Penguins Game!

So what better way to acclimate yourself to Pittsburgh than to go to a Pens playoff game?  I have to say I felt slightly guilty having a ticket for a box at the game tonight.  Number 1: I'm from the Philly area and TECHNICALLY like Philly sports.  BUT I've never been a hockey fan, so I've decided that I am officially a Penguins fan.  Might as well give credit to the city that opened my eyes to hockey!  PS I will never abandon the Eagles nor the Phillies.  Number 2: I didn't even know who we were playing.  Instead of being angry, be happy that I'm being honest.

Now I've had the opportunity to go to one other game, and it happened to be against the Flyers.  I chose to wear orange and black, but tonight I was definitely better because I wore black and gold.  Coincidentally, my high school colors were black and gold, so it felt natural.  Go FHS 98!  Haha.  

The game was really fun!  Not to continue bringing up Philly or anything, but I was able to go to a U2 concert in the Sunoco box in Philly, and the Wachovia is much nicer.  They are building a new arena here though, so I imagine those boxes will kick booty.  We had a pretty nice food spread (the requisite nachos with plastic cheese, pizza, etc), and we also had a stocked beer fridge.  No private bathroom as in Philly, but when your ticket is free, can you seriously complain?

I'm going to try to learn about hockey, so I can be more involved in the game.  The highlights to me were that they gave away free T-shirts so nearly everyone was in white (reminded me of Penn State whiteouts) and that Malkin had a hat trick.  They kept screaming Geno, which is my dad's name (for the most part).  He is now officially my favorite player.  Pretty easy since he's awesome!  As a total aside, during a Phillies game a few years ago, I chose a favorite player based on the fact that he had the most fabulous photos when he went up to bat (and by fabulous I mean ridiculous) and played awesome rap music.  It happened to be Jimmy Rollins, so I made a good choice.  Malkin is obviously a good choice and no where near a coincidence, so I digress.  Just saying irrational reasons for liking people can turn out to be good for you!

All in all, a good PGH night!  I was impressed to see the large crowd of fans tailgating and watching the game outside.  I love that all of Pittsburgh is involved in this because in Philly, I got the feeling that no one cared about hockey.  I made it to the bar (Shady Grove) afterwards but it was a bit quiet.  I guess everyone exerted themselves too much during the game.

I'm looking forward to a weekend of exploring le Burgh.  We shall see what it brings!  Neoyinzer is out!