Day 20

Saturday, Oct. 15

Not much happening today.  We got up, drove south to Plantation, Florida (just west and south of Fort Lauderdale), which was about a 2 ½ hour drive, and then found the Bank Atlantic Center.  From there, we went looking for a hotel.  GPS “Jill” located a Hampton Inn that seemed fairly close, and we decided to try for it.  Well, long story short, “Jill” gives good directions, but sometimes she is slow (we missed some turns) and sometimes the maps are not up-to-date with the changes that are being made in this area.  A 7 mile trip took us about ¾ of an hour, but we finally made it.

This is the most expensive room of this part of the holiday, but it is clean, about the same as the previous places we have stayed.  The fridge runs very noisily, and sometimes the air conditioner is noisy.  Fortunately, the temperature is not too high outside – in fact, if it were this way most of the time, we would find it quite liveable.  The humidity is a little high, but nothing like what we had while on the ship and when we first arrived in Florida.

About 4:00 we decided to head out looking for a place to eat.  We selected a Red Lobster that was quite close (“Jill” said 0.5 miles).  It took about a half hour to get there due to wrong turns, getting into places that didn’t go where they appeared they would, and so on.  Finally, when we did get there, we went in, had to wait for about 5 minutes, and then were seated.

Our waiter was an interesting fellow.  He had lived in Seattle for a while, so knew of Kamloops, and had been to Vancouver.  We were able to talk about hockey and he knew what we were about.  He was a very pleasant person, and we quite enjoyed our shrimp feast.

From there, it was off to the game.  They had given us directions at the hotel, but they were different than “Jill’s” and after trying to follow them, we just let her get us there.  This was fairly easy this time, and we got to one of the arena parking lots.  We tried to go in, but this lot had reserved parking that I tried to buy online the previous night.  Unfortunately, because I was working through Canadian Ticketmaster, I couldn’t purchase tickets for that lot.  The girl at the entrance was very cheerful, and gave me directions for a U-turn (I’m getting to like these things) and to the free lot (a way better price than the $20 we were going to pay online).  The lot we parked at was almost where the “Will Call” window was located, so this was a much better place for us anyhow.

What a show.  We were there just before the doors opened.  At the entrance there was a rock band playing and singing, lots of vendors selling various things, blow-up toys for kids (like Fun Factor), and a great mood.  When the doors opened, we went in and walked around for a while before looking for our seats.

We went into our seat area and the usher told us where they were.  There was a fellow standing there who we began talking with.  Roberto Luongo is his neighbour, along with a few other players and executives that he named.  We had a fairly lengthy discussion about hockey and how things were looking for his team this year.  We recognized many of the names he mentioned from the team, and Dawn was able to carry on a pretty good discussion with him.

Of course, we didn’t know what to wear, with the temperature warm and humid outside, so we wore our shorts and shirts.  Not such a great move as it was fairly cold inside, and we couldn’t just go home and grab something warmer.  We “toughed” it out.

This was the Panthers opening night, so after the warm up, the big introductions were made.  The first player announced was Keaton Ellerby (ex Blazer).  He wasn’t dressed, but he did walk out at the bench.  Later, Scotty Upshall and Kris Versteeg were announced and they were playing (and played quite well).  It was a great atmosphere during the warm up and the introductions, and then got better when the anthem was sung.

The game was pretty good, too.  It is amazing how good these guys are at the game.  It makes one realize how good our junior players are, and how far most of them have to go.  There were many names on both teams that we knew – Lecavalier, St. Louis, Stamkos, Jovanowski, Weiss, Hedmann, Gudbranson, Downie, Theodore, Rolanson (backup tonight), and more.

Florida scored first in the first period.  It stayed that way until the third period, although they were outshooting and generally outplaying Tampa Bay.  Then about 7 minutes into the 3^rd, Tampa Bay scored.  They appeared to be really putting on a push, and the game was much closer.  Florida scored again with 2:58 left in the game, but Tampa scored again at 2:18.  It was pretty exciting and also pretty deflating for the home crowd. We were sitting beside a group that had come down from Tampa Bay, and they were really excited at this point.

The game ended in a tie, went through overtime, and went into the shoot-out.  This was Dawn’s wish, and it came true.  Florida shot first and missed.  Then St. Louis went and he missed.  The 2^nd Florida shooter (Goc) scored on a nice move; he put the puck up over the goalie’s leg when he tried a poke check.  The crowd got pretty excited, but there are some real snipers on Tampa.  Stamkos went next and tried a spinerama move which Theodore stopped with very little effort.  The 3^rd Panther went and missed, so now it came down to Lecavalier.  He came in, deked, and then the job was to find the puck.  We thought it was in, but then the goalie started jumping up and down and we knew it had missed.  A good win for the home crowd and for the home opener.

Then it was the adventure of finding the car, and getting back to our hotel.  When we walked outside, it felt very warm, but that was because we were so cold from being inside.  It was actually nice to be there.  As Dawn was saying, if we were this cold at a game in Kamloops, we know we would be going outside to extreme cold weather, so this was quite nice.

There had been some rain, and we got a little on the drive to the hotel.  Then just as we were entering the building, it began to rain again.  In all, we have been exceptionally lucky with the weather.  Watching the weather forecast, we will be leaving at the right time.  There is a cold front moving in from the North West, and they are predicting quite serious rains in the next few days.  It is almost time for us to come home.