Update (30. Mar 10, 9:11PM): Can’t believe I haven’t said this yet, but I can’t believe we raised $7500 for H2H ($2000 or so to bring Herm here, the rest for the Hospital). Wow. Awesome effort, everyone. - Matt
That went by too fast. Months of lead up, then it was time. And then it was over. But what a great weekend.
We didn’t get down to Hockeytown Cafe until a little after 4:00 on Friday because we made a stop at Hockeytown Authentics before checking in to the hotel. At Authentics, we happened to see Osrt, Sullyosis and Herm but we didn’t know it at the time.
The part at the Cafe was a blast. It was cool to finally meet people we’ve been reading online for years and fun to be with so many Wings fans in one place. I didn’t meet as many people as I wanted to because the party flew by, but did have fun talking to VooX, Malik and captnorris5 and meeting such Wings-o-sphere luminaries as Paul Kukla, Tyler, Brent, Ellen, Hollis, Petrella, Discher, Mike Serven, Jen, jennbikegirl, Andrew from Ann Arbor, Kris, Baroque, Drew, Chris, Casey, Jessie and Okie Jeff at various points in the night. I also got to talk to Herm for a minute, which was awesome.
The game was easily the most fun I’ve ever had watching a game live. Between VooX starting practically every chant in the arena and the tin-foil hats handed out by Lola, the other fans at the Joe must have thought we were all crazy. I don’t think they’d ever encountered our breed of Red Wings fan before. Season ticket holders or not, I think we’re the most rabid set of fans out there. An honor to take in the game with you all.
And what a game. I was a little afraid the game would be a bad one, because that’s just how this season’s gone, but barring a weakish first period, it was a complete blast. And let it be known to those of you who couldn’t make it, the Wings started scoring soon after we all donned the tinfoil hats. As Kris said, “coincidence? I think not.”
In addition to a ton of “Let’s Go Red Wings” cheers and “Herm! Herm! Herm!” chants, we sang Happy Birthday to Jimmy. No one else joined in. And it may have led to that goal Jimmy allowed that most of us would like to black out of our memories.
It was great to see the Wings roll out the red carpet for Herm so much and to make such a big deal out of him being there. They put him on screen in front of the whole arena, which probably had most of the fans there wondering what the heck was going on, but they seemed to react favorably after it was explained. I hope you got to enjoy actually watching the game, though, Herm. Seemed like a camera was in your face every time I looked over.
After the game, some of us ended up in a crazy bus ride to Hockeytown Cafe, from where we immediately headed to a nearby bar. Megan, Sarah and I unfortunately didn’t hang out there long thanks to the fact that food was no longer served soon after we got there and we were all hungry. But it sounds like those who did stay had a lot of fun.
On Saturday, the three of us went out to Novi to hang out at the mall (awesome sports memorabilia store in there by Sears, by the way), and then we headed to Ikea. After grabbing a bite to eat, we headed to Kukla’s house to watch the game there with a bunch of people. We ended up in his basement near the throne from which he blogs. It was a blast watching the game in HD on his massive TV. (Thanks, Paul!) Watching the 11-round shootout with everyone was awesome, if stressful.
We got in at 2:00 after getting the dogs from Sarah’s, so it was a long couple days. Awesome experience. I can’t wait for H2H2.
If you couldn’t make it but want to see some stuff that went on, check out the H2H blog and the thread over at A2Y.