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October 27, 2002
Kings Fall in Columbus, Jeff Sad
By Matt Petersen
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COLUMBUS -- Our eighth stop of the trip offered Jeff a
nice treat. He was going to see his team, the
white-hot Los Angeles Kings, against a struggling
bunch of hockey newcomers, the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Should be a win-win situation.
Just a few nights before while we were in Detroit,
Jeff was giving the Sharks a hard time for struggling
against these very same BlueJackets (a game that the
Sharkie emerged victorious, 5-4). He obviously felt
that his Kings were going to cakewalk through
Columbus, and upon reaching this great town of Ohio,
he was predicting a 4-1 Kings win.
He almost had the score right, but it was the other
way around. The BlueJackets played like a team out to
make a point (the Kings beat the Jackets 7-1 in
Columbus last year), and put a beating on the road
weary Kings from the opening face-off.
For the second night in a row, we saw a hat trick, and
another impressive offensive explosion. Tyler Wright
sent the hats flying from the stands when he put the
fifth and final goal past backup Kings goalie Jamie
Storr. He also sunk the heart of one Kings fan who
came to the Nationwide Arena with high hopes for a
win. Not tonight.
All was not lost. Jeff was happy to find out that we
would be cashing in on a free bowl of chili from
Wendy’s thanks to Columbus’ scoring spree. We would
definitely redeem that ticket stub for lunch the next
day (we’re getting into the nitty-gritty of the trip.
Budget issues, you know).
The fans in Columbus were great, and pretty loud. They
were a humble bunch, and didn’t give us the usual
“we’re the best fans in the world” mumbo-jumbo that
we’ve been getting, er, everywhere. They admit that
they have a bunch to learn (although hockey does run
deep in this town; they still remember their old minor
league team, the Chill). Their “Lets go Jackets!”
chant had a good ring, and the kid sitting behind Jeff
made sure he heard it clearly.
The Nationwide Arena is another beautiful new building
(seats 18,000-plus) that has a good deal of luxury
boxes (three levels), and like Minnesota, there’s too
much stuff to look at around the promenade. Our
favorite was the practice facility, where the team
trains, that is visible from the lower walkway where a
couple of local junior hockey players were holding an
informal skate.
The building sits in the heart of the downtown Arena
District with brewpubs and newfangled cineplexes
scattered about. There’s no shortage of fun to be had
here, and we felt like a couple of kids at Disneyland
walking around the area.
Well, maybe not Jeff so much as he was hanging his
head a little after the loss. But no worries, we were
pretty impressed with what was going on in this town.
Good fans who seem to be giving a young squad some
breathing room, and a cool area that has the capacity
to draw fans from far and wide.
We’re off to Pittsburgh next for the old Igloo, and to
see Mr. Mario Lemieux at home against his old
teammate, Jaromir Jagr. Should be a good one...
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Game #8 10/27/02
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