My Adventures and Places Life Takes Me: Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Seattle Kraken

I got a message back in August from Antione and Nikki asking if I was interested in going to the Penguin and Kraken game in January. I had to ask Mom if she was available that day and I would let them know as soon as possible. Mom said yes and so I let them know we were interested and will be putting it on the calendar. I'm happy the game was on a Saturday because it made it easier for us to get to and we didn't have to take any time off of work to go.

When they received their tickets, Nikki let me know what the price was and I sent her money through Venmo, and they sent me the tickets to my email. All we had to do now was wait until January. Nicole decided to start a Dungeons & Dragons campaign in the fall/winter, and we scheduled some sessions. I should have taken a picture of my January calendar before committing to the date. Yes, I double booked myself. Ughhh.

As game day got closer, I moved the tickets into my Google Wallet and made sure they were there and didn't have to fumble with them when we got to the gate.

I chatted with Mom the night before that we were going to meet up at my house and drive up around 10. She said that would be fine. I got all of my stuff ready and shoved it inside my see through bag. I set aside the Crosby jersey, the Kraken beanie I was going to wear and hoped that it was going to be an exciting game.

I got up and prepared for the day. I hoped Mom got here before 10 to give us some time to get there just in case of traffic. I ate a quick breakfast, and she did roll in around 10. I am glad I got gas the day before, so we didn't have to make any unnecessary stops.

We got onto I-5 and headed north to Seattle. The traffic wasn't that bad actually and we were able to get into Seattle around 11:30. We got to our exit, and I tried really hard to remember what lane I had to be in to park at the Seattle Center. I messed up and had to drive around the block. We pulled into the parking lot, I got out and paid for a couple hours of parking, we grabbed our stuff and walked to the arena. Since we were short on time, we didn't have time to eat lunch at the Armory before going inside Climate Pledge.

We went to the closest gate, waited in line and we had trouble with the tickets. They wouldn't scan for some reason. They told us we had to go see a secondary ticket person because we were not the only ones having trouble with our tickets. He was helpful and apologized for our inconvenience. I asked Mom if we should grab some food before we headed to our seats and she said it would be a good idea.

We wandered around trying to find a place for food. None of them were being ran by people anymore. You had to have a credit card to scan and enter into the food court. You picked what you wanted and left out the other side. I was like, how do they know what you got and if it got paid for? I asked one of the people that were monitoring people. She said they had a lot of cameras to watch the activity of people and charged your credit card you scanned based off of what you "purchased". Hmm, what a world we now live in.

I wish we would have had enough time to eat at the Armory though, so we didn't have to spend so much money on food. Instead, we spent a bunch of money on a burger, fries, to share and a couple drinks. It was well over $50. It's a good thing we don't come to games or Seattle very often. We wandered back to our seats, took a few pictures, sat down and ate our food before it got busy.

I still am in awe on how nice Climate Pledge Arena actually is. It was fun to experience the ambiance of the arena while we ate our food. Both teams came out and did their pregame warm up routine. Nikki and Theo showed up and sat in the seats next to us. Theo was excited to be there and asked me several questions. We got settled in and the Kraken did their hype video and player introductions, and we stood for the anthem.

The first period was uneventful as there were no goals scored, however, there was one penalty called on the Kraken which the Penguins did not take advantage of being a man up. It was sad to see Evgeni Malkin from the Penguins leave midway through the first period with an undisclosed lower body injury. They were going to miss him in the lineup as one of the top offensive weapons.

During the first intermission I chatted with Nikki about the random things that have been happening since the last time I saw her. It was fun catching up and thanked her again for the tickets.

The game resumed into the second period. Assited by Andre Burakovsky and Chandler Stephenson, Oliver Bjrokstrand opened up scoring by putting one in the back of the net putting us ahead 1-0 in the early minutes of the period. The crowd cheered, chanted LET'S GO KRAKEN, high fives were given, and we were hungry for more.

Just two minutes later Sidney Crosby scored his 14th goal of the season with the assist by Rickard Rakell and Kris Letang. I was so excited that Crosby scored. There were two penalties on the Penguins. Just before the end of the period, Vince Dunn broke the 1-1 tie with a go-ahead goal assisted by Jared McCann and Chandler Stephenson. We now led 2-1 heading into the final period, and the crowd was amped! LET'S GO KRAKEN!

We went into the second intermission, and we stayed in our seats. Nikki and Theo left to go use the restroom and to get some snacks. Buoy entertained the crowd.

Five minutes into the third period, Eeli Tolvanen gave us an insurance goal assisted by McCann and Shane Wright. The place went nuts! LET'S GO KRAKEN! I was hoping at that point that the Penguins scored a goal soon to make it more exciting. Although, I did not want a tie game. I did not have time to stay for an overtime. The game continued back and forth with a penalty by each team, and no one scored off the power play advantage. Matty Beniers sealed the game with a goal assisted by Kaapo Kakko. We were now up 4-1 with less than 6 minutes left in the game.

The Penguins tried everything they could to get those goals back but ran out of time. I was hoping for another goal or two by Crosby, but it didn't happen. The final horn echoed throughout the arena and the Kraken fans cheered!

I thanked Nikki one more time for the tickets and Mom and I headed back to the Escape. The game got over just after 3 and we had just under two hours to get home. We had to leave as soon as we could so I could make it back home for the Dungeons and Dragons session at Nicole's house.

We managed to get to I-5 and traffic was a little slow getting out of Seattle, but we were making good time...until we got to Fife. It was stop and go all the way through Tacoma. Once we got through it, it was smooth sailing all the way home. I took us back to the house, Mom got into her Expedition and I grabbed a few things and drove out to Tumwater. I actually beat Celeste who also was going to be late. Erika made gluten free enchiladas, and we battled blood sucking stirge's and the gaggle of harpies.