NHL 15-16 Regular Season Thread: F I R E _ T H E R R I E N

[Outlaw]

Hawks are going to be on TV pretty often in the next couple weeks. I actually get to watch some games! Yay! This game has been pretty good so far.

[bori]

Anaheim loses again? Fuck Corey Perry

[bluefan]

The only explanation is the Jets and Ducks beat the shit out of each other so much in the playoffs, they're going to need half of this season to get back up to speed.

[Vaspinne]

Anybody with a Blackhawks/Sharks youtube stream? How do you guys find these btw.

Nvm I got one from Reddit. Thanks anyways, if anyone wants it PM me.

.

Unrelated; I thought Calgary was turning a corner and getting their season back on track a little. But that ass-whoopin' we took from Anaheim last night is making me reconsider

[NynJa]

Dude, the 2015 flames were the 2014 avs.

[Vaspinne]

Dude, the 2015 flames were the 2014 avs.

Doode, do you honestly, honestly think you're the first person to make this comment or comparison? Believe me, I'm well aware.

Also, are, not were.

[bori]

Happy AMERICUH Turkey day everyone!

[Aksannyi]

Okay, incoming long post of awesome awesomeness that was my first experience at Consol. Many pictures. NOT SORRY.

On the way into town, I haven't been into downtown Pittsburgh in forever so I wanted to get some shots of the skyline, unfortunately, that's really hard to do when you're going something like 70 (I wasn't driving, at least). It turns out the pic I took is fucking HUGE so here's the thumbnail thing instead.


So we get there and it takes a bit of driving around because Pittsburgh is a confusing city if you don't know it well, but I'm seeing people walking around in jerseys and the hype is real. We get parked ($23 is the most I've ever paid for parking at any event ever, worth it though) and although I'm freezing I stop long enough to get a good shot of the exterior of the arena.

Spoiler: show

They let us through the metal detectors first but don't start checking tickets until like 1755 which I thought was odd, but no matter, we weren't the poor fuckers who got stuck waiting outside in the cold. I had worn layers because I knew it would be cold inside but still, I would have died outside I think lol. (Even my dad agreed it was cold out.) Once they start letting us through we all moved pretty quickly around the arena, and damn, it is really nice in there. I was too busy walking to get any good shots of it, but I was impressed by it. We get up to the top and dad and I stop to hit the bathrooms, and I take some interior shots of the rink:

Spoiler: show

We walk around and find our seats, wanting to have a good idea of where we are - not the best seats ever but I had picked seats that put us in the Pens' attacking end twice. It turned out that the seats were absolutely fine, we had great sight lines to the whole rink and I had zero problems following anything that was happening. (For those who are familiar, we were in Sect 215. Not bad at all, for the price.) I took more pictures, here be my obligatory selfies (spoiler because my face and also my dad as well):

Spoiler: show

As well as some shots of the teams warming up (just one I'm posting here):

Spoiler: show

Then we get up and get some food, and as we've stopped to eat it because carrying two hotdogs and a beer precariously down stairs never made anyone happy, I decided to get a shot of the banners during warm-ups:

Spoiler: show

Unfortunately, the Stanley Cup win banners were behind all of the others from this angle, so you can't see them.

Lights dim, it's ALMOST TIME!!!!!

Spoiler: show

Of course I had to get a pic of my precious baby Flower:

Spoiler: show

And another random shot of the action, that I just took because I had my phone out:

Spoiler: show

Okay now I'm done spamming pics. I was so fucking incredibly hyped about this entire experience so I had my phone out taking all these pics and posting on my social media in between plays, I must have made like a dozen Facebook posts last night, along with several tweets. It was so awesome hearing "Let's go Pens!" because after gong to away games for so long, you miss hearing your home team's chant in person (although there's always a few guys who start it at Lightning games, which makes the Lightning fans start to boo, good times man).

There were these two little girls in front of us who would also join in on the "Let's go Pens!" chants, fuck yeah those girls are being raised right! They were so fucking adorable the whole time, seriously although my eyes were glued to the ice, those girls enhanced the experience for me.

When the Blues scored I was like "FFFFFFUUUUUU-" but then when the Pens scored I LEAPED out of my seat, beer in hand and raised over my head, SCREAMING my head off, there is nothing in the world like watching your team score, live, at home. Then when I saw the replay and realized it was Sid, I screamed even louder and told my dad that some dude on an online board was talking shit and I was glad to make him eat his words, lol.

