Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Stars v Sharks Jan. 31 2007

Several months ago I bought tickets to this game against Dallas. I knew that games against Dallas were usually good and this one did not disappoint me. I also had never sat in the lower section before so when I found these 3rd row seats at a Dallas game I was extremely excited. When I got there they turn out to be better than I had hoped in one way but kinda sucked in another.
GOOD:
On the glass behind the players bench, no one in front of me (on an aisle), got food and drink delivered.
BAD:
far from bathroom, delivered beer sucked (cost the same for less volume of good beer), if I got good beer from above lots irregularly spaced steps to walk down, could only see half the ice (our defensive side for two periods, offensive one period).
Although the bad section looks worse than the good I had an awesome time and here are some of the pictures I took. Not very many action pictures came out because you have to choose to watch the game or take pictures, you can't really do both. Most were taken during stoppage in play.

Face off
I don't know if this was the first face-off, but I figured it would be a good picture to start out with.

action shot
Although the Stars are in front of us in the picture we controlled this play.

Bench
It was wierd being so close to the players.

Brown
There was a separate, little bench that one player would sit on by himself. What player sat there seemed to keep rotating. Here is it Curtis Brown's turn.

Brown watching Cheech
Because of the little bench there was a bit of a gap between the players where I could catch a glimpse of the play in the neutral zone.

GOAL!
Celebration after our first goal.

Bench after goal
High fives from the bench.

Cheech profile
Pretty much every girl I know is in love with Cheechoo so I tried to take as many picture of him as I could for them. This is my favorite.

Cheechoo!

Cheechoo front


Action on boards
The part of the boards in front of me did see a bit of action so when the play was on my side of the ice it was good.

Smith
Mark Smith everybody.

Hannan's Ghost
This is also a favorite of mine. I didn't realize there was a pass being made nor the reflection was there. I just wanted Hannan's back.

Hannan on edge
During the long breaks in play for commercial breaks everyone either skated around to keep loose or just chilled like Hannan here.

Toskala Waterbreak
After the 3rd period I finally got a chance to get some good close shots of Toskala.

Chatting with ref
Once the regulation part of the game was over I got to see the friendly side of the refs.

Toskala's Back
Toskala returning to goal for the shoot-out that we lost the game in.

Cheese

Despite a loss, Valerie and I had an excellent time at the game.