Yesterday, I decided at the last minute as usual to go see the Detroit Red Wings face the Chicago Blackhawks in their first preseason game of the 2015-2016 season. As the hockey season approaches I just keep getting more and more excited esepcially after watching it last night. Even though the Wings' players last night were all mostly on the Grand Rapid Griffins I still knew most of them along with the regular five Wings' players.
The game was played at the United Center. I have seen hockey games played there before such as the Wings vs Hawks series during the regular season and I get some rude remarks or when one time I almost got punched in the face for just standing in my wings' gear but thats a different story. I knew last night not many people were going to be aggressive since it was preseason which made me want to go even more. The one thing I hate about the United Center is that they do not let you stand on the glass when the players come out for warm-ups. All I want to do is watch them shoot the puck and practice and then I will go back to my seat. The ushers there are really uptight about things and if you do not have on ice tickets than you can not even be standing there and you have tto stand like a few rows back and out of the aisle which kinda sucks and it is pointless, but whatever. Another thing is instead of actually cheering on the team, the whole crowd loves to chant "DETROIT SUCKS" like how orignal. If you are going to insult my team at least come up with something new it gets old after awhile.
Before I went to my seat I went to stand in section 112-113 to watch the Wings' come out and warm-up. Even though it was not the same players as always it was still pretty cool to see guys like Dylan Larkin, Tyler Bertuzzi, Anthony Mantha, ect. play on the ice along with Riley Sheahan, Luke Glendening, Drew Miller, Jimmy Howard, and Brendan Smith. For the Hawks they had their big namers out there like Jonathan Toews, Patrick K***, Brent Seabrook, and Marian Hossa. Of course, K*** was the last person on the ice and the whole crowd went into a roar.
My favorite action shot I took of Larkin from warm-ups.
After warm-ups, I headed over to my seats and waited for the exciting moment of the first puck drop of the preseason. Another thing at the UC, you hear the most interesting things there. Like the girl next to me was sitting there and look up the roster, which I could understand since there were a few guys I did not know as well, but she was looking up the regular season roster and did not even know who Corey Crawford was. I understand there are new fans and what not but if you are going to be a fan of a team you should know your starting goalie. There was a group of guys behind me as well and they started to say "Are the Wings even that good? Did they even make the playoffs this year?" and I could not help, but laugh. Like are you really going to ask that question?
View from Section 115 row 17 seat 16.
The moment came of the players rushing on the ice and the national anthem played and finally the puck dropped. The first period for the Wings was not hot at all. The Wings' first line of Miele, Sheahan, and Glendening went up against Toews, Hossa, and someone else who I can not remember. The teams did great but Howard was not up to his game. From my angle, it looked like pretty simple goals he could of saved but it was not looking good for him, but it is only game 1. Scott Darling was literally making saves from left and right and going all over the place and basically was a giant wall. Larkin and Bertuzzi were really impressive together and I honestly can not wait to see them play together on the Griffins, Larkin especially. Larkin just has so much speed and had some great chances to score, but again he could not make it pass Darling. By the end of the first period it was 2-0 Hawks.
Half way through the second period, the teams made a switch in goalies after Howard let in another goal by Teuvo causing the score to be 3-0. Gene Honda annouced it and he said Tom McCollum (Wings'/Griffin's goalie) all the Wings' fans cheered and he said the Hawks goalie all you heared was "Who?" and I honestly felt so bad for him because not even one person clapped. In this period the Wings' finally made a step up and scored two goals causing it to be 3-2. Also during this the Wings' had a powerplay at one point and their line was made up of Larkin, Mantha, Bertuzzi, Pulkkinen, and Smith and I have never been more in love with a powerplay line until now. They all played great together and took some outstanding chances, but again they just would not go through.
The third period was probably the most exciting for Wings' fan since they tied it up being 4-4 which is pretty impressive when a team that is filled with AHL players keep up with half of the Hawks' regular starters. Either way the teams were still going to have an overtime even if it was tied or not. Here they did a three-on-three and the younger guys were able to keep up with Toews and Hossa even though the Wings lost 5-4 in overtime it was still exciting to see that these guys could keep up and they will not give up. I can tell it is going to be a good season.
Thanks for reading hopefully you liked it. My next posting is going to be on Saturday for another preseason game of the Chicago Blackhawks vs the Saint Louis Blues.
Also here is a low quality photo of Larkin and I along with my dad from last night's game during warm-ups.
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