Sports Week

*cue in Hockey Night in Canada song* Da-da-da-da-da! DA-DA-DA-DA-DA!

This week is really about experiencing a lot of firsts for my world in sports: I got to go to my first hockey and soccer game.

On Thursday I watched the Canucks take on the L.A. Kings. These were tickets that I bought way back last fall when season tickets first went on sale. This was all planned to be part of my sister’s birthday present so the long wait was well worth it.

Our seats were awesome, second row in the lower plaza almost in the corner and in perfect view of the goalie and where they do the corner face-offs.

·         Canucks won the game (3-1) and the President’s Trophy!

·         Hearing Jenn cry out “Leave him alone!” when Daniel was getting rough-handled by the Kings.

·         Flinching whenever the players got slammed up against the glass right in front of us (seriously, it happened about six times and I’m pretty sure 4 out of the 6 was Lapierre).

·         Beer and churros although they no longer have sippy-cup lids which was kind of disappointing.

·         Watching the 2-man advantage power play during third period.
·         Seeing the Green Men do their thing.

If money weren’t an issue I would definitely see myself getting a season’s pass but it looks like I’ll be settling for a one-game-a-year instead which I’m still excited about. Here a couple pictures I took throughout the game:

 

Now I’ve been to plenty of concerts at various venues, but there is just this undeniable feeling while being at that game. It is entirely different from just watching it on TV, probably because it was 100 times better. 90% of us were decked out in a variety of Canucks fan gear (I, myself, was wearing a Henrik Sedin jersey and my sister wore a shirt that had the older yellow, red and black Canucks logo). The game was sold out which I found meant that there were over 18,000 spectators.

We actually had some Kings fans sitting right behind us but they left right after Kesler scored the third goal. Sore losers really, since considering ticket costs I would have stayed ‘til the end whether we won or lost... but we won (muhahaha)

At the time of deciding which game tickets to purchase it was a hard decision since I wanted to be sure that we would see a good game. Originally I wanted to buy tickets for when they played against Calgary Flames but tickets for those were insanely more expensive than the ones I settled with. L.A. Kings came as a recommendation from a beloved hockey buff. He’s really the one who got me even more into hockey and we even had bets during last year’s playoffs and the winter Olympics (which I happily won each time). I wish he was still here so that I could have talked about my first experience at a game; so that we could have gone to a game together. He was so excited for me – I still miss you.

On Saturday my friend took me to the Vancouver Whitecaps vs. Sporting Kansas City game. It was a chance for us to hang out together even in the midst of end-of-term-craze and get me out of the house (Thank you Jess).

                                   This is us soaking in some sun.

Despite that we were sitting in an undercover area and would have been semi-protected by the supposed scheduled rain, the day turned out to be gorgeously sunny.

I had a great time at the game and seriously did not realize how many Whitecaps fans there were in the city. Though it didn’t look like it was a sold out game, there was definitely a sizeable crowd. We had a couple real “enthusiasts” several rows behind us.

The second half of the game was where everything really picked up. Despite the 3-0 lead Kansas city had entering into it, the Whitecaps were able to tie the game within like the last two minutes of the game. Oh, and we also had an attempted streaker. He didn't get very far but I did manage to catch the part where he was being dragged away by security in briefs (or maybe it was shorts... the point in he was still covered).

This guy actually scored the first goal for us. Yay Harris!

Watching the soccer game definitely had its tense, nerve-racking moments. I had a great time overall and definitely want to be back for more games. So again my thanks go out to my friend for inviting me.

Until next time!