Tampa Review & Fast Forward

First off, I need to apologize for having a lack of posts... like anyone actually reads this thing anyways....


Tampa Away Game: The Review

Pre-Game

We arrived into Tampa and didn't even have time to check in to our hotel... along the way, a guy with one of those RVs that you attach to your truck, he had been in the wrong lane to get on to 75 and aparently swerved at the last moment trying to get back into the correct late, and the entire thing rolled over... creating a good 30-45min backup of traffic... it was a pretty horrific looking accident... cars had to drive on the dirt to get around it... Anyway, once we arrived, as I said, we didn't have enough time to even check in to our hotel... we all met up at Sally's hotel at 3, hopped in her RV and drove over to St. Pete Times Forum. She was kind enough to drive us all there, allowing us to avoid paying for parking. Sally knows a spot that she can park for only $5, so it was a steal. We had plenty of time before the game, so we all hung out at Dave Andreychuk's Grille, right in front of the arena. I was a bit jealous of how it's setup in Tampa... sure we have CNN Center, but they have Channelside right next door... restaurants, bars, awesome hangout place before the game... sorry but it puts CNN Center to shame, as much as I love CNN Center. There's also several sports bars right across from the arena, including Dave Andreychuk's Grille. The food is nothing spectacular, but it's a sports pub, so it's to be expected. Toward the end of our meal, we noticed a nice Mercedes Benz rolling into the lot... and low and behold, Dave Andreychuk himself got out! Fans ran up to him asking for autographs and to take pictures... I didn't get a chance to get an autograph, but we all took a group photo with him and he was a really nice guy and shook all of our hands. A bit later we walked across the street into the arena.

Inside the Arena

Tampa opens their arena an hour and a half before game time as opposed to an hour in Atlanta. I'm not sure if that is a weekend thing or their standard opening time, but in all honesty, it's a bit pointless. After visiting the store and buying official game puck, we went down to where the Thrashers came out for warmups. We sat there a good hour or so before anything really happened. But it was all good, after hours and hours of driving, we got to sit... even more. But it's ok because I couldn't stop looking at the...

Tampa Scoreboard Screen.

Holly shit that thing is absolutely gorgeous! It's like one giant wrap around screen. The quality of the graphics and video is amazing. Even more amazing, later on, when they showed fans on the screen... it was HD like if not HD. I'm a tech geek and the thing was just so beautiful. Now the funny thing to me is that hey, we have our games in PHILIPS Arena. You'd like to think if there was a place for Philips to showcase their latest and greatest in technology, that Philips Arena would be the place. Our scoreboard screen has been the same since the joint opened. Nothing wrong with it; it's a good setup, but after seeing the system in Tampa, it makes the screens inside Philips look like something outta the 1980's. According to one of the guys working the game near where the Thrashers came out, they are going to try to market the screens to other arenas. I don't think Atlanta would get it because it's not a Philips product... but man, it's awesome. I've heard the one in Philly is pretty sick too, but I've never been.

Warm Ups.

The Thrashers finally came out for warm ups... there was a decent sized group of fans banging on the glass and cheering them on... and this one lady comes over with her husband, has a Kovalchuk t-shirt on but it's tied up above her belly. She had on some hooker-looking white pants and totally had some cameltoe action going on. She apparently was from Colorado and I think she mentioned Denver (losing 4 games in the World Series and a MNF game on the first play of overtime... man I feel sorry for Denver fans!)... anyway she was nice and all but totally looked like she had no clue how to dress up for a hockey game. I mean I'm glad we have fans from other places than Atlanta, but man, it was just funny the way she was looking at the game. Anyway, enough about cameltoe lady.

Got some good pics during warm ups and then we headed up to our seats.

Tampa Fans.

Tampa fans have a horrible stereotype of being assholes. Yeah, I said it... assholes. Now, of course not every Tampa fan is an asshole. In fact, we met a few really nice Tampa fans. But for the most part, yeah, they are assholes. I'll give you a few example.

Example 1: The Father & Son Boyscout

There was a dad (or a very older brother but I believe it was his dad) dressed up in Boy Scout clothes, patches and all. The kid must of been between the ages of 4 and 7. They were sitting in the row in front of us. The little kid and his father would turn around talking trash. The little kid would turn around and say "You Suck!" on a consistent basis during the game. Well, I don't know about you, but I'd like to think that if you have your son in the Boy Scouts that they'd teach him not to act like that in public, even at a hockey game. And at that young age, if I had turned around to tell people "You suck!" at that age, my mom and dad would have put me in serious time out and taken away a bunch of my stuff for talking to people that way. It's the fact that he was apparently a Boy Scout... and yet still said all of that stuff... at that age. Way to raise your little kids, bro. That's being a really good father. Letting your little kids say "You suck!". Maybe if they were older kids it would be fine. But at that age... no. Horrible, horrible parent.

The Mullet Guy

There was a guy in the seats in front of us, but a bit to the right, that had a full on old-school mullet. If you thought the Thrashers mullet wigs were bad, this guy had a real 100% mullet. I even grabbed a picture of it. It was hilarious.

