Hockey

Tonight I had the privilege of attending a hockey game. One of our vendors invited 8 of us from The Times to sit in their corporate box at Madison Square Garden to see the Rangers play the Islanders. It was a remarkable experience from many respects.

The first notable thing was the luxury. We had a private suite with catered food and plenty to drink. What shocks me the most was the enormous amount of food and probably the enormous waste. My co-workers were drinking and eating themselves silly and mostly ignoring the game. They were chatting, texting, and I suppose having a very good time. These are not people that I particularly like so I avoided alcohol and deep conversations. It was very noisy there so the conversations were easy to avoid.

The game of professional hockey has also changed quite a bit since my last NHL game which was probably more than 10 years ago. Ties are frowned upon. This game ended in a 3-3 tie at the end of regulation play. First they play a 5 minute overtime period which ended scoreless. Then they did a shoot out which is one player against the goalie. This ends when one team scores and the other can't answer with a goal of their own. The Islanders won on this. It was an unsatisfying way to end the game since it was so closely fought.

One of the reasons I stopped going to sporting events was that I really couldn't follow the play. These seats were so good that I was actually able to see the puck for some of the time. Not all of the time but enough to keep it interesting.