Rogers Arena - Montreal at Vancouver

AND THE HABS WON!! 4-1 BABY!!

Ahem.

Last night I went to see the battle between the Vancouver Canucks and my Montreal Canadiens at Rogers Arena in Vancouver. Since I haven't been back to town in 10 years, I hadn't seen a game here for even longer. The arena hasn't changed, even though I think it's gone through 2 names since I was last inside it.

I took the skytrain down early, picked up my ticket at will call, then headed down the road to find some quick dinner. As I sat down with my pizza slice, I took a look at my ticket to see which gate I needed when I got back. They had given me 3 tickets, 2 of which had someone else's name on them. The other seats were much better than mine, so I briefly considered using them. Then I thought how pissed I'd be if someone did that to me, so I took the extra tickets back to the box office and made my way to the 300 level. Damn golden rule.

There were lots of Habs fans in the crowd, as there always are; every time a chant went up, there was a such mix of both teams being yelled that it sounded like "Go Blargs Go!" I cheered my head off for my Habs (who cares if I'm alone?!), even through the first period when they were outshot by a margin of 3:1 and the game was tied 0-0.

It happened that I'd bought one of two seats being sold separately, so I was sat there next to a lone Canucks fan. At the first intermission, he came back from getting a beer refill and asked, "Are you still cheering for the Habs?" "Yep." "Then I can't talk to you."

And we talked for the rest of the game. He consoled me when the Canucks drew first blood in the 2nd, and I helped him keep track of Plekanec's assists (for his fantasy team) as the Habs got the next 4 goals. We laughed, we drank beer, my team actually won for a change, and it was a good time.

At the end of the game, he invited me out to a bar with him and his work colleagues who'd been seated in the company seats downstairs, but I wasn't feeling it. I'd had plenty to drink already, I'd been up since 6:30am, and I was tired. Plus I had no ulterior motives with the guy, he was just fun to hang out with and watch hockey. He took my number, saying he'd text where they ended up if I wanted to go meet them, but he didn't. And I wouldn't have gone anyway. I'll never see that guy again.

It's kind of too bad he wasn't my type, because we got on great and a hockey game would be the perfect place to meet the man for me. When am I going to end up at a game next to a single guy who's also alone, and who's friendly enough to chat, and who I get along with, ever again? Never. Proof that there's no fate or master plan in the world, just randomness that sometimes works out, and sometimes doesn't.

In the end, I had a great night. No need to use my zen garden after that game. But I did wonder how much the hotel would charge me for smoking in the zen garden. I mean, it's outdoors, right? Damn hippies.