Jason Lewis: Thanks Philadelphia, it was a Blast

Nice write up. Thanks for taking the time and writing about what you experienced. Most writers just use the Santa story and leave it at that. We just want a good effort from our boys. If we get that than we are generally ok.

Also, if that game had been a playoff game the treatment you received might have been different. However, if you are not a douche or a Pens fan (is there a difference?) than you will be ok.

Glad you enjoyed it, Mr. Lewis. I wish you could've left a bit more disappointed, though

Glad to hear you enjoyed your visit, Jason. You also chose correctly when you selected Tony Luke's for your sandwich. I've never had the Chicken Italian but, for my money, TL's has the best cheesesteak in the city. Also glad to hear the fans made a good impression on you. I suspect your experience may have been a little different had you been wearing a Pens or Rangers jersey.

Have fun at the Verizon Center and I'd love to read a similar report on that experience.

Glad to hear you enjoyed your visit, Jason. You also chose correctly when you selected Tony Luke's for your sandwich. I've never had the Chicken Italian but, for my money, TL's has the best cheesesteak in the city. Also glad to hear the fans made a good impression on you. I suspect your experience may have been a little different had you been wearing a Pens or Rangers jersey.

Have fun at the Verizon Center and I'd love to read a similar report on that experience.
- BOSS_TWEED

Haha that's what another Flyers fan told me as well in terms of pens fans.

I plan on doing another one about Verizon center as well!

Haha that's what another Flyers fan told me as well in terms of pens fans.

I plan on doing another one about Verizon center as well!
- Jason_Lewis

D.C. is always a very cool place to visit and the arena is in a great neighborhood! Obviously if you have extra time and enjoy U.S. history, there aren't many better places to visit than D.C.

Haha that's what another Flyers fan told me as well in terms of pens fans.

I plan on doing another one about Verizon center as well!
- Jason_Lewis

Verizon Center is cool. I went to a Flyers-Caps regular season and playoff game in 2008. Neither time did I feel threatened. Pretty tame in terms of confronting opposing fans. They are enthusiastic though.

They only thing I really noticed was how many Russian player jerseys I saw. With all the red and Russian names on back I felt like I was in Moscow.

This was a fantastic read. Glad you enjoyed your stay in Philly.

I too was at the game (section 117) and the three post shot was insane from my view. Looked like it went around the entire inside top back post.. and just rolled out. Soon as I saw the replay I knew it was no goal.

Good finish to the game as well.

Glad to hear you enjoyed your visit, Jason. You also chose correctly when you selected Tony Luke's for your sandwich. I've never had the Chicken Italian but, for my money, TL's has the best cheesesteak in the city. Also glad to hear the fans made a good impression on you. I suspect your experience may have been a little different had you been wearing a Pens or Rangers jersey.

Have fun at the Verizon Center and I'd love to read a similar report on that experience.
- BOSS_TWEED

Living in NYC, I'll be heading to MSG tomorrow night. Always entertaining when Philly comes to town.

For the game last night, I'm really thinking LA got away with one. 2 periods of solid play followed by a 3rd of getting steamrolled by Philly. Lucky to sneak out of there with 2 points. And that triple post was finally the hockey gods smiling on a kings team that far too often gets shat upon.

With the Flyers recent play, I'm kind of excited to see Boston hopefully have a serious challenge come playoff time. For whatever reason, I'm still not sold on Pitt, and the Philly-Pitt games a couple weekends ago followed up by Chicago and the Blues pretty much means there should be a top 3 in the east now. Just a solid run.

I saw your blog title, thought it would be sarcastic, and you were going to bash the team, city and fans. Fortunately, I was wrong!!! Thanks for recognizing the truth. Every team has a minority of morons at their games. I've been to a number of cities and have to say, the larget number of obnoxious and rude fans are at the garden in NYC. Again, they are a small minority and it's a great tradition to go there to see a game. The only thing wrong with last nights game was the outcome. Ha! But, thanks for posting something nice, instead of garbage. Glad you enjoyed your visit!

Glad you had a good time at the game. You got to experience both sides of of the Philly fan coin with your neighbors - those that treat it like the game it is, and those that live and die with the team - and that's definitely a good thing. Hell, some of us do both at the same time.

Solid writeup, Jason. Enjoy the rest of your road trip.

D.C. is always a very cool place to visit and the arena is in a great neighborhood! Obviously if you have extra time and enjoy U.S. history, there aren't many better places to visit than D.C.
- BOSS_TWEED

So true. This will be my 4th time in DC. I've hit most the major attractions but you can ALWAYS find new stuff to do. This time around I am going to try and catch the spy museum and the newseum

Nice piece Jason! Slava had a tough time with his twigs, too... I think 2 disintegrated on shot attempts which is never good. That game could've gone either way but I'm glad it went the way it did. It wasn't a playoff game, but after Philly got those 2 on bad clear attempts and vlue line shots/tips, I jumped off the couch screaming when Kinger buried the winner!

regarding your neighbors and your treatment, I wonder if you would've had as good an experience not sitting in the lower bowl. Might have been a tad more rough sitting in the equivalent of Staples 300s...

Anywho, on to DC. Hopefully less penalties tonight!

GKG!

