Is this Heaven? No, it's Hockeytown

Tuesday of this week was Game 4 of the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoff match up between the Phoenix Coyotes and the Detroit Red Wings. In these parts (i.e. metro Detroit), Red Wing hockey is a blue collar religion of sorts. The game I'm referring to had a 6:30pm start and for someone who works downtown, it was the perfect storm of hockey playoff possibilities. I started trolling for tickets as soon as my feet hit the ground at the Renaissance Center. I was asking around and touching base with my friends in high and low places in between work meetings, answering emails and the general daily mayhem that is OnStar.

I must admit it was a pretty stressful day, but in a good way. As luck would have it, the possibility of a pair of tickets fell into my lap and I went about scheming how to get one of my kids downtown to attend the game. I needed to have one of them come down as I'm part of a van pool and didn't have a ride home after the game. After much consternation, neither of my kids was able to come down. A colleague suggested that I ask my friend Jeff who is a lifelong metro Detroit resident and a long time Red Wing fan. That was the perfect solution! He normally comes to work in the same van pool as me, but had to drive down himself that day. He was able to go and after some effort to get the tickets from the seller, we were able to meet over at The Joe and head into the game.

It was a tense affair for most of the game with the Wings leading 1-0 in the third period. However, they scored a couple of quick goals and The Joe was rocking like no other sporting event I had ever attended. Talking to Jeff during the game, I found out that this was his first playoff game. That fact alone was enough to make it a memorable occasion and worth the price of admission. The 3-0 win was just icing on the cake and the end to a perfect day in Detroit. As we were walking back to the RenCen in the Jefferson Avenue tunnel waving our pom-poms at passersby, a question popped into my head, "Is this Heaven?". The answer came quickly, "No, it's Hockeytown."