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So, here I am in the bathroom line. (See the previous reference to proper time management.) Joey would again not leave his seat. I don't know if he thinks they are going to close the stairs and make everybody stay out in the hall for some reason, but he isn't taking any chances.
As soon as I get back in, they drop the puck to start the final period. Only 20 minutes to go. The score is still 2 to 1. One more goal - either way - would change things dramatically.
Yes, indeedy. The Sunshine State is a wonderful place. There aren't too many locations where the humidity and temperature are both in the 90's, and you put on a sweatshirt and jeans for an exciting night out. By the time the Florida Everblades hockey team in Fort Myers made the playoffs in April,1999, my family had become obsessed. We had been longtime fans ... for five months.
Fifteen minutes to go. My hero, goalie Khabibulin, is NOT going let a puck get past him. He looks at the other team after a save and shakes his head. The refs are letting them play, and it is intense.
We Southerners always thought ice was just something you put in tea and lemonade. I grew up in Everglades City. Joey was born in Naples, and Keri and Tara, were born in the deeply southern city of (say with a drawl) Valdosta, Georgia. Ice went in chests with the stone crab claws and lobster tails. Ice was applied to almost any boo-boo to make it feel better. Ice was for the cooler in the back of the pickup truck and putting down the back of someone's shirt. But ice to play on? Nope.
Ten minutes to go. The noise is literally deafening. Martin St. Louis takes a stick to the face and refuses to leave the game. People's heads are bobbing up and down, looking from the clock to the ice while cheering LET'S GO LIGHTNING!!!
We went to our first Everblades hockey game not really knowing what to expect. Actually, we were clueless. Joey knew more about hockey than the combined total of the family brains -- mostly due to constant sports channel surfing.
Five minutes to go. As Chandler Bing would say, can the clock GO any slower?!?!
My first recollections of hockey had to do with Joey growling and grumbling when one TV network started highlighting the puck (the little black thing that slides around on the ice) for the folks who couldn't keep up with it.
Four minutes to go. Oh. My. God.
Joey used words like "weenie," "sissy" and "loser" to describe anyone who would need such visual assistance to watch hockey on TV. "Get that thing off of there," he would yell at the little blue highlight spot on the TV screen. "If people can't keep up, they shouldn't be watching!" So, I would then leave the room.
Three minutes until the end of the game ... I have a death grip on Joey's arm ... I do not take my eyes off the puck even at Lightning speed.
We have made the 52-minute drive to the new Everblades Arena many times in the past. We'd tailgate. We'd eat. We'd party. And we'd have fun. I'm still not sure about some of the stuff that goes on during the game -- like the illegal butt-ending, charging, holding, hooking and cross-checking -- because it looks like just about everything they do, except sit on the bench, would fit into those categories.
Two minutes to go until the winner of the Stanley Cup is decided!!! I can't stop jumping up and down.
But we are sure about one thing. Our mighty minor Everblades, in their first year, were in the East Coast Hockey League playoffs. Woo hoo! They swept the opening best-of-five round against the Birmingham Bulls. And this year, they went to the final game of the Kelley Cup finals. And lost. Oh no.
ONE MINUTE TO GO ... AND THE HISTORIC STANLEY CUP IS IN THE HOUSE ... WAITING.
If you decide to become a new hockey spectator, take note. You know all of the sportsmanship issues you had drilled into your heads since birth? Those things about respecting the other team, cheering for your team and not against the other team, keeping your emotions in check? About how it's not whether you win or lose ... it's how you play the game? Well, when it comes to this game, you find out real quick that those ideals are just a bunch of crap.
30 SECONDS ... THE BALLOONS ARE READY!
20 SECONDS ... MY VOICE IS GONE!!
10 SECONDS ... THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!!!
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