The Losers

There were some empty seats behind us. Late in the third period, there were two guys who came up there to sit behind us. Tampa "fans" of course. Well, no... they don't even deserve to be called "fans". I am not going to exaggerate or fluff what I'm about to tell you. Both of these guys looked like they could have been Osama Bin Laden's cousin or brother. They looked like they hadn't shaved in months... possibly years. The literally looked like they were homeless or lived in a shack. They decided to come up there to egg us on. Their comments were on the level of MAYBE (and this is giving them a huge benefit of the doubt) about a 3rd or 4th grade level. They weren't even intelligent comments or disses. I don't remember much of what they said because I just blocked it out. Yet they came ALL the way up there to where we were sitting... simply to taunt us. The only reason I can see that they had to do this was to help them feel better about them selves. It wasn't good enough for them that Tampa killed Atlanta 6-2. They had to truck all the way from where they were to come up to the seats behind us... and start talking trash. It wasn't even good trash. It was immature, really, really unintelligent comments. We all ignored then but they did manage to get on my girlfriend's last nerve and she got into it wit them. I didn't want to start a fight, I didn't want to get arrested and thrown out, I sure as hell didn't want to get in trouble and that's exactly what would've happened had it gone any further... but she was really angry and I had to turn her away from the guys for her own good... later on she realized that I was right to turn her away, but at the moment they made her really angry, but I understand why she was so angry. These two assholes lowered every other Tampa fan to ever exist to the ground. No longer will I ever hold any Tampa fan with any respect or kindness. I'm sure some of them are still nice, down to earth people that can have a good discussion about a hockey game. These two super losers had nothing better to do than find their way up to our section and talk shit. It wasn't even shit. It was so bad we were laughing at them... not in their faces but toward each other and for the most part we ignored them. After the game, they had the never to follow us out of the arena and continue to talk shit.

I hope that the next game in Tampa the Thrashers come out and win the game. We've been playing much better since the game we were at and I hope they come into Tampa and shut their fans up. I really do. Not only were these two losers some of the worst human beings I've ever come across in my life, there were plenty of other Tampa "fans" that had to taunt us and talk shit all night. I know it's hockey and I know fans are insane and talk shit to each other. That's fine. But there's a point at which it crosses a line and is beyond. Even Buffalo fans I've talked to in Atlanta haven't been this obnoxious.

Tampa fans get an F. A big, fat failing grade. They suck. And I'm a nice guy. I give people the benefit out the doubt. Yes, like I said, there were some nice Tampa fans. But the few ruined it for the entire crowd.

The Arena

It's pretty much a giant blur now, but the inside of the arena reminded me a lot of when we went to the game against the Panthers. The arena bowl is dark and cavernous. Even the ice is very dimly lit until right before the players come out onto the ice. But even after the come out, the lighting everywhere else besides the ice was really dark. In our game seats, you could really tell that the ice was lit up well but the rest of the arena was really dark. I didn't like it at all. You could also tell exactly why when games are broadcast from Tampa, they look horrible on TV. The lighting in the building sucks. The bottom section of the arena was nice, but the upstairs are was small. The hallways for fans to walk were really small and cramped... kind of reminded me of how it is at Yankee Stadium. It was hard to move around since everything was so cramped up there. It was ugly upstairs and nothing to speak of at all. I can't give you anything about the food because we didn't eat anything at the arena - we ate before the game. I mean, yeah, the arena is right on the bay, there are palm trees all around, it's short walk to Channelside and bars and pubs... and I mean it's Tampa... right near the beach... to see a hockey game and be on the beach... that's like a wet dream for me.


Post Game

We all tried to get into a bar after the game, but it was so full jam packed of Red Sox fans that there was just no where to sit... so a few min later, we ended up at the hotel where the Thrashers were staying... we didn't see any of them, but Craig Custance did stop by our table. We drank our sorrows for quite a while.

Fast forward to today.

We've won two in a row... and that is a big accomplishment for us. Sure, it's a SO win, but a win is a win. Little got his first ever SO goal, Kovy played like a freak, and the Thrashers played really well against Montreal. We didn't get to see most of the game, as we were supposed to end up at the Smashing Pumkins show at the Fox... which was canceled... the drummer ended up in the hospital... from what I've heard on a drug OD. Sad. Hopefully they'd reschedule it soon. I was about half way to downtown on 85 when I got the message from the Ticketcrapster robot lady. So instead of going to the show @ the Fox, we went to the nearest Taco Mac by my girlfriends house, and of couse, no Center Ice. DOH! So we went back and watched a movie. But of course I found out this morning that the game was being broadcast for free on Comcast... I guess it's a free Center Ice preview or something... if we had only known... but no matter we heard the end of the third, OT and the SO on the radio and we won... so that is all that really matters. Two in a row baby! Hopefully we can keep it going against the Senators...and then back in Tampa. I really really hope we can win against Tampa. They are now officially on my shit list of teams... Yankees, Georgia Tech, and now Tampa Bay.

Anyway, I have a meeting at work in a bit and I've been really bad, making it look as if I am working, yet instead I'm writing in my blog. I better go. But I'll try my best for more updates.