FanFirst Friday: Personal Edition (Continued) (2023)

When my daughters were accepted to various colleges in the New York area, I took action and convinced them to move back to the East Coast and stay in New York for a few more years.New Jersey DevilsCompetition 2022-2023. I mean, it's been a long time since teams have had a season like this, so I thought I'd make the most of it.

We were here in November to watch the Devils clinch their 13th consecutive victoryEdmonton-SmellAnd then I checked it out in person, probably the craziest game I've ever seen. Toronto game. Ah, the infamous Toronto game. I won't go into that, but suffice it to say it's the loudest stadium I've ever heard the last six minutes of a game in my life.

So me, my son and my daughter went to see the totally devastated New Jersey DevilsPittsburgh-PenguineTuesday night. The devil seems to be fast, often doing weird human attacks, repeatedly attacking the center of the ice and basically running the penguins off the building. It looks as dominant as possible. The hockey stat card reflects this:

hockey statistics map

It's funny because earlier that day, in our hotel room, I was telling my family that I had never seen a hat trick live. I'm 51 now and I've been playing hockey since I was 8 years old. From Boston (Old Boston Garden) to San Jose, NJ, Anaheim to Hartford (RIP Whalers), I've played hockey everywhere in my years as a hockey player, Colorado and I've never seen a hat trick. I've seen many two-goal games, but that elusive third game didn't happen. Newfy beauty Dawson Mercer decided to respond to my first live hat trick with myself. This is my daughter's first rock game, she's a natural devils fan (her name is the devils nepo baby) but the cool thing is she's been talking about being a dawson mercer for months now to get a traditional shirt. But they didn't sell them at Devils Den, so she decided to buy one from Cool Hockey and customize it with a Mercer and a 91.

The decision was made before the start of the game, and then the puck dropped and Mercer shot over the fence. It was as it should have been. fate or something.

We went early so my kids could be by the glass and warm up. They don't have any signs or anything but my son wanted to show Ryan Graves he's a huge fan so he turned around and we had Gravy look at him and he smiled as he greeted my son with his name on the back and saw a smile. This is a ray of hope for him. Then we met John Fischer, the manager of AAtJ, who gave my daughter a Devils Pride night shirt, which was a really nice touch and made my daughter very happy. The Devils Pride Night Merch is beautiful and seeing it in person made me even more proud as a Devils fan.

Two other things about the game. I had the chance to meet Ryan Novozinsky at halftime. He worked at Vox when he was in college, so I befriended him online. It was great meeting him in person. Also, my daughter is a huge fan of his and laughs every time he tweets "PP Time". So she really wanted to meet the famous Novo. I really appreciate that he took the time to come down from the solemn press box to greet us. I credit him, Bill Spaulding (TV voice), Adam Hamway (Pennsylvania) for the massive turnover on the team in 2022-2023. I'm so superstitious.

Also, on one occasion, a puck thrown from inside the lane by Nico Sihir was deflected by a Pens quarterback and thrown into the crowd. It came to my right and I could have reached out to grab it, but it was incredibly fast and bounced up and down, so I pulled my hand back and it hit the chest of a kid behind us. He immediately started crying, so I did my best to get the attention of the paramedics and Rock's security team. His dad said he was fine and eventually he calmed down and seemed fine. He handles it better than I do, that's all I know. Regardless, it was a scary moment and it reminded me that live sport can be dangerous. Damn, I've played too many games in front of this net protecting the spectators sitting around the goal.

When Dawson Mercer scored a hat trick, my daughter's net made it difficult to get the hat on the ice. She missed and landed next to someone in front of them who politely threw her onto the ice. The $40 hat is dedicated to the hockey gods.

The last thing in this game is that I befriended a German family on the train from Manhattan to Newark. They hail from the Bavarian region of Germany and wanted to see the Swiss trio in action. Daddy's name is Oliver and he is a lifelong Devils fan. He said he saw the Devils play onceflyerAt Meadowlands they won 4–1. He said that Paul Coffey was playing for the Flyers at the time, and to be honest I completely forgot that Coffey wore a Flying P. Anyway, we see things a little narrowly here in North America, but he told me that in this part of the world interest in the Devils trio (and soon to be a quartet with Akira Schmid) has increased significantly. More NHL games will now be shown. For the average NHL fan, this was all good news, as people flew halfway around the world to see the team in Newark. It's a bit like the Devils broke through the Russian barrier when Slava Fetisov and Sergei Starikov joined the team. Yes, Swiss players don't have a handicap and don't make international headlines like the Russian sport, but I can only imagine how this will continue to inspire the growth of new players around the world, with younger players likely choosing ice hockey over ice hockey. more traditional football (European football vs. non-American football). It's a good thing for all NHL fans that more and better talent keeps coming.

I have another game against me tonight (Thursday as I write this).colombo blue coat.I will wrap up my entire live season in next week's post. Needless to say, it's been an interesting year in live hockey. Those lucky ones who live in nearby Jersey should watch as many games as possible because this team is a lot of fun and will be even more fun after Luke Hughes wraps up his college season (probably as early as tonight). In fact, I originally bought these tickets expecting to see Luke Hughes debut in the NHL, unfortunately his Michigan hockey team is just as good. But we got to see Mercer's first NHL hat trick live, which is a really, really nice consolation prize.

It's a magical season that lasts until June! Go to hell! ! !