4 In Missouri/ Travel

My First NHL Experience

Last week I went up to St. Louis with my friend, Zach.  It was our first little trip together and our main purpose of the trip was to go to the St. Louis Blues/ Detroit Red Wings game.  I cannot say that I am knowledgeable in hockey in any way, shape or form.  I hadn’t seen a game on TV, I didn’t know any hockey players’ names, I haven’t even seen “Mighty Ducks”, and all I knew about how the game was played was that it was on ice, and you hit it into the goal!

My brother is a huge hockey fan, so he and my dad have gone to quite a few Blues games up in St. Louis, and my dad was telling Zach and me about the “Towel Guy”, how they chant “Ell-I-Ot” when Elliot keeps people from scoring and how to do the “Power-Play-Dance”,  and I just looked at him like he was crazy, not knowing what any of this meant.

Zach and I arrived in St. Louis a few hours before the game and we stayed with his grandparents, who were the greatest hosts ever.  They showed us the way to the train station, and Zach and I took that right to the front of the Scottrade Center, which was amazing because we didn’t have to pay for parking or fight traffic, and the train ticket was only $4.50 round trip!

 

We found our seats and decided to walk down by the ice and stand over by where the players come out.  I was trying to get Zach an autograph, but instead got to “fist-bump” about 7 members of the St. Louis Blues, which was a weird sort of excitement for me!  When they got out on the ice and were practicing I could not believe how good they are at skating.  I have watched figure skating in the Olympics, but I almost think this is just as impressive in a different way.

The game got started and we sat through two fairly uneventful periods, but the third one was all kinds of exciting.  We scored two points and we got to see the infamous “Towel Guy”- who jumps over a row of seats and flings a towel around and snaps it one time for each number of points we have.  It’s just a silly tradition, but I guess he’s at every single game; I’d love to know how that got started.  We chanted “Ell-I-Ot”, “Let’s go Blues”, and cheered the players on.  We even got to do the Power-Play-Dance, which made us both giggle the first time because all we could picture was my dad dancing.

Unfortunately for us, the Red Wings came back and scored two points as well.  The game went into over-time, in which no one scored, and then I got to see a shoot out!  It was really intense and I caught myself holding my breath when we shot, hoping the goalie would miss the puck and we’d win, but unfortunately the Red Wings beat us in the shoot out.

Even though our team lost there were a lot of conversations and laughs between the Red Wings and Blues fans, and it was actually a lot of fun.  I always love live sporting events with all the energy flowing through the crowd, and it even carried on to the train where Blues fans still showed their support for their team, and looked forward to the play-offs!  It was a really great first NHL experience.

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4 Comments

  • Reply
    danielfee
    April 13, 2012 at 9:00 pm

    If you have the chance to go to one of the playoff games you should do it. The intensity and excitement of the game goes way up in the playoffs. My wife had never been to a hockey game and back in 1996 we went to one of the Florida Panther playoff games. She was hooked. We went to the Stanley Cup finals that year. It has been a long time (12 years) since we have been in the playoffs but she remained still a huge fan. We go to about a dozen games a year and are looking forward to Sunday night’s playoff game.
    Dan

    • Reply
      ashleypaige4
      April 13, 2012 at 9:13 pm

      I know, I want to try to go! My brother and boyfriend are going to the Blues game tomorrow, so I’m sure I’ll get to hear all about it. Thanks for reading and commenting! Have fun at the game Sunday!

  • Reply
    James Shannon
    April 13, 2012 at 11:19 pm

    The best game in the world – glad you enjoyed your first time out! 🙂

    • Reply
      ashleypaige4
      April 14, 2012 at 5:07 am

      Thanks for reading! It was really fun, and it’s unlike any other game I’ve been too!

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