Overall it was a fucking amazing game. The Pens have some passing issues they need to work through, a lot of sloppy passing and some stupid turnovers, and that third Blues goal was so completely avoidable. But it was still a fucking great game, not a blowout (not that I'd have minded that, at least in favor of the Pens lol) but kept me on the edge of my seat.

Flower made some amazing saves and it warmed my heart to hear the crowd start chanting "Fleury, Fleury, Fleury!" (which I leaned over to my dad and actually said, because I will defend that man until my dying days).

When the Blues tied it in the 3rd with about 5 to go I was like "oh fuck I'm about to die" because I suspected OT was coming, and the time ran out and then I was really like "OH FUCK I'M ABOUT TO DIE" because of OT, seriously, be still my heart. Sid's stick broke on the fucking faceoff and I covered my mouth with my hands, taking deep breaths while simultaneously muttering to myself because I was like "FUCK!" internally (but couldn't say that because there were little girls in front of me) and I thought that was it but Tanger made an amazing block and then they made a change and got off the ice and into the Blues end and GENO SCORES AND SAVES THE MOTHERFUCKING DAY!!!!!!!!!!!! (this gif isn't from last night obviously but it's Geno being adorable so)


All in all, I had a blast. I'm so happy that I was able to experience a game like that - first time I've ever seen a game go to OT in person. My dad was unaware that OT is 3 on 3 now so he was asking me about that, we agreed that it was intense, and then after the game we hung out for a bit and listened to the interview with Sid and just kind of chilled because it wasn't like we were going to get out of there any time soon. And then we got partially lost on our way out of the city because that's just what happens but luckily I had my phone ready to sort us out and that, my dear NHL thread denizens, is the story of my first Penguins hockey game at Consol Energy Center (hopefully of many, maybe I'll make this a Thanksgiving tradition).

The only thing I wish I could have done while I was here was attend an NWHL game but the Beauts are out of town and everywhere else is too far. SOME DAY THOUGH.

[vagus]

Lucas sbisa so shitty. Can't push people away from the crease, can't seem to skate backwards either.

[BadKarma]

Glad you had fun aks but i had to use my scroll wheel like 4 times just to get through your post. Spoiler that shit

[Ceberoth]

Happy thanksgiving guys and gals.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

[Aksannyi]

Glad you had fun aks but i had to use my scroll wheel like 4 times just to get through your post. Spoiler that shit

Your poor finger! But I'll spoiler it, ya baby.

[Aksannyi]

What the fuck, I got redirected to a CATPCHA (I think I spelled that wrong) page to edit my post? What the hell is that shit?

[Obsidian]

Lucas sbisa so shitty. Can't push people away from the crease, can't seem to skate backwards either.

In fairness, skating backwards is a little tricky. It took me almost two weeks to teach my six year old cousin how to do it.

[Aksannyi]

I see an actual emoji?? Do they work now? ������❤️������ (Test)

Okay apparently not.

[Sepukku]

I went to the game too, front row seats along the faceoff circle in the pens shoot 2nd/OT side, right where geno smashed his stick on the glass in celebration of his OT goal, even visible in the highlights clips of the OT winner, will post pics after I eat my lunch.

[Sepukku]

Photos from seat upon arrival:



Warm-ups:


Fleury during pre-game stuff:




Beau Bennett:


Celebrating the OT winner:




My friend and I pounding the shit out of the glass celebrating the win behind Geno:

[Aksannyi]

I'm so jealous of your awesome seats. We were up by where your thumb/finger is in that first pic.

[Sepukku]

It was only the second time Ive ever been along the glass and the first was like 15 years ago as a kid vs the Coyotes in the methamphetamine-looking jerseys. My friend's parents (holding the 'we love our ice crew' signs in the highlight clips) bought the tickets as they're in from out of town for the holiday and his sister is a member of the Penguins ice crew. Duper and a couple others made us pay attention to the whole warm ups. If we looked away at all they would slap a puck off the glass at us and Duper did his running leap into the boards and knocked all our game brochure book things off the ledge.

We got a visit from the ice crew girls of course, got to talk smack on Backes and Lovejoy (ate my words, at least for one day, with Lovejoy scoring in the third), and then got the winner right in front of us.

The ushers are super anal about that glass pounding crap though, we actually did get a word from the usher in the aisle on our way out over it as he had warned everyone along the glass in his two sections 'this is his glass and there will be no touching of it during or in between play' which I guess might be a new focus after the Bruins fans knocked the glass down on Bergeron or whoever a year or two ago.

[Aksannyi]

That sounds fucking awesome. Duper

Can't get your video to play, it's acting like an image for me ... anyone else?