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Enjoy This Time, Columbus |
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Since you first found out in the summer of 1997 that your city was going to awarded an NHL franchise, ending Ohio’s 22-year wait for big time hockey to return after the Barons departed Cleveland, you’ve dreamed of and waited for…and waited for… and waited for…this day to come.
Your team began play in the fall of 2000, one season after my Atlanta Thrashers kicked off their inaugural season, and you ended each of the first seven seasons once the regularly scheduled season concluded…82 games, no more. And every April, you began your 6-month wait for October to arrive and bring with it the next meaningful Blue Jackets game.
Those are long months. We Thrashers fans can relate.
You sat by and watched as the Minnesota Wild, the team that started playing the same season your team did, qualified for the post-season in just their third season…making it all the way to the Western Conference finals by way of two come-from-behind series wins in which they trailed 3 games to 1… first against the Avalanche, then the Canucks. Yes, they were fun to watch, that Wild squad was.
But it was Minnesota’s fans enjoying it to the fullest…and you were there, in your living rooms, waiting for the time to come so you too could join in on the same fun they were having.
You looked on as the Nashville Predators first qualified for the Great Chase for Lord Stanley’s Cup in the spring of ’04. It was their sixth year of play and, after the lockout, they returned to the playoffs each of the next four seasons.
Five straight post-season trips by a team that started playing just two seasons prior to yours…and you were still left wanting.
Then, two years ago, you watched from your sofas while I and 18,000 or so of my closest friends rocked Philips Arena as the Thrashers took to the ice in game-one of their first ever playoff appearance. The Thrashers, in their seventh season, had finally qualified for extra games after the 82 scheduled…and that left you as the only fan base in the NHL still yet to get that first taste of spring hockey.
sucks x 1,000 = that feeling…I’m sure.
Every spring since the league announced that your fine city was going to be granted a franchise on June 25, 1997… you’ve been left on the outside looking in. And every spring, while the fans of 16 other NHL organ-I-zations were packed into their home barns rooting on their teams in the post-season, you’ve thought to yourselves, “One day, that’ll be us…one day”.
Well, today, April 21, 2009…your wait is officially over…your day has come…and tonight, that will indeed be you.
God, how I envy you Blue Jackets fans. Oh, not just because your team is in it and my team isn’t…again. But moreover, because I remember how that first time felt for us 24 months ago when the Thrashers bolted onto the ice in that first ever playoff game. It was the last time an NHL franchise experienced its initial foray into the spring championship tournament.
I was there… section 316, row E. I had a great view of the ice, overlooking the surface from just behind the goal Atlanta attacked twice. The first ever post-season unfolded before my very eyes. The first ever Thrashers playoff goal, scored by Eric Belanger off a feed from Nic Havelid, played out right in front of me. When it was happened, Philips erupted in such volume that the upper decks shook below my feet. I remember it as if it were just yesterday.
And it’s been too long since that electricity has charged through Thrasherville
But now you get to experience that same thing tonight…you lucky so-and-sos!
However, be wary that this single moment will fly past you in a heartbeat. So do yourselves a favor tonight, take time to ingest this whole “first-ever playoff game” thing. Soak it all in… the sights, the sounds, the feeling and the absolute pleasure of it all.
Don’t miss anything.
Look around you and burn into your memories the looks on the many faces of those fans that have waited all this time as well. The one’s that you have gotten to know over the seasons and have had to say good-bye to after game number 82 saying, “Well…maybe next year”.
“Next year” be damned!
First time experiences only come…well, once. And even though you are guaranteed a second home game Thursday night, nothing will quite match the uniqueness that will be tonight’s extravaganza. I’m not saying game 4 of the series won’t be as loud and as exiting…especially if you enter that match with a chance to tie the series with the Big Red Borg…but tonight’s the game you’ve waited 12 years for, not just two days.
If you we’re there for opening night back in October of 2000…try to remember how loud…how frantic…just how intense Nationwide Arena was. Try to recall just how much the joint was rockin’, rollin’, movin’ and groovin’.
Uh-huh, that’s it…now multiply that by 10. No…10,000.
Yeah…that’s what we're talkin' about!
Tonight, I will be a Blue Jacket fan, living vicariously through you as you enter into the realm of that wonderful experience known as NHL playoff hockey…recalling exactly what it is that you are about to step into and what a thrill it is to enjoy for the very first time. We'll be back there again ourselves...someday...maybe.
Regardless... enjoy this, Columbus.
It’s the most fun you’ll have in a vertical position!
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