Some weeks ago, sitting in an Ottawa hotel room with a broken headboard after a tragic loss, we received an offer to take part in a bus trip to Columbus. It took a bit, but I considered it to be a good idea because, we should be able to beat Columbus.
Score on Columbus?
Not even.
We, myself and two friends (Shelby manned Buffalo in our absence, and seemed to do a good job at such, seeing as city hall is still there...I think), departed the Buff at about 8:30 in the morning. We were on a bus with 50 people we didn't know for the six hour drive. We got there, had lunch, realized it was a horribly boring city, and then napped in Starbucks until Nationwide Arena opened.
It's actually a very nice arena, the expansion teams got the nice ones. It's about 500 seats plus smaller than HSBC, but had a nice structure and seemed a lot cleaner. There were more shops and such, and had a lot more going on which was nice.
We were right against the glass for warm ups, which I haven't done in ages. All the players saw our sign (as did getty images, see above) and we even saw another pro- Patty sign across the way. Luckily, when heading to our seats, we found the gentlemen and were excited to see one another.
Evidence that other Patty Lalime fans do exist.
The game of course tragic, but we tried to make the best of it. Mr. Drew's fight was certainly the highlight, it's the only thing that got us on our feet. We were surrounded by Sabres fans, and a few Jackets fans (nice to know they exist!) and one goal would have been ice to hear how loud it would have been. The guy in front of us was constantly angry about Patty and texting people about trading him. Honestly, if you're in a Paille jersey, it doesn't mean you're an expert on people getting traded off this team.
Now I know people think I'm bias, and sometimes I am. But, even if one or two goals were Patty's doing, we still would have lost. Our offense took the night off, simple as that. The sooner people start seeing this team more clear, the better.
After what was apparently a hockey game, we returned to Starbucks to avoid the cold and wait for our bus. It appeared as though people on our bus were kicked out of the game for not only being obnoxious, but for hitting another Sabres fan. Even if it was a Jackets fan, that is entirely unacceptable. Is it so difficult to act like human beings? This is why Buffalo fans get a bad reputation, because people like that do things like that. Put down the beer and represent your team and city in a respectable manner, I promise you it isn't hard!
Being the three only sober people on the bus wasn't as bad as we were worried about, the loss probably helped in that amount. We did math homework, watched movies, and tried to sleep. It was rather uncomfortable, as you can imagine. We returned to Buffalo around four in the morning, exhausted, and still hearing people bragging about getting kicked out. I did a half ass job at scraping snow off my car, and we were asleep by 5 until 1pm.
However, a picture of our sign on getty images and Dany scoring two goals somehow balanced things out.
Word on the street is Patty will start against San Jose, much to the expense of Tamara's nervous system. Though, when he has one bad game he doesn't play again for weeks, unlike Ryan who plays the next night. Regardless, Shelby and I are going, and can be together for what could be the 200th win.
He just wants to do it at home, clearly.
I wouldn't do a bus trip again, I don't think. You know it's a bad time when you can already decide that the Montreal trip coming up in April is going to be better...
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