Just got back to the hotel after seeing the Avs beat the Bruins 2-0. We got a ton of pictures and some video - I'll try to have some up tomorrow or Thursday.
A few quick notes on the game:
- Way more Av/Nordique jerseys in the crowd than I expected.
- Tim Thomas was very good in the game. The local media gave the 1st star to Timmy, and, honestly, I'm not sure this was just a "homer" move. Peter Budaj was stellar, too, of course, but Thomas kept the Bruins in the game.
- The Avs starting lineup included Ken Klee and Kurt Sauer - not a normal pairing. As soon as the puck was dropped, Klee came off and Sauer's normal partner came on. I'm not really sure why the Avs did this.
- Ossi Vaananen looked, um, adventerous with the puck, especially in the first 5 minutes or so.
- Wideman from the Bruins has a bit of a nasty streak in him - surprising to me, because I thought he had a rep more as an offensive type. There wasn't a ton of scraps in the game, but anytime the teams came together, Wideman seemed to be involved. Late in the game, Wideman took a swipe at Paul Stastny in front of the Avs bench, causing Scott Parker and Mark Rycroft to send a few verbal "how do you dos" to Wideman and the Boston bench.
- Speaking of Stastny, I was hoping he'd be able to extend his streak (I believe he's now tied with his dad for 2nd longest rookie point streak in NHL history). The first goal originally went to McLean from Clark and Hejduk...but later they gave the goal to Clark and gave Stastny the 2nd assist. One more to tie Selanne, right?
- I've gone on and on about how today is my birthday - a perfect day to take in my first Avs game. My wife and I bought our tickets in September, so there's been a 6 month buildup for tonight's game. Imagine how freaked out we were at 6pm when we were turned away at the gate for having invalid tickets. 6 months of waiting, hundreds of dollars spent on a trip...all to get turned away. It all turned out ok in the end. We had inadvertendly ordered 2 sets of tickets, cancelled 1 order and then somehow printed the wrong ones. The Garden ticket office was great getting it fixed for us.
- I have a few pet peeves about seeing hockey games in person: people who don't respect the anthem (that goes for players too, Marc Savard), losers who dance like an idiot to get on the jumbotron, and the wave (thankfully, no wave tonight). But, by far, the biggest is people who knowingly sit in wrong seats and then, when the real ticketholders arrive, play dumb, making people pull out their tickets to prove they are supposed to be there. It didn't happen to us tonight, but it did to the people sitting in front of us.
- Unless the NHL fixes their crappy shedule, the next time I'll get a chance to see the Avs in Boston, Joe Sakic will be 43 and Paul Stastny will be 27. Guh. I don't even want to talk about how old I will be.