Pens vs Hurricanes: A Night of Incredible Luck

As I said last time, I went to the Pens vs Hurricanes game on November 19th with my friend Jamie and another friend of ours, Pablo. Jamie & I had tickets up in section 225, Pablo did Student Rush and ended up in section 116. We were all pumped to be going to the game because we all love the Pens, and Jamie & I were excited to get to see one of our favorite non-Penguins, Eric Staal, play in person.

We get to the arena and wait inside the store and shop until we could go up to our seats. Jamie & I explored the upper bowl and got food (pulled pork sandwich is delicious by the way) and Timbits. We then went and sat down and ate while watching pregame skate. Found out my chiropractor was also at the game, sitting on the glass, right near where Bob Errey was standing.

First period went well, with both teams scoring 2 goals. Sutter & Dwyer for the Canes, Kunitz & Kennedy for the Pens.
As we started walking around during intermission, I get a phone call. It's my chiropractor, asking if I would like to switch seats for the 2nd period. I grab Jamie, we run back to our seats to grab all of our stuff and then we literally ran down the stairs and halfway across the arena. The seats were incredible.

Getting to sit there was such an amazing experience. We were right behind the end of the Pens bench.  Just incredible. So thankful I got to experience that once, even if it was just for a period.
2 goals were scored in the 2nd. One by Sidney Crosby:

And one by Jokinen:

For the 3rd period, I traded seats with our friend Pablo, and sat in 116.

3rd period was intense. Kunitz appeared to have scored on the PP, but had to go to review to determine if the official had blown the whistle before the puck crossed the line. Had to call the main hub in Toronto. Right before the announcement was made, the arena was dead silent. Then the head official skates out to make the announcement, as soon as the word "good" came out of his mouth, the arena erupted into cheers.

The Canes pulled their goalie at the end of the period. Eric Staal made an awesome play, and they tied the game. We were headed to overtime.

Overtime was intense, but no one scored. Shootout time.

What a game. Awesome way to end it.

But the best part of the night was yet to come.

After the game, we met up & then stood at the player's lot to try & get autographs.

First exciting thing that happens is Mario drives by. He then does a U-turn & comes back & talks to the security guards. After a nice 3-point turn, he drives back by, but this time his window is down & he high-fives people in line. However I was too short to reach.

First player to stop & sign was Talbot. He drove along the line, signing for everyone.

Next to stop was Fleury. Super nice. Hilarious moment: gets through most of the line, then makes a sharp right down the hill & leaves the puck bunnies standing there stunned.

Then, Rupp pulls up in his ridiculously HUGE truck. Seriously, the top of the tire was at about my chest. He signs stuff. Signs my program, and I had a silver sharpie at the time. He walks away & I look at the signature & have to try to get it in the right light to see it & I go "ok I can somewhat see it." Rupp hears this & asks me if I want him to go over it in black. I=Stunned. I say "Sure, if you want to haha" & he does. Not only that but he tries to trace the thin black sharpie over the signature he already wrote. Couldn't believe it, told him I really appreciated him doing that for me. He was seriously incredibly nice. Saw him taking pictures with people down the line from us.

Basically at this point, Rupp's truck was blocking other cars from pulling up along the railing. So Pablo took my Letang jersey and stood right near the gate with it. As he goes to do this, we see Crosby pull out. He drives past Rupp's truck & pulls over. He gets out of the car. Next thing I know, Sidney Crosby is walking over to us and starts signing stuff. He gets to us, starts signing my IceTime, gets the first part of his signature done, something distracts him, he looks up & then almost goes to the next person, before realizing he never finished mine.

At this point, Jamie tells me Letang just pulled up. I then run to the start of the line, get there to see Letang & Dupuis jokingly arguing with each other (Dupuis was still in his car).

Basically what had happened, was Pablo saw the car he thought was Letang's & started waving my jersey around. Letang stopped, threw the car into park & got out. Dupuis was right behind him & then couldn't get out, hence the arguing. Eventually Dupuis gave up & got out of his car too.

I got to the start of the line right as Letang started signing the jersey. I thank him, even though Pablo is the one holding the jersey, then Pablo says "Yeah this is her jersey, I just wanted to make sure it got signed." Dupuis then comes up, signs for Pablo, hands him back the sharpie. I then take sharpie from Pablo & hand it back to Dupuis for my IceTime. He hands it back & then I have to hand it to Jamie. He gives us a weird look & I go "Yeah we're all together, & sharing a sharpie" Dupuis then jokes "Ah maybe I should just hold onto it for a bit then."

After that, we were pretty much all frozen &  just decided to leave.

But it was epic to say the least. 

For anyone who would like to see the rest of my pics, here is the link:
Pens vs Canes: 11-19-2010