Red Wings vs. Blue Jackets

There's nothing better than free stuff, and today exemplified it as we took full advantage of some free seats to see the Detroit Red Wings face off against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Joe Louis Arena on St. Patty's Day (observed).  We brought along Reimer and Becca as I received 4 free tickets through work for some really, nice seats.  They were located in Section 110 just 10 rows back from the glass.  These were definitely the closest I've ever sat for hockey game, and it really made the experience.  You can hear some of the yelling and grunting on the ice, but more importantly you can hear (and feel) the banging these players do off the boards.  It seemed like a different game from this perspective for sure.

Even though we walked in a few minutes after the first period started, we didn't miss much as the period finished scoreless and Reimer finished with a free pizza box (He had a nice stretch move to get the free giveaway!).  In the second period, the Blue Jackets scored twice, while the Red Wings scored only once.  Unfortunately, for us, we had a close look at the Blue Jackets scores.

In the third period, the Red Wings made it interesting "as Johan Franzen tied the game by scoring a 5-on-3 power-play goal 25 seconds into the third period" (as described in the recap).

The game went to overtime, then a shootout!  This was our first live shootout ever; however, with all the drama unfolding, the Red Wings couldn't bring us a victory as only Datsyuk, Brunner, and Zetterberg could only come up with one goal to the Blue Jackets 2 goals in the shootout.

Post-game, we tried to grab a quick dinner over at El Barzon; however, they were already closed for the evening (it was a Sunday, after all).  Our next try was at Mercury Burger Bar, but they were apparently no longer serving due to the rush they had from the St. Patty's Day parade.  We decided to just call Green Dot Stables to see what their wait was like; however, they just responded to our questions of "Are you still serving" with "Absolutely not".  We were a bit disappointed in Detroit's restaurant scene since this should be the day that they are absolutely serving, and should be happy for the business.

Not pressing our luck anymore, we headed over to Mexicantown where we found several restaurants ready to serve us, but we just parked it at the first one we came upon because we were all starving.  Thus, we capped our evening with a decent meal over at Los Galanes.  More photos from the game here.