Game 2 Blog: Skipping class with a cause

Okay, I'll admit it. I cut class on Monday to go to game 2. The same class that I write this blog for. Sue me. It's not my fault that President Loh encourages classes to allow for two unexcused absences before you are penalized for not showing up to class. It's not my fault I typically go to class and had an absence or two to spare without penalty. It's not my fault Chip's ticket hook up is absurd and it's not my fault that I'm his son, and thus often the benefactor of such ticket hook-ups. And it's not my fault that New York is an affordable, within driving distance destination.

With all that in mind, I received a text around midnight on Saturday, or if you want to get real technical, Sunday morning, from my dad saying that if I wanted to go to Game 2, to inform him by the morning and I would have the opportunity. Dumb question, Chip. No brainer. After recruiting a couple of friends from home and one in New York, we were off and running by 6 pm Sunday, en route to our buddy Alex's place in Brooklyn. We rolled in around 11 pm, had a couple of beers, enjoyed some laughs, and got some shut eye in anticipation of a long Monday.

After oversleeping all of our alarms, the three of us woke up, without Alex, and got moving toward downtown Manhattan. I spent this past summer working in mid-town, but had never made it down to the 9/11 site while I was there. However, when we turned corner onto West Street, we were met with quite a view of the newly developed, and still in progress, 'Freedom' tower.

Ironically enough, earlier that morning on the site, the tower had been declared the new tallest standing structure in the United States. After parking the car in a horribly overpriced lot, say, $67 for the day after tax (who knew they quietly charge you an extra $10 for an SUV and then 20% tax without telling you?), we moved onto a quick trip to the NHL store, and a delicious lunch at the pizza joint I spent a couple of days a week at during my lunch hour all summer, Pronto Pizza, on 48th Street between 5th and 6th.

The 'Original Six' Orange County Chopper that my dad would kill to get his hands on - Runs for a cool $100K

Slices of heaven

After downing a pound or so of pizza, going into a food coma, and eventually coming out of it, we hit Soho to do a lot of walking and try our luck at shopping. Despite my best efforts, I completely struck out. However, I was rudely greeted by dozens of locals who didn't take a liking to my Washington Capitals t-shirt. New Yorkers are such friendly people...

We had spent the day looking forward to checking out the 9/11 memorial, but were met with some sad news when we got there. Evidentially, you need tickets to get down inside the site. Who knew? We sure didn't. However, it wasn't all a loss. We got to take a walk around a few blocks and see the Freedom tower from all sides. We also went into the 9/11 memorial shop, where we got to see a magnificent chopper, built by Paul Jr. Designs, a split-off company of the famous Orange County Choppers.

I'm far from a bike buff, but that thing was pretty damn cool. Despite our disappointments in not being able to see the memorial, it was time for the main event. We rallied and took the Subway back to mid-town, grabbed our jerseys and invaded Madison Square Garden.

We were fortunate enough to get to the game very early, and being that the Caps were not the main attraction for most people in the arena, we able to sneak down all the way to the Caps player's tunnel for warm ups. Here's a pretty cool video of the boys in white taking the ice for the pre-game skate:

While I chatted the lady sitting next to us during the warm up, I remember turning to my friends and saying something along the lines of "Holtby's on tonight, boys. We're going back to DC 1-1 tonight." Might seem a little cheesy, but it did happen, and I really felt that confident about the game.

When it got going, the building was rocking. Everyone around us, mainly several drunken fans who were probably in their late 20's, had more than a few words for me and my friends about our choices in attire. However, the arena was seemingly a lot quieter when Mike Knuble put the Caps up 1-0 mid-way through the first period, and even more so after rare gaffe by Rangers' goaltender Henrik Lundqvist allowed Jason Chimera to give the Caps a 2-0 lead. The period ended with a late goal by New York, along with a terrible tripping penalty by Mike Green, shifting the momentum back to the Rangers, and of course, their fans, going into intermission.

We were heckled with the standard road fan taunts: "You guys are f*****g a******s! I hear Caps fans have to sit when they piss because they're all p*****s!" Etc, etc, etc. Following a boring, scoreless second, things only got worse when the Rangers tied the game at 2 midway through the third period. The building was loud, the cussing was aggressive, and we were all very, very quiet. After Lundqvist made several great saves on a Caps' power play just under half way through the period, the Caps got a second consecutive power play opportunity.

For the 45 seconds or so it took for the game to get back underway, the guys behind us to our left kept screaming down to me, "Hey, a*****e! Who's number 21? WHO'S NUMBER 21?," in reference to my #21, Brooks Laich jersey. They kept going right up until the Caps won a face-off back to Alex Ovechkin, who promptly took a couple of steps before sniping a shot top-right to take the lead. I enjoyed standing up and turning around and screaming back "WHO'S NUMBER 8!?!?!?!?!?! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" in their faces, and exchanging a round of high fives with my buddies. Needless to say, that was the last we were taunted during the game until the final buzzer sounded off a 3-2 Washington victory.

Of course, we were still met with a lot of rude words as we watched the Ranger faithful file out of their building with a loss, but we were all smiles and silence as we were still being verbally assaulted, knowing it had all been worth it to make the drive. Before we said our goodbyes to Alex, and got a reluctant usher to snap a picture for us to take home, along with our victory.

Home ice advantage now lies with the boys in red. Let's Go Caps.