FINALLY someone didn't take the usual media troll article angle about philly fans being this and that bla bla bla. FINALLY A person who admits that if you show the home team crowd respect, while rooting against, you'll find it more fun, instead of being an a**hole trying to be cocky and DESERVING what you get!!!! Props to you Mr Lewis for being someone that can have access to a keyboard, and a venue, to write something truthful for once instead of the usual "Booing Santa" GARBAGE they know nothing about, story wise!

Glad you had a good time. Honestly, back in the 80s and even early 90s, back at The Spectrum, it was definitely a lot rougher. And people generally use the term "Philly fan" when they really are saying "Eagles fan" because, well, yeah, they're wieners.

As for the game, the Flyers almost got away with playing 20 minutes of hard hockey. I also don't get why Richards and Carter get booed every time they touch the puck after they signed what are basically lifetime contracts with the Flyers.

So true. This will be my 4th time in DC. I've hit most the major attractions but you can ALWAYS find new stuff to do. This time around I am going to try and catch the spy museum and the newseum
- Jason_Lewis

That's where I lived before coming out here. While you're in that area, grab some casual but very good Japanese grub and real tea and Teaism in Penn Quarter (easy walk down the road from the arena, just a few blocks up from the Mall).

Spy museum and Newseum are cool. Check out what exhibits are showing at National Geographic on 17th and M just off the Farragut North metro. They usually have something interesting on the ground floor exhibit spaces in both buildings. It's not huge, but it's always well done.

Glad you had a good time. Honestly, back in the 80s and even early 90s, back at The Spectrum, it was definitely a lot rougher. And people generally use the term "Philly fan" when they really are saying "Eagles fan" because, well, yeah, they're wieners.

As for the game, the Flyers almost got away with playing 20 minutes of hard hockey. I also don't get why Richards and Carter get booed every time they touch the puck after they signed what are basically lifetime contracts with the Flyers.
- jmatchett383

I was wondering the same thing. Those guys didn't really want to be traded if I remember correctly. Richards was devastated at first and Carter was miserable in Columbus. But hey that's sports. It happens. Not sure if they warrant boo birds. Guys gave their all for Philly when they were there. Had to know it would happen though.

You left out the part where beer bottles were thrown at your head, children screamed curses in your ears and overgrown men vomited on you.

All kidding aside, Philly is such an underrated city. People always ignore it because its between Washington and NYC. I kind of like it that way.

I was wondering the same thing. Those guys didn't really want to be traded if I remember correctly. Richards was devastated at first and Carter was miserable in Columbus. But hey that's sports. It happens. Not sure if they warrant boo birds. Guys gave their all for Philly when they were there. Had to know it would happen though.
- Jason_Lewis

Our media is pretty poopy. Bill is the only honest reporter who discusses the game, treats players with respect, has knowledge of the game and ignores the drama.

A large majority of the fans get their information from unreliable sources. The media made it seem like the downfall of the Flyers was all the fault of Carter and Richards.

Our beat writers have had a lot of fun at some of the players' expense. Then they wonder why the players are always defensive during interviews and rude to them. Frankly, I think Giroux is amazing with the way he handles interviews. He truly is a great off ice captain.

Nice write up. Speaking as a former Philly native living in LA, very well done. Though, if there is one other team we can abide by it is probably the Kings. A cross conference team that happens to share a lot of ex players and personnel on both sides.
Still I'm glad you had a great experience. And yes, Philly owns the Italian Sandwich, Hoagie and Cheesesteak. Anyway as far as the game, we'll get ya next time.

Cheers.

I was wondering the same thing. Those guys didn't really want to be traded if I remember correctly. Richards was devastated at first and Carter was miserable in Columbus. But hey that's sports. It happens. Not sure if they warrant boo birds. Guys gave their all for Philly when they were there. Had to know it would happen though.
- Jason_Lewis

There are always those boo guys and not everyone's like that. But like in many aspects of life, the extreme views tend to be spoken the loudest, least they be ignored.

Nice way to cover the experience, makes me want to go to Philly, get a sandwich and catch a hockey game. As a matter of fact, after reading the comments and the blog I think I'll try to find a good sandwich for lunch right now. I also have forgotten all the history in philly. The one east coast city I haven't been to that I wanna visit.
There is a good connection with philly and kings players and I'm sure that is shared by most. Good to see Simmonds doing well. Any flyers fans wanna comment on B Shenns progress? Haven't checked his stats in a while

Nice way to cover the experience, makes me want to go to Philly, get a sandwich and catch a hockey game. As a matter of fact, after reading the comments and the blog I think I'll try to find a good sandwich for lunch right now. I also have forgotten all the history in philly. The one east coast city I haven't been to that I wanna visit.
There is a good connection with philly and kings players and I'm sure that is shared by most. Good to see Simmonds doing well. Any flyers fans wanna comment on B Shenns progress? Haven't checked his stats in a while
- dprice818

some nights he's more visible than others, which seems normal for his age. with the way simmonds and couts have broken out (one offensively one defensively) i think it's easy in comparison to think schenn isn't keeping up the pace... we all are hoping he'll have some sort of giant leap in development soon, but i am willing to be patient. i'm excited to see these young guys in the playoffs again... fingers crossed... they were so young last time around.