Hockey Night in Glendale

The Beck graciously took me to a Coyotes-Canucks game last night, approximately the third regular season NHL hockey game I've attended in my life (Blues-Blackhawks a long time ago, Sharks-Stars in Dallas for a Christmas present during college, and now, Yotes-Nucks in lovely Glendale, AZ). We had sick seats for this one - one of the docs in Beck's group has third row, center-ice behind the penalty box season tix, and sold them to us at a big fat discount. So that was sweet. Here are some views of the action from our keep-all-our-money-in-a-big-brown-bag vantage point:


So yeah, SWEET seats. FTR, this is what the greatest hockey player in the history of ever looks like from across the rink when shot with the wrong setting on the camera:

I apologize for the focus / graininess of some of these shots; I was trying to use the sports setting for the first time and in the low light (and being shot through the glass), a lot of the shots used a very high iso setting and resulted in a whole lot of noise. My bad. The shots of the arena came out decently well:


Beck noted that both anthems were fantastic and met her approval (a rare event), though she prefers the Canadian anthem. You know, being commie and all. So a great intro, and in case I didn't mention it, this game was the Hockey Night in Canada game of the night. So there was a lot of bonus hoopla in addition to the usual Howling fandemonium that one can expect at a Coyotes game. (This is a lie; it may have been the most apathetic crowd I've seen). But there were a fair number of Vancouver Canucks fans in the house, making for a nice mix of cheers and boos at any given play. Of course, and this is probably the story of the game, it was very hard to pay attention to either the arena or the action on the ice (that's clearly a lie; I was absorbed).

When Beck and I attended the preseason game in September, there was this guy, let's call him "This Guy," who was sitting in front of us and banging on the glass, screaming his head off, heckling all the players in the penalty box, you name it. Did I mention that he was wearing a backwards Cubs hat? He was. But he was not a kindred spirit. "This Guy" got a C- in the clever department - most of his jokes / heckles were variations on the "you suck/stink/smell/there's something smelly on you" continuum. Yelled very, very loud for the entire game, and in a relatively empty preseason arena, this stands out quite a bit. Of course, normally you would laugh about an obnoxious fan and forget about it. But the Cubs hat stood out. And it stood out even more when Beck and I SAW THIS GUY on TBS during the baseball playoffs! During one of the games where the Cubs were getting their pathetic-in-October butts kicked, THIS GUY got several seconds on the screen hanging his head and cursing. Hilarious! Beck and I laughed quite a bit - really, when you spend three hours with a guy in person making an ass of himself and then get to see him continue the act on national television, it's pretty funny.

So flash forward to last night - this guy is there again! So the September night was not a one time thing; this guy has season tickets! (Beck correctly points out that maybe this is just a cosmic coincidence and we both happen to have attended the same two games. DUBIOUS!). So naturally, Beck and I are quite thrilled to spend anothe revening with this dude. Early on, he seemed relatively sedate...

(Note also the dad and little girl in the foreground. During a goal review (which ended up going against the Yotes, d'oh), the dad yelled at the refs something to the effect of "if you need to look at the replay, it's right up there on the jumbotron! He scored, you idiots!" He then fist-bumped his daughter in a move that was simultaneously adorable and prompted Beck to get her PTA on and question "what is he teaching the children?" Excellent).

But soon, THIS GUY decided that he (and to a lesser extent, his friend who is in some of the above pictures and provided great commentary like "come on guys, shoot better!") was the Coyotes "seventh man," and his indomitable spirit alone would whip the crowd into a Coyote-pumping frenzy. This involved rousing cheers of "come on, stand up!" and "let's make some noise!" Of course, he had a go-to cheer, the age-old "Let's Go Coyotes!" (clap-clap-clapclapclap). Only he would try to start it repeatedly, and no one responded. He would at best get about five people joining him. Like I said, apathetic crowd. About the fourth time he tried this, the guy behind me chimed in:

"Hey, you guys wanna do the wave?"

SO for all of this guy's efforts, we found ourselves in the middle of an apathetic crowd watching a very exciting hockey game. (And an exciting 1st intermission peewee hockey match taboot, which felt a whole lot like watching NHL hockey on barbiturates, and maybe some of Lewis Carrol's pills, too). After two periods and a whole lot of ridiculous saves by the Coyotes goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov, the scored was tied at 0. Things looked like they were going to hold that trend when the Canucks snapped in a quick one timer with about 11 minutes left. THIS GUY was crushed, and did everything he could think of to get the crowd going. Nothing worked. But the Yotes pulled the same trick they did the other day, summoning five minutes of psycho aggression to attack the net. And when Michalek scored on a sweet pass from Doan, the crowd erupted accordingly - and no one was happier than THIS GUY:

Lades and gents, your Nyet Jones picture of the year! YEAH! Dude was genuinely ecstatic. Fun times. The Yotes held on to the tie for the next five minutes which got us BONUS HOCKEY!

And the Yotes survived an exciting overtime to give us... A SHOOTOUT! Tres exciting. Lots of great pics from the tension filled ending:


Unfortunately that last one is the game winner for the Canucks - the little red circle is around the puck which is sailing past Bryzgalov for the win. Sadness. Here's a series of Beck pics showing the elation of the tying goal, the happiness at bonus hockey, and the sadness at the loss:


You'll note that Beck dressed appropriately for the cold game, warmly enough so that even Dippin' Dots could not cool her spirit! (That's right, the Beck got her ice cream fix, and requests that her nickname be referred to as "Double D." Jessica Simpson's father has no comment).

So that was the hockey game - another late-gained point for the Phoenix club, even though the shootout win would have been sweet. No fights at this one, but a lot of hard-checking and nifty stickwork. Great night out, and a good start to our winter vacation!

(And apologies to THIS GUY - I am all in favor of supporting the home team, and I admire your zeal, even if I didn't comply when you scremed "stand up!" in my face. Keep up the good work, and I hope you don't mind this pleasantly mocking cameo in the Nyetverse).