd be be in the lead with $20,801.
Contestant 1 (defending champion) is the only one that makes a logical wager ($10,500) but he answers incorrectly dropping him to third place. So Contestant 2 wins despite making an odd wager and Contestant 3 loses by screwing up not once, but twice in a row on bet amounts.
Old and busted: Candy and Flowers
New Hotness: Figure Four Leglock
