Where Was I: Verizon Center, Washington, DC (May 13, 2013)

Game Seven of the Rangers-Capitals Eastern Conference Quarter-final Series.

Prior to the game, I had a couple of pints and a burger at Penn Quarter Sports Tavern, on Pennsylvania Avenue. The Tavern is roughly 3 blocks from The Capitol and 2 blocks from the arena. Downtown arenas are cool.

Precisely because Verizon Center is built on several downtown blocks, it is difficult to get a good view and a complete sense of the building. Then again, outside architecture is certainly not as important for an NHL rink as for a ballpark.

I was sitting at the end of the rink, in Section 426, Row C, Seat 7. This was extremely convenient as it was right next to an exit to the concourse. To compare, I was probably at the same height that I was on Saturday night at Uniondale, but nowhere near the roof of the facility this time. There were roughly 15 rows of seats behind me and I had to look up to see the banners.

Pretty much the entire crowd at Verizon was wearing red, except for some pocketfuls of very loud Ranger fans (including at the back of my section). The crowd was fired up, but nowhere near as loud as in Uniondale on Saturday night. Once the Rangers went up 5-0 early about 8 minutes into the third period, the arena emptied out, which I always find a bit shocking.

During the national anthem, Caps fans blare out the 'red' in the line 'By the rockets' red glare' and the second 'Oh' (the line escapes me right now), I am guessing to honour Ovechkin.

Ransom comments:

- This was my eighth active NHL venue (15th overall) and my fifth in the past two months or so.

- Along with Mike Gartner, Rod Langway and Dale Hunter, Yvon Labre (!), an original Capital, has had his number retired.

- It is amazing how often Ovechkin ends up on the ice when he is not the one originating the contact. Very mysterious, given how strong a player he is...

- Halfway through the third period, they played 'The Hockey Song' by Stompin' Tom.

- Ticketmaster does not like Canadian customers. When I tried getting an islander ticket mid-last week, because my billing address is in Canada, the only shipping option was delivery by mail (which makes no sense). For the Caps game, only US residents were allowed to buy tickets. In both instances, I eneded up using the ticket exchange service that Ticketmaster 'offers', which is essentially ticket resales. While it was more than twice the face value, I did get my caps ticket for less than a 'new' ticket would have cost me.

- Other than the two sporting events, Washington was fairly uneventful. I did visit the National Air and Space Museum on The Mall. It was fun to see the Apollo material.

Sent wirelessly from my BlackBerry device on the Bell network.
Envoyé sans fil par mon terminal mobile BlackBerry sur le réseau de Bell.