Sitting next to an intoxicated half Horatio Sanz, half Ron Jeremy appearance of a man, on the flight from Philadelphia to Los Angeles, my Devils stadium series hat had caught his attention.
"Hey dude, I like your hat. It is very Christmas like. Can, I take a picture of it? Oh, wait I don't have a SD card in my camera."
That was only the real normal part of the conversation I had with this guy, who went by the name of Mike S. When he first arrived on the plane, he took the seat next to me and asked ,
"Where is this plane going?"
I responded "Do you even know where you're going?"
"I don't know, I just hop on a flight, after drinking a few at the bar. But, seriously where is this flight going?" He replied.
"This flight is going wherever your ticket says it going." I said.
He looked a little flustered and agitated. "Damn, I really need to take a piss. I can't wait any longer, or I'll pee in my boot. I could go for a joint right now. Do you have any weed?"
This was my introduction to the west coast, before I even made it to Los Angeles. I don't know if I could handle more of these conversations. He asked me why I was going to LA. My response baffled him. I told him, I was going to see an outdoor hockey game at Dodger's Stadium.
"Hockey.........." He replied.
"Yea, I'm going to see the Kings vs the Ducks outside. My one friend Mogilny is a Ducks fan, and I'm a Devils fan. So we decided to both watch our favorite teams play outside in two days. "
"Wow, that is a first. I never heard of people traveling from the east coast to the west coat to see a hockey game. You, guys aren't messing with me are you. Is there hidden cameras somewhere? This won't be on a late night television show will it."
"No I'm not joking around. We came all the way out here to watch the Ducks vs Kings, then hop on a red eye flight back to New Jersey, to catch the Devils vs Rangers the next day." I responded.
"Ok. You guys are crazy. You are doing all this traveling, and didn't bring any weed along." He replied.
-------------Game 1 Kings vs Ducks at Dodger's Stadium-----------------------
Nothing is better than waking up to sunny California weather in January with temperatures in the low 80s. The game isn't till 630pm local time, so we had time to do a little exploration. Let's go to a state park out in the valley. We did some rock climbing at Stoney Point Park, well not technical rock climbing with the harnesses and ropes. The more proper term is scrambling, where we just climbed up on huge boulders with our sneakers.
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| Mogilny scrambling up the rocks. See he has proper grip form, by using his fingers. |
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| View from the top |
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| Some people like to tailgate or drink before hockey games. Not in Cali, we go rock climbing. |
After our rock climbing adventure we grab some dinner, then head out to the game. The approach before Dodger's Stadium is through a park, where families are having picnics and people are walking along enjoying their Saturday afternoon. I would never guess a baseball stadium would be so close by.
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| Parking spaces are super tight. Moginly actually left his window down, while we were in the game. But, since the spaces were so tight, nobody took anything from inside our car. Still a stupid move by Mogilny. |
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| Fan fest outside in the parking lot. Line was so ridiculously long, that we didn't bother to go in. |
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| EJ Hradek and The "Mullet" Barry Melrose on the NHL Network set. |
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| Beach volley ball court next to the hockey rink |
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| The guy next to me, didn't know who this guy was. I had to tell him it was Garry Bettman. Still he didn't know. I had to calm Mogilny down form his heckling. "Why don't we have another lock-out Gary!" We got dirty looks from the security staff. |
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| Let's get this game started. |
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| I had to get a shot of some actual game action. |
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| Mogilny's Panoramic shot |
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| We had to leave after the second period to catch our red eye flight. But, Mogilny celebrating the inevitable Ducks 3-0 victory. |
-----------------Game 2 Devils vs Rangers at Yankee Stadium--------------------------
Brrrrr.... that frigid air as you walk off the plane hits you back to the east cold. There won't be any pre-game rock climbing out here. Jumping on the red eye, we land in Newark at 7:30am local time. We're fading fast as we didn't get much rest on the plane. The seats in coach are not recommended for guys my size. Mogilny on the other hand, had the constant screams from a young child to keep him awake. He yelled aloud in frustration "Who brings their child on a red eye flight."
Our friend Omar who lives in Newark picks us up from the airport. We head back to his place, get a home cooked breakfast with IKEA bought Swedish pancakes. Oh don't forget the berry spread for the Swedish pancakes. Damn that was good. We're exhausted. Get an hour nap on Omar's couch, and it is time to take the train to Manhattan.
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| The excitement is exploding through the photo, of the Devils vs Rangers game |
Transferring onto the subway to 161st Yankee Stadium, a lot of Devils and Rangers fans are aboard the train. I spark up a conversation with a Devils fan who is wearing a retro Scott Stevens jersey. We talk about how the Devils need to add more offense, and how Jagr is carrying the team. Train arrives at the station the conductor announces the stop and gives a "Let's go Rangers" chant.
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| I'm regretting not wearing those thermals Mogilny offered me. |
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| I'll wait to get my Jagr jersey next year. |
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| Can't escape the NHL network crew. Kathryn Tappen, Kevin Weeks, Peter Laviolette, and I forget the other guy. |
The atmosphere is not comparable to the Ducks vs Kings game. Fans are pretty much half Rangers and half Devils, but the devils fans continue their different chants of Rangers suck. Our seats are in right field, and our view isn't the greatest. Its hard to follow the game action, we have to mostly look at the outfield television screen to see what's going on.
Devils grab a early lead and look in control at 3-1. But Rangers score a late first period goal to cut the deficit to 3-2.
It's so cold, that we venture to the concessions stands to get something warm to eat. No more hot chocolate. What? We settle for the Yankee bucket of Chicken and 2 beers. A whopping $42 grand total. We huddle around the bucket of chicken as it's saturated fat warms our bellies.
Game changes around in the second period as the Rangers score 4 unanswered goals. I blame the bucket of chicken and immediately stop munching on our a gallon of fries. To my dismay, the Rangers finish the period with a commanding 6-3 lead.
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| Our view from our seats in right field. Not shown is the jazzing performance by "Jersey Boys." LA you can keep your KISS, I'll take Frankie Valli and the boys. |
Devils come out in the third and look like they just want to go home. Halfway through the period, I tell Mogilny, I had enough and lets go. On our way out, a fight breaks occurs with some Devils and Rangers fans in the concourse. For all the security, where is a cop when you need them. After a good couple of minutes, its finally broken up.
I talk to a Rangers fan, as I'm leaving the restroom. "It's funny because both of these franchises haven't won anything in over a decade, and both sides continue to argue who has won a cup most recently.
Our epic trip ends with a 7-3 blowout victory by the Rangers. Not, at all as I envisioned it, especially after the first period. It was the most goals the Rangers have scored on Martin Brodeur in a regular season game.
How to compare the two events, is rather difficult. The NHL had two rivals both play each other in these outdoor games, but I didn't sense any rivalry with the Kings and Ducks. With the Devils and Rangers there has been past playoff blood. They replayed those moments repeatably at Yankee stadium, to add fuel to the already fired up fans.
Ducks and Kings however never played each other in the playoffs. For a real rivalry to occur, both of these teams have will have to square off in a playoff atmosphere.
Los Angeles like I stated before was more about selling the event, than the actual game itself. If I have to watch paid extras to pretend to play nerf football in the outfield again, I will lose it. "Nice throw Uncle Rico!"
New York was more about selling the rivalry between the two teams. They kept it simple, a smaller ice rink for the kids on the field, and plenty of snow.
As my good friend Mike S on the plane would say, "Hockey.....Yea I like it. Never really watch it, but it's tough."
