so yesterday the ex and i brought her roommate to Montreal under the guise of an impromptu clothes shopping spree. little did she know that we had planned this little outing well over almost two months ago. back in November, the ex and i ended up catching a Habs game (and we LOVED it). a couple after we came back i heard her roommate was jealous upon hearing the news because she was a huge fan. that was news to me. i think it was a couple of weeks later that an idea popped in my head and i asked the ex when her roommate's birthday was. december. i dunno why, and i'd never heard of her birth date, but that felt right. so i told the ex we should surprise her roommate by taking to a game. of course all the games were sold out (except for a few towards the end of the season) so we would rely on scalpers. but we'd done it for the first one we were pros and could handle it. after much deliberation, we settled on January 3, 2006, and Sidney Crosby's first game in Montreal (read up to see how much of an Habs fan he was/is!). it was perfect. the atmosphere would be incredible. although the Pens (and Habs, at this point), despite their raw talent, kinda sucked, it was THE hot ticket game when the schedule rolled out last September. much planning and lying were done to keep it from the roommate and managed to finally get to Montreal with the plan intact. we met up with more than a few friends (although i would strongly advise against shopping by groups of 10; not the best way to do it) and shop for the entire afternoon. when time came to look for tickets, we walked towards the Bell Centre. thankfully the roommate had never been so she had no idea where we were going. but as soon as we turned that last corner and revealed the Bell Centre, she was overjoyed. we got tickets in a matter of seconds. although we got seats higher than we wanted, the ones we were looking for were over our limit. we actually got better seats than last time but paid the exact same amount. and we were centre-ice. i was happy. so it was that easy. we also had extra money (the tickets only cost half of what were prepared to pay) so we could buy up some food once inside. it was a fun evening (although the Habs could have not sucked) and i believe the roommate enjoyed her birthday present :)
NHL
Pittsburgh 6 Montreal 4
Game #38 of 82, 18-14-6
the Habs' first line of Zednik, Koivu, and Kovalev were back. and Sidney Crosby was there (right before i left for Montreal, my mother called me up with the news that my cousin was gonna have dinner with Sidney that evening :) he's been in hockey forever (his father coached Lemieux back in the day and has kept contact) and he and Crosby are at least good acquaintances. but there was no way i could get in touch with him before the game). Lemieux was out. had he been in the lineup, it would have been a perfect evening. the game actually started out with a solid performance from the Habs. but a couple of quick Pens goals, and a third incredibly weak one to Crosby, and it all went downhill from there. Habs fans have become accustomed to this kind of suckiness for the past month or so. the first period wasn't even over and they were trailing 3-0. at least they scored their first goal before the first intermission, keeping the hope alive. but the fans, who'd come, hoping that this was gonna be the game the team would turn it all around, quickly realized this was gonna be another no-show game. Theo got booed after a few weak goals and the crowd started clamoring for Huet to come in. but the Habs rallied back to make it a 4-4 game. but then they sucked again in the third. Kovalev amazed us with some deft moves, and we did have some cool plays to cheer for. but overall, it was the sorry performance we've sadly become used to. one can only hope the fresh energy of the first 3 months of the season makes it back soon enough. it's hard being a Habs fan when it's like this.
although it wasn't spectacular, i don't regret going to the game. i wasn't going there expecting a win. just cheering for our team and favorite players was rewarding enough. we were just going to give the roommate a cool birthday gift. and it was obvious she loved the experience (i don't remember if it was before or during the game but she did say we could do this more often :P).
Posted by Anonymous | 10:20 AM
