Maybe I'm at fault?

For Christmas, I bought tickets for my wife and I to head up north for a road trip.  At the time I had no idea the Caps would be on such a roll.  The games and random lack of effort have been covered; so here are my thoughts on the rinks.

Montreal: Great crowd, great arena.  We were in the upper bowl, row A....which is about 6 rows up so they can squeze in AA, BB, ....nice.  I kinda had a feeling as the tics were 'only' $110 each including stubhub fees.  Good sitelines, but they have metal bars in front of each row which just encourages the leaners.

Crowd was loud.  Behind the goals they had cheerleaders for each section.  Not bad on the eyes.  I imagine the tambourines could get old, but the strechy pants?, never.

Both rinks play a train coming down the tracks on the video screen when they score a goal.  This gets old when they score a ton of goals, esp when they are seconds apart.   Montreal's video screen is as nice as Verizons w/ the one in Ottowa a bit dated and small.

Stayed in the Novotel Hotel in Montreal.  We got real lucky as I bid for a place in downtown Montreal on Hotwire and it turned out to be a 2 minute walk from the rink.  Good pub directly across the street.  We went directly after the game and they had Guiness and Smithwick's so that eased the pain.  I was wearing my old road Chris Cark and my wife had a home Ovechkin.  All the patrons coming in gave us a smile and most stopped by to chat.

I've been to Scotia Bank in Kanata many times and like the rink.  We went down prior to the game for warmups.  There were quite a few folks waiting for the Caps to come out and we saw a lot of Caps gear throughout both rinks.  It was funny to see that they were just as stoked as I was. 

We sat in pretty much the same spot in the upper bowl as in Montreal.  In Kanata you're closer to the ice as the lower bowl is smaller.  The crowd was much quitter then in Montreal (both games were sold out, 99% occupancy).  They always seem to be waiting permission to cheer wtih few spontaneous cheers.  They boo Ovie one second and then murmur with and awe after one of his rushes up ice or a hit.  Some are obvious with their crushes on him but most try and hide it.

 On previous visits I've gotten Let's go Caps cheers going among me and the kids.  The other fans just chuckle.  I've never gotten any harassment from other fans.  It probably helps that my wife usually has her knitting with her.

The fans at both rinks were very nice.  When they heard that we had come over from the states they always wanted to know if we were having a good time.  We're just 40 minutes south of Ontario and they come down for hockey tournaments and shopping.  It was funny because I would tell them I was from Watertown and my wife kept on saying I was from Falls Church (where I grew up).  

Gordie Howe was at the game and received a huge ovation.  Their was a long line in the concourse during intermission as he was giving autographs in a suite.

Location of rinks?  Montreal=Verizon.  Kanata=Landover.  As a kid I hated that the subway stopped at Addison road and no buses ran from Cap Center to the station after games.  If I jogged I could make it to the station before the last train.  Once I didn't make it...my mom wasn't happy about getting woken by a phone call from her 15 yr old son needing a ride.  Now I hate paying to park and it taking 25 minutes to leave the parking area.

So, not a good trip record-wise but a lot of fun.