Hockey Night in St Louis

BryGuy treated me to a hockey game last night. The seats were rock-star quality and the game was really fun. Seeing live hockey takes me _way_ back to watching games as a youth in a good old rink. No NHL stories from those days: I didn't see my first NHL game until I was 26, and it was in St Louis. In fact, I've only seen NHL games in St Louis (that's weird).

The Blues played the Chicago Blackhawks, an arch-rival and classic Old Six team from the original NHL. Plenty of goals and big hits. It was a terrific game.

I think the best part was the smell: the cool air coming off the ice. Arenas can try and dress up a venue so that it is like a movie theater, ball park, concert hall, etc, but they can never truly hide the fact that one is in a freakin' cold rink. Just the way God intended.

I could write a lot more on this but I have to go to work. A really fun evening... Man, I need to get out to see them more often.

Final score: Blues 5 Blackhawks 1

BryGuy cheerily smiled through all of my old hockey trivia... Here's a couple of tidbits:

• Chicago currently has the longest "streak since a Stanley Cup". 1960-61. St Louis has been to the finals but has never won.
• I need to confirm this, but I'm pretty sure that Wayne Gretzky was once awarded all of the game's 3 stars. They had him skate out three times.