With nothing left for me to say about the Rangers this year after my obituary I wrote last month and the back breaking defeat they were handed by Tampa yesterday, I’d like to instead talk about my incredible experience I had Sunday afternoon at UBS arena, where hockey history was made by the Great Eight, Alex Ovechkin.
Disco already posted a great blog detailing the significance of that achievement, check that out below.
I happen to live on Long Island, about a 50 minute train ride away from UBS Arena, and so the second that I knew Alex Ovechkin would be just one goal away from surpassing the Great One’s goal total, I knew I had to be there, and I was going to get as close to the action as my money could buy.
I was on top of things enough to get my ticket before prices peaked, at one point resellers were asking for $1000 for nosebleed seats, but it still cost me a small fortune to get my one seat in section 112, row 8. The good news is, I used my credit card to buy it, so it was basically free.
I had never gone to a game by myself before, but I know from all of my past visits to UBS that it’s easy to make friends on the Heineken Terrace there, especially when you’re wearing a Dany Heatley Thrashers jersey, which I do every time I go to UBS, barring times the Rangers are playing there.
My seat was on the side the Capitals would be shooting on for the second period only, so in hopes of the record being broken right before my eyes, I went to FanDuel and placed a bet on Ovechkin to score in the second period. My fifty dollar wager hardly would pay out enough to cover a quarter of what I spent on my ticket, but that would only be a cherry on top of witnessing history, which would make the price of admission worth every penny and then some.
If I had to guess, I would say 60 percent of fans in attendance were out of towners. The lower bowl was astonishingly red. The two guys to my right were Capitals season ticket holders who were at the Capitals Blackhawks game on Friday, where the record was tied. They had done the same thing I did, hunting down the best seat they could the second that game ended. They, too, were obviously hoping for a second period tally from Ovechkin, to make their road trip North to chase history even sweeter.
I was genuinely worried the Capitals weren’t going to score a single goal after the first period, which saw the Islanders take a commanding 2-0 lead in a game they were basically dominating. Ilya Sorokin hadn’t been tested much at all, which isn’t always a good thing for goalies, but after 20 minutes I was definitely losing hope.
The second period was shaping up to be more of the same, perhaps slightly less one sided, but still in favor of the home team. The Capitals really needed a break to give them an ounce of momentum, and that came in the form of a Casey Cizikas tripping penalty at exactly seven minutes into the frame. If you know anything about Alex Ovechkin, you won’t think I was crazy to feel like he was about to get the Caps on the board, and I’d have the perfect view of the signature one timer shot from the top of the left circle.
It felt like that power play started and then the puck was just immediately on Ovi’s tape. He was in his signature spot, but instead of a one timer it was a wrist shot that seemed like it was exaggerated and in slow motion, but there was just so much power in it, Ovi’s stick must’ve practically flexed in half. That thing was off his stick and in the back of the net like it fucking teleported behind Ilya Sorokin. He had scored his first ever NHL goal on the Isles netminder. He had scored his 895th career goal in the league. He had become immortal. Absolute. Pandemonium.
So that video is pretty good. I’m proud to say I took it with my phone, and it really captures the aftermath well. The atmosphere, the fan reactions, me saying “oh my god” and “holy fuck” over and over again. It’s a good representation of what we were experiencing after the record was broken probably less than 50 feet away from us.
But what about the actual moment the record was broken?
While I was screaming in disbelief, shaking total strangers by the shoulders and soaking in the moment, some guy two rows in front of me was taking video on his phone the entire power play. When the dust settled, the guy next to me asked him if the video he got was any good. Turns out it was, guy had a pretty good camera on that phone. My seat neighbor had the guy send him the video, and he asked me if I wanted it. This is what he sent me.
So thanks to that guy, I have a video that’s as close to what I saw with my own eyes of that history breaking moment as I could get without taking the video myself. I’m forever in debt to that guy. He had this insane outfit on, like basically wearing all dark red leather, with a matching leather hat. Just a wild look at a hockey game, but I’ll never forget that guy.
The ceremony that followed was very special, I’m sure you’ve all seen it so I won’t go into to much detail, but it was very special to me to be able to see Wayne Gretzky give his speech in person, and something about Ovechkin in full uniform skating around with a microphone was so funny and cool. Just an unreal moment to be a part of, something I’ll tell my kids and grandkids about. I took these short videos of that moment, but soaked the rest of it in through my eyes and ears.
The ceremony was over, and somehow they expected two teams to finish a hockey game now. Understandably so, it seemed like the Capitals had their minds on getting out of UBS Arena and getting to the real celebration.
I was finally able to pee without worrying I was gonna be standing in front of a urinal while 16,000+ witnessed history in the next room, so I hit the bathroom, replenished my beer, and watched the rest of the period. The Caps had another power play, Ovi had another chance but didn’t convert, and the rest of the period was basically all Islanders. 3-1 after two, and Marc Gatcomb had his first career multi goal game, giving the Isles fans a reason to walk around their home arena feeling proud in a sea of red jerseys.
At this point I simply wanted to party, so I spent the second intermission back on the Heineken Terrace, and didn’t return to my seat until there was about ten minutes left in the third. I hung out with the cigarette smokers along the railing, drinking my beer and shooting the shit about Ovechkin, the Yankees, my Thrashers jersey, etc., and then went back to soaking in the final minutes of the game with my seat neighbors. The Islanders fans to my left were also nice guys, and the vibes were just high all around me. The Isles buttoned up a 4-1 win to keep their playoff hopes on life support, and the Caps fans got to see their guy break a record that he called unbreakable back in 2016.
I went down to Belmont Hall, which is a bar downstairs in the Arena that stays open for a couple of hours after Games, and hung out at the bar with three guys from the nearby Floral Park Fire Department. We drank and talked about boating on the South Shore versus the North Shore of Long Island for a little more than an hour, and then I decided it was time to head over to the train platform and start my trip home.
I probably should have made that decision a little earlier, because I got outside and realized I had less than ten minutes to walk all the way around the horse racing track, passed the parking lot and up to the train platform, which usually takes me about ten minutes to do. So I ran probably a little less than half of a mile with a stomach full of beer and made the train in time. It ended up being the train a lot of Mets fans were on the way home on, so I wasn’t the only drunk asshole on the Train even though the Islanders game had ended well over an hour prior.
I got home and watched my lead in the fantasy hockey championship disappear, but I didn’t let it bother me as much as I usually would, because I was about to go to bed drunk and happy after living out one of the coolest days of my life. I might not be happy about how I felt in the morning, but that hangover would be as worth it as the inflated price I paid to be a part of hockey history, and soak it all in with random hockey fans that came from all over (mostly D.C.) to do the same. Everyone went home happy.
The end.
Congratulations to Alex Ovechkin on becoming the Greatest goal scorer to ever lace them up. Thanks for making my entire life as a hockey fan so special. 895 goals is incredible, and Ovi looks like he could easily get to 1000 if he wanted to. Here’s to hoping he sticks around to do that.
The Morning Skate 