No Blues Here

Had a blast at the Blues game Friday night.

We took I-70 into downtown since the other route is closed. No major traffic issues, got to Union Station around 5, had a leisurely dinner and stroll, did some people watching.

Walked two blocks to ScottTrade Center and caught the warmups, which always fascinate me. The teams come out and it's sort of organized chaos, a continuing skating circle with pucks flying all over the place.

The arena was about 1/4th full just before game time, then maybe 3/5ths full for the game. We sat behind the Calgary goal in section 124, really good seats.

Watching hockey on TV does not give the game justice. When you have a view of the whole ice surface you can see the various strategies for dumping the puck in or trying to get it out of the defensive zone. If you've ever been on skates you'll really appreciate what tremendous athletes hockey players are, and they look so smooth and effortless gliding across the ice.

St. Louis played Calgary and watching Calgary's great player Jarome Iginla was a treat. Calgary likes to fling the puck back and forth across the rink, something you really can't appreciate with television. St. Louis played pretty well but they don't seem to have the creative offensive players, and the Flames scored three straight goals and won in overtime.

Note to Provine: Dion Phaneuf was in the penalty box twice .... go ahead and insert your own jokes here.

The good thing about going to a game is the live atmosphere, but that's the bad part too. Some drunk college kids were sitting behind us and were just loud and profane enough to be annoying but not really out of control.

It took us about 15 minutes of battling traffic to hit I-70 and we were home by 1 a.m.

I won't pay big bucks to see a professional sporting event, but if I get free or cheap tickets, I won't hesitate to go back to another game.