Home Team: Columbus Blue Jackets
Visiting Team: Chicago Blackhawks
Venue: Nationwide Arena (Section 205)
Game Time: 7:00 p.m.
Fellow Attendees: Brandi, Shawn (sort of)
Official Recap
When I think of my time as a sports fan, I mostly trace it back to when I was about nine years old and started getting into baseball; my fandom has expanded since then to include both football and basketball. In truth, though, it goes back further than that. When I was a kid, there was a semi-pro hockey team called the Troy Sabres (later to become the Miami Valley Sabres) that played in my hometown, and I went to most of the home games with my Uncle Clarence and Aunt Lou and my cousin Rachel. Man, I loved going to those games. Even now, all these years later, I can still name several players from those teams, and (renovations aside), I could walk into Hobart Arena right now and walk directly to the seats Rachel and I always used to sit in. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if there are still Sabres souvenirs (pucks, buttons, programs, etc.) floating around somewhere at my parents house.
Unfortunately, the Sabres dissolved after the 1988-89 season, and without a team to go see each weekend, my interest in hockey waned. I went to a few games over the years, for the ECHL Dayton Bombers (now defunct as well), the BGSU Falcons when I was in school there, and the Detroit Red Wings when I lived in the Toledo area, but none of them captured my attention the way the Sabres did when I was a kid (although I do wish now that I had gone to more BG games when I had the opportunity).
So that's where I've stood on hockey for a long time. Anytime I thought about it, I had a ton of residual affection from such great times as a kid, but no current connection. Then Brandi and I moved to Columbus a couple of months ago, which of course is where Ohio State was located. I have a well-known ambivalence toward the Buckeyes, so, looking for another sports-related way to embrace our new locale, I turned to the Blue Jackets. Brandi went with me to a Red Wings playoff game several years ago and had a blast, so it was easy to sell her on the idea. We caught a couple of their games on TV, and when we found out our buddy Shawn, a big Blackhawks fan, was coming into town for this game, we decided to grab some tickets and check it out as well.
And boy, did we have fun. The atmosphere was awesome. We were pretty high up but had a great view of the ice. The only thing that sucked, of course, was that the Blue Jackets lost. And actually, not just that they lost, but the way that they lost--just as it looked like we were in for some overtime action, the Blackhawks put the puck in the net with just 3.9 seconds left to win 4-3. It was rough, after such a great and exciting game, to watch them lose like that with almost no chance to come back and tie it up before the clock ran down.
Other than that, it was a blast. There was a ton of action in the game, and even a little bit of fighting (which is what Brandi likes best). The Jackets were up 2-1 at that point, and I was just about to text Shawn that his guy got beat up when the Blackhawks scored to tie it up. I couldn't exactly give crap about it at that point. Brandi and I even managed to make it to a local hotspot, the Three-Legged Mare, just ahead of the rush and in time to score a couple of seats at the bar. We had a couple of drinks there and a couple more at the piano bar next door before catching a cab home and calling it a night.
So now I've got a team in Columbus I can cheer for. Now that I've been to a home game, I finally feel like a Columbus resident.
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