My blog n'at

Last Thursday night was emotional. The Mellon Arena is the only place I have ever watched a professional hockey game and last night I saw my last regular season game there before we move over to the Consol Energy Center in the fall. I admit, I held back tears seeing some of the former greats come back for one last time on the ice, even for Craig Patrick. I’ve hung out with Eddie Johnson a few times (we had lunch once which stories were told that are more than epic) so seeing the light on him was moving and Gary Roberts was an absolute plus but seeing Super Mario was euphoric. He’s made appearances before but last night, at that moment, you knew that all 17,132 of us were in the presence of greatness.

I went to the game with my nephew/godson Ben and we made sure to get there early, granted we’re both going to playoff games but this night was special and nothing was going to stop us from enjoying every moment of the night.

Hats off to the team for the videos they played as often as possible. Classic commercials that 90% of the fans probably don’t remember from the mid-late 80′s, cheesy KDKA “LETS GO PENS” spots and montages of players form the 90′s/00′s, like the man I came to see… Martin Straka.

That was the only downside to the night for me was the production. I know some players first of all couldn’t be there but I really would have loved it if Straka, Jagr, Moran and a few others were there. The opening ceremony was just the into of the 50 former Pens, which don’t get me wrong was fantastic, but if you’ve been to any Penguins event in the last couple years you know they go balls to the wall and this was *meh*.

Bob gave me the best reasoning of anyone online who didn’t get their panties in a wad over my thoughts. The banner raising will go down as the coolest thing I have ever seen at the arena. I just figured that this should have deserved the same amount of attention especially when you have a full year to plan for it.  It was announced that there would be a special ceremony at the end of the game along with the “Oh my god this is so fucking long” Shirts off our Backs tradition.

Quick thing about that if I may. 1) I REALLY appreciate that the Pens do this. I think its a badass that they take the time to give back in this unique way 2) All of you who threw the jersey you were wearing over the glass for players to sign, you’re not getting those back. You’re all fools. There’s a time and place to get autographs. When you see 20 jerseys being thrown at Crosby did you honestly think he would hand deliver it back? 3) its waaaaayyyyy tooooo looonnnggggg

The only reason why I endured the pain of watching the Shirts gig is so I could see what they had for a grand finale and all I got was a 7 minute video recap of the arena and a somewhat decent light show. Again something felt like it was missing. The WOW factor and after reading what Bob said above I have to agree. I’ve been spoiled by what they’ve already done for me.

I’ll never forget this night and the time to hang out with my nephew. Someday I’ll talk about it to my son and how powerful the night was. The Pens have put most of the videos on their website so you can get caught up there.

Thank you Mellon Arena for a great ride. I’ll be by a couple more times for the playoffs but that night you shined.

Oh yeah, Jimmy Mann wasn’t there either. I think he heard I was looking for him

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