7:15 PM - Hell yeah, snuck down at the Devils game, 4 rows off the glass. Got some solid pictures, looking forward to a thorough reaming by the Devs.
8:30 PM - Penguins 3 - Devils 0. C'mon Ahonen!
11:30 PM - Just got back to Tom's house (my friend who went to the game with me) with some Wendy's. Solid. Anyway, the Penguins managed to beat the Devils, 4-2, with an empty netter sealing the deal. I really wanted to see Sebastien Caron play, but Aubin got the start and got his first win of the year. Saw Steve McKenna and Rico Fata as Penguins too. Next game is at Continental in 2 days.
After the fact - This was an interesting experience for me. The seats I actually had, 4 rows up in the upper level weren't bad at all and I was actually pretty settled on sitting there...but then I got to sneak down to the lower level. They never, ever even let you go down for warmups at the Meadowlands, but they did this time and we just stayed down there the whole game. So we basically sat in $90 seats the whole time, not bad. We ended up 4 rows behind the Penguins bench, which is really quite a unique perspective to watch the game from. It's really challenging as far as taking pictures goes, but I'm there to have fun just as much as I'm there to grab a few shots of players I came to see. Speaking of players I came to see, yeah I did want to see Sebastien Caron play, but I'm sure I'll see the Penguins a few more times this year and I'll get to see him. Once they get Marc-Andre Fleury back, Aubin will go down to the minors, so maybe it's good I got to see him while I could. It would make my year to see Fleury play, but who knows when they'll play him again. As far as the game goes, I couldn't really tell you too much. It's incredibly difficult to follow game action with a bench full of hockey players and a 1994 Stanley Cup winner about 6 feet in front of you, but it was a pretty decent game. As I said in my first entry, I fully expected to see the Devils manhandle the Penguins, which was why I was kind of hoping to see Ari Ahonen get the start, but alas it would be my 16th time seeing Martin Brodeur. But anyway, the Penguins played really well, but only a spectacular save by J.S. Aubin with 30 seconds left on Erik Rasmussen would keep the Devils from getting a point. The play ended up getting #2 on that night's Sportscenter Top 10 Plays. But I'm definitely looking forward to Daneyko Night on the 9th, whether they raise his number to the rafters or not, I'm getting a bobblehead so that's fine. And it will mark my first time seeing the Lightning play as well, making them the 18th team I've seen play. What I wouldn't do to see Ari Ahonen's first NHL game in person. But I can only hope. Maybe Brodeur can get his 6-6-4 record above .500 in games I see him play.