Thursday, April 05, 2012

A Brief AAR

It was the best of all possible worlds... seats on the glass (just slightly in front of the St. Louis net for periods one and three), a 0-0 game for two periods, a 2-0 St. Louis lead in the third, a Wings comeback to tie late in the third, overtime that didn't resolve the issue, and the Wings win in a shoot-out.  YES!

So.  I have a slight hangover this morning, mainly because I drank crappy beer... Bud Select... nearly all night.  But yanno whut?  When you put the word "free" in front of Bud Select the beer suddenly becomes acceptable.  Good, even.  So good you drink one whole helluva lot more of that swill than you normally would.  "Free" changes everything.


I should explain.

Apparently our tickets also included access to The Blue Note Lounge, which is a club/bar on the mezzanine level of the Scottrade Center.  We kinda-sorta stumbled in to The Blue Note by accident, Buck and I, and we had to have the drill explained to us by the guy who checked us in: free buffet (a great layout of food) for an hour before the game, free drinks for an hour before the game, during the game, an hour after the game, AND you could could carry TWO drinks out of the bar to your seat.

Well.  Bud Select?  OK.  Beer Me!

The kicker: our hotel... the Sheraton City Center... was 500 feet from the Scottrade Center so there were no worries about drinking and driving.  The only worry we had was remaining upright, and even that wasn't a big concern, mainly coz we could have crawled home if pressed.

So... it was a great night.  We hooked up with some other Wings fans who were also staying at the Sheraton and continued the party in the hotel bar after the game.  We Wings fans have this saying: "EVERY game's a home game."  That's because you'll see a huge number of Red Wings jerseys in the crowd at every hockey game, everywhere.  It doesn't matter where the game is... Dallas, El-Eh, Chicago, NooYawk, St. Louis, or on the freakin' moon (Denver)... there will be a large contingent of Wings fans at the game when the Wings are in town.  And so it was last night.  But you know what the best part was?  Drinkin' the enemy's FREE beer in THEIR club after the Wings won.

Sweet.

And now I have to go find coffee, as the Sheraton staff took the coffee out of the Club Lounge a half-hour ago.  The inconsiderate bastards!

15 comments:

  1. Heckuva evening!

    The only hockey game I've seen live was the Portland Winterhawks (minor league) back when they had Deadmarsh. Seats were super cheap, even for second row by the blue line.

    Dunno why I haven't been back yet...

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    1. We have a minor league team in Amarillo but that's a two-hour drive (one way) for me. Tickets to the Amarillo Gorillas are pretty cheap, too... and you can get right on the glass for all but the biggest games. I've been once... it's the drive that puts me off.

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  2. Sounds like a perfect evening - family, Wings, free drinks & food. A memory to cherish - you deserve it.

    You and SN1 did real good buying those Wings tickets while "well-oiled". I guess one good drinking spree deserves another?

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    1. We DID do well with those tix, Red. I'll prolly bore the Hell outta anyone and everyone for the next ten days talking about the experience. It was THAT good.

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  3. Sounds 4.0! Sorry you had to drink the swill, though. Always something to endure, right?

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    1. Yeah, it was hard, Darryl... but we persevered. ;-)

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  4. Excellent! Free swill is an OK thing. I did much the same one night a couple of years back while attending a Boston College football game on a corporate ticket. Free food and free Bud. I think I downed about ten of the nasty things, but the effects were worth the taste :-)

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    1. I KNOW SN1 and I had at least ten. Hell, we had two in the bar before the game and carried two to our seats before they dropped the puck. We didn't slow down much during the game, either.

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  5. In all it seems that it was the perfect evening. You don't mention any see-gars...

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    1. Yesterday was a cigar-free day, Kris. There's simply no place to smoke a cigar in public these days. We took SN1's car to St. Louis... and that's a non-smoking vehicle.

      So: nearly perfect.

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  6. Puhfect! Good company and good time!

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  7. It doesn't get much better than that!

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    1. Blogger put this comment and the one on Leavenworth in Spam-Hell, Moogie. What HAVE you done to piss 'em off? ;-)

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