You never forget your first

Yesterday I drove all the way to Vancouver to root against their hockey team by myself, because my devotion to the Phoenix Coyotes finally, at long last, beat out my totally reasonable phobia of Canucks fans.

It wasn't actually my first live NHL game. A friend and I got SRO tickets to a Hawks/Canucks game in Chicago last month. But I spent the first half of the game circling the top of the arena searching for a spot where I could see the ice, and the second half being pestered by an entertainingly drunk fellow attempting to involve me in his plot to steal some unsuspecting elderly dude's nachos. I had a blast, but I didn't have much of a chance to really focus on the game. This time, I had a lower-bowl seat and no distractions, and I actually deeply cared about the outcome of the game. It was not the same.

I once had the misfortune of rooting against the Canucks in a Seattle hockey bar during a playoff game, which--combined with that whole rioting thing--led me to expect all kinds of abuse at this game. In fact, the only people who interacted with me directly were a sweet old couple sitting behind me who wanted to chat about where I'd come from, two people who apologized to me for pedestrian near-collisions that were both actually my fault, and a child who saw me plodding out of the arena in my Coyotes gear after the game and apologized to me for his team winning. (God bless Canada.) Everyone was very respectful, far more so than the fans at Thunderbirds games, although that's not much of a bar to hop. Maybe the entire fanbase just Hulks out for the playoffs, I dunno. Anyway, clearly the ragged bloody tips I painted on my nails to warn off attackers were overkill.

It was intense, after years of devotedly watching the Coyotes onscreen, to see them in person. I went down to the glass for warmups, which I didn't get a chance to do at the Hawks game, so even aside from it being my team, it was awesome to be that close to NHL-caliber players doing their thing. But knowing these guys, recognizing every number and face, right there in front of me... yeah, it was a lot. And watching Mike Smith deal out a series of gorgeous saucer passes six feet away from me? Not letting go of that image anytime soon.

Then he played the actual game, and, well. Okay, but here's the thing: I am invested in Mike Smith's success as a goaltender mostly because if he doesn't succeed, I won't get to see him play. I want him to play well, but that's really secondary to watching him play, and while he didn't do great in this game, he sure as hell did him. Puckhandling, pulling risky shit, getting into a puck battle along the boards at one point, and then that hilarious thing he does when the puck is flying way over the net and he leaps two feet into the air to try to snatch it. And he did make some killer saves. I would have liked to see more of them, of course, but honestly, all the rest of it is what I really wanted to see from him.

Some more thoughts from the experience, in approximate order:

• The customs guy at the border into Canada was very suspicious and asked a lot of questions testing the legitimacy of my interest in hockey. I know it's not a good idea to be snarky in that situation, which is the only reason I didn't say, "I don't think today's combinations have been reported yet, but I can rattle off our lineup from Friday's game against Edmonton if you want."
• Canadian cheap-ass beer is a lot tastier than American cheap-ass beer.
• Shane Doan, unsurprisingly, was the one who interacted with fans the most during warmups. He smiled at me, but he did it in the process of skating in between me and Smitty, so I dunno what weird hero-worshippy emotions may have accidentally caught him in the crossfire. Sorry, Doaner.
• Vancouver's ramp-up video was truly ludicrous. And I saw Chicago's ramp-up video.
• The anthems were sung by Ugandan kids. It's already pretty silly to involve patriotism in a sport where the composition of nationalities on a team has essentially nothing to do with the actual location of the team, but when you present the patriotism by way of people from another continent, the pointlessness is overwhelming. They were cute, though.
• Rogers Arena contains an unsettling number of white people. I don't think I saw a single non-white person in the crowd the entire time I was there.
• I think it is illogical and counterproductive to distract your team with noise mid-game, especially at key moments when focus is crucial. Yeah, guess who was screeching her fool head off when Kennedy and Halpern had a golden opportunity three minutes into the game. I screeched a lot, actually. Sigh. I'm giving myself a pass for first-time enthusiasm.
• I screeched accurately, though. I wasn't the person in my section yelling "Shoot!" when the puck was behind the net. I did at one point say "Nice keep!" right before the ref whistled it offside and got a few smug looks, but the ref was in fact wrong and Michalek did in fact keep the puck in. (I checked GameCenter just now to be sure I was right on that--yep--and was amused to hear McConnell also compliment the keep on the play-by-play in that same split second before the whistle sounded.)
• I thought this game would be low-scoring, since the Coyotes haven't been great offensively lately and the Canucks have been awful, and the last time these two teams played each other the score was 1-0. But no, Vancouver was so trigger-happy that they weren't satisfied with scoring on just one net; they were the perpetrators of two of the three goals credited to Vermette. Thanks, guys!
• It was cool to see the team interactions the cameras don't pick up. Like when Smitty slid his empty water bottle across the ice to the bench and somebody slid back a full one, and it broke open when it hit his stick. And the kinda douchey way they all skated around treating the ice crew like an obstacle course during commercial breaks.
• Our penalty kill continued to kick ass, as it's been doing lately. That said: Jesus Christ, guys, stop taking penalties. Especially right before the end of regulation. I wasn't screeching during the 4-on-3 in OT because you have to be able to inhale to screech.
• I wish Klinkhammer had been out there instead of Bissonnette. BizNasty can be fun on the interwebs, but he is not a reason to road-trip alone across international borders. The Colonel is a player whose on-ice success I'm actually invested in, and I was bummed that he got scratched.
• One thing it's hard to really get a good sense of on TV is speed. Brad Richardson, incidentally, can fucking book it.
• A Canucks fan behind me was confused about why everyone kept booing their goalie when he made saves. I think this should have been grounds for jersey confiscation.
• I am so fucking frustrated with our zone entries. Sometimes I turn off the sound when I'm watching the Phoenix feed on GameCenter because Tyson Nash is such an idiot about it. "Dump the puck! Don't get fancy!" No, we already dump the puck way too much. Please, get "fancy" and make an effort to actually maintain possession on the way into the zone.
• The game-winning goal was a rebound off a really nice save that I was already applauding when the puck went in. Urgh. But our possession was better, we came back from a two-goal deficit twice, we took it to OT, and Vermette got first star of the game, so. Not the worst Coyotes game I could have chosen for my first.

I can't afford to visit Vancouver every time my team plays there, but man, after this I wish I could. Or that expansion would come through for Seattle. Come on, Bettman, I would make such terrible financial decisions for you if you'd just give me the chance.