Of Hat Tricks and Cannons

On Saturday we went to our first ever Blue Jackets game and what night it was! For those who don't follow hockey, and I barely do, the Jackets have been decimated by injuries and have to play a lot of rookies and players recently called up from their top minor league team in Syracuse. So their recent string of victories has been something of a pleasant surprise.

Sam and Abby both seemed to have a good time at least until the third period when Sammy melted down a bit. Until then both Sam and Abby were having a great time, watching the game and the attendant entertainment that came with it, including the future Jackets hockey game at the first intermission pitting one team of 7 to 9 year-olds, and the "blimp" that flew overhead the crowd dropping various prizes on the fans in attendance.

Unfortunately, in the third period things started to go south, especially for Sammy. Prior to the third each team had one goal, both scored in the first. Whenever the Jackets score, the folks at Nationwide set off a "cannon" while blaring AC/DC's "For Those About to Rock". In the first period when the Jackets scored, Sammy loved it. By the third period though the poor guy was pretty tired, which is when the Jackets did the rest of their scoring (3 goals). This time when the cannons went off Sammy wasn't so thrilled with them, and fortunately for the Jackets, not so fortunate for Sam, the Jackets scored 3 goals in the final period to seal the victory. By the last goal he had pretty much lost it.

But in terms of a first game it was certainly memorable. We saw Nikita Filiatov score his first career hat-trick (3 goals) which prompted a five minute celebration which included fans throwing hats onto the ice. And since the Jackets scored 3 goals we could have gotten free chili from Wendy's (I somewhat lament passing on that), and for reasons I forget we could have gotten a free donut from Tim Horton's with the purchase of a coffee. So it was a potentially productive night.