hawks vs. thrashers

Overboard, the consummate hockey fan.

Evenkeel, as close as may ever get to being on NHL ice.

With my Thrashers making their bi-annual visit to Chicago to play the Blackhawks, Overboard and I splurged on some nice 200-level corner seats to take in the game. As it was right before Halloween (at least that's the best explanation I can think of...short of the Wirtz evil empire making a return), Darth Vader and some of his minions were also in attendance.


Has Wirtz Sr. come back to retake his team from beyond the grave? Hope not.

Halloween revelers? Or the new United Center security team?

During the game, Overboard waxed poetic about the Blackhawks Ice Girls, wondering aloud where the poles were on the ice for them to dance around.

I, on the other hand, frightened myself by channeling my father. You see, my dad is renowned for attending a sporting event (or watching one on TV) and harping in on the one thing he sees his team doing wrong. He then mentions that thing over, and over, and over, and over again. You know, just to make sure everyone is fully aware of the transgressions taking place on the ice, court, field, whathaveyou.

Throughout the game (which the Thrashers did manage to win), I kept bemoaning that the thing that was killing the Thrashers was their inability to clear the puck out of their own zone. Time after time, the puck failed to cross the blue line, and I threw my hands up in disgust and groaned how "they can't clear the freakin' zone!" Finally, after the, I don't know, 183rd time, Overboard looked over at me and raised her eyebrow in just the wrong way.

"Oh, good lord," I whispered, "I'm turning into my dad."

Overboard just smiled and poked me in the ribs. "Look, the puck's at the red line."

The other fun moment came when I took advantage of the in-seat ordering service. The attendant came to our seat and I requested the chicken fingers and a coke. This turned out to cost over $13. Since the chicken fingers were something like $8, this meant that my normal-sized bottle of coke cost $5. And they wonder why people complain about arena pricing. I am also sad to say, that try as I may, the coke was not the best I had ever had. It wasn't even ice cold. I guess I should have gone for the $10 bottle. That'll learn me.