Scotiabank Place: The Pilgrimage
6 Comments Published by Sherry on Tuesday, December 26, 2006 at 8:58 PM.
So I had promised to talk about my trip to Scotiabank Place for the Ottawa vs. Tampa game but laziness got the better of me and I procrastinated. Now that I have some time off, I feel that it is my duty to fill you in. Because I'm betting so many of you actually care.
I figured my first official visit to the Motherland was going to be very planned: you know, with the tickets already purchased and the hotel and the train ride all worked out months before hand so that that time in between included me not being able to sleep and seeing my marks on a steady decline. You know how it is. However, my housemates and I had planned a trip to Ottawa for awhile and since we were on a student budget, wanted to limit our spending.
We stayed at one of my housemate's brother's apartment who had gone home for the holidays. The night before the game I got an e-mail about a Student Rush Offer where students could purchase tickets for only $16. We weren't sure if we wanted to go at first since two of my housemates were Leafs fans and they didn't want to feel like they were betraying the Blue and White faithful.
The morning of, I purchased the tickets over the phone and then we spent the day at the War Museum [pictures here]. My housemate G was singin "I'm so excited!" all day long. She had never been to a pro hockey game before and was very much looking forward to seeing Jason Spezza. I just heard that morning that Wade Redden was back in the line-up so clearly it was meant to be. We drove out to Kanata to pick up the tickets and then went to a nearby Swiss Chalet for dinner. Kanata reminds me of Mississauga, consisting of suburbs and strip malls. Really, Scotiabank Place is literally in the middle of nowhere. It makes for a rather inconvenient drive there since the only way to get there is on the 417 and it's usually jammed in the afternoon before game time.
The building is really quite beautiful though. The stadium had state of the art technology and what not and I highly approve of the musical selections. The pre-game show consisted of some fun clips from their website and a nice musical montage of highlights from the players. The throw image to the highlights consisted of a soft-filtered, slow-mo shot of the guys in suits, like the one for the "A-Train" video. It was very GQ and cheesy at the same time and I couldn't help but laugh sometimes. Male models, some of these guys are not.
We were sitting in front of some people who weren't as enthusiastic as us. They looked at us funny whenever we cheered. The guys next to us were clearly frat boys of some sort as they were drunk when they came in and kept on downing the beer. They were flirting with the group of girls behind us who kept on trying to get on camera and saying not too kind things about the kids that did. Come on, they're kids, they should need more attention than you.
Asides from the ending, the game itself wasn't bad. The Sens got off to a great start and created scoring chances early on but then Tampa kind of took it from there. Martin St. Louis seems alot tinier in person. I did see the collision between him and Spezza, but it really didn't seem as bad at first. G was really worried that she brought bad luck now that he's out for a month. Intermission consisted of a goalie race where the goalies just ended up crashing into one another and people dressed in puck outfits racing around as well. You can tell that they were promoting more of a family-friendly atmosphere. Everything was extremely G-rated to almost the point of cheesiness. Then again I'm 20 [almost] and maybe not in their key demographic. Spartacat also made an appearance dressed up as Santa. I was really tempted to run down and get a photo with him but it was sort of inconvenient. When he appeared in our section he had a cowbell. That's what the Senators needed that night, MORE COWBELL. A lady ran up to him and gave him a big hug and Sparty made a gesture to show that she had obviously been drinking. I thought Sparty liked hugs!
Most people started leaving after Tampa took the lead but we stayed until the bitter end. When they were calling the three stars St. Louis was the only one who skated out even though nobody was there. He even gave his stick to a kid in the stands. Even though I'm sort of upset with him, that's still very classy. I'm one of those people that think the 3 stars should always skate out on to the rink. The parking lots were absolutely jammed with people trying to clear out so we just walked outside the building for a bit. Somebody had told me where out back the players parked and we debated whether or not we should actually go and try to see them, or if that would be way too stalker-ish. We ended up going and we saw two other guys waiting there. We saw the Tampa players getting on the bus and my friend suggested we throw eggs at them, but I opted to just waving at them when they drove out. As I was doing so, I tripped on a hole that was in the lawn. Smoooooth.
We didn't really see any of the Sens players but while we were waiting we were commenting on their cars. Most of them were surprisingly unspectacular. We saw an unnecessarily large white hummer with ALOT of lights on and around it, which I'm told belongs to Ray Emery. This doesn't shock me, he does seem like the type to drive a white hummer.
After awhile it was getting really cold and we were feeling EXTREMELY stalker-ish so we opted to leave. Drunkards and the loss aside, I have to say it was a great visit. Looks like I'll have to give my boys sterner talking to about winning the next time I'm around. I'm turning the big 2-0 on the 30th and I'll be taking in the next installment of the Battle of Ontario, from some prime real estate, thanks to a friend who got them for me. He was very sketchy about just what avenues he went through to get them, but I figure the less I know the better. If you have any suggestions on good places to grab a drink afterwards, give me a shout. I've lived near Toronto all my life but since my affectionate nickname for it is "stinking pile of crap", I haven't exactly made an effort to get to know it.
Hockey Photos by Yours Truly:
Ottawa vs. Tampa - Scotiabank Place
Preseason: Pittsburgh vs. Buffalo - Copps Coliseum
How was the service at the Swiss Chalet there? My brother works there. Please tell me it sucked. :P
HAHA!
You know what, I can honestly saw I had no problems with the service there. Everybody was very friendly and prompt although I did not appreciate getting seated so close to the kitchen.
Very cool photos. That would be kind of a long road trip for me to make.
The only way I see it is, insurance for any hockey player is high. So they try to buy big cars to protect their pretty faces.
You waved to the TB players? You should've blown a kiss to Lecavalier for HG. Highly inappropriate but you gotta take one for the team.
Hey, Mama. Your boys play my boys tonight. Shall we start the trash talk now or later?
I'll give you free range, but I'll lay off Daniel Alfredsson if you lay off Jason Blake. Yashin's all yours.
PJ - Thanks! And I would expect it to be, haha. From where I am, Ottawa's around a 6 hour drive. Can't say I've ever tried driving down to San Jose though.
Jordi - I actually didn't see Vinny that night. Actually I didn't have any idea who I was waving to since it was dark and I didn't have my glasses. I could have been waving to the equipment people for all I knew. Which was cool too.
Margee - Dang! I should have checked my e-mail earlier. I'm no good with the smack talk anyways. Um...how about...Yashin's lazy?