Canucks Road Trip 2012
We have had a few days of exploring new parts of Florida, and now it's time for the real reason we came... The Canucks.
CANUCKS vs FLORIDA PANTHERS
First stop is Sunrise, Florida, just outside of Miami, home of the absolutely huge Sawgrass Mills mall, and the Florida Panthers. After a little difficulty finding our hotel because Doubletree had bough Crowne Plaza after we booked, we checked out our room, and walked across the street to the mall for some lunch and a little shopping. On the other side of the mall is Bank Atlantic Center... the Panthers arena.
There's still signs that we aren't very far past Christmas in Florida, it is a little odd to walk past Christmas trees in shorts.
There's a lot of empty seats in the Pantherdome, but they still try to appeal to the crowd, the players skate out through a blow up Panther, the Anthem singer even has the assistance of the words on the screen so we know what to sing.
We had some pretty amazing seats, row 2, between the faceoff circle and the blue line. We must have stood out in our jerseys as the players would look at us whenever they skated by during stoppages. Norine was going to tell everyone Burrows was checking her out. I had a running gag with Kesler, every time he would skate over he would look at us, as soon as I lifted my camera, he would turn away.
The game started out great with Dale Weise scoring early in the 1st, but the Canucks went to sleep after that, and the Panthers scored 2 unanswered goals in the 2nd period. Vancouver was outshot 14-2 in the second period.
Although the Canucks didn't play well, Canucks Nation was well represented there was a lot of Blue and Green in the crowd, signs were waved, and the Canucks fans definitely outcheered and outchanted the Panthers fans. Funny to find out that an old colleague of mine is sitting in the same section as us... We have to go all the way to Miami to run into old friends.
Did I mention we had pretty good seats?
Late in the third period comes the announcement of the 50/50 draw, for those of you that aren't familiar, it is a charity fund raiser. You buy tickets, with half the money going to local charities, and half the money going to the winner. If you have been to a Canuck game, you know it is a regular occurrence for the 50/50 winner to walk away with $25,000 to $40,000... here comes the announcement, are you ready?
"Tonight's winner goes home with $342!!!" Lucky fan 
After the loss, the fans throw rubber rats on the ice to celebrate. This was a tradition started back in 1996 when Scott Mellanby killed a rat in the locker room prior to the team's home opener with his stick, then scored two goals with the same stick. Fans immediately picked up on the idea and began throwing plastic rats on the ice to celebrate goals. By the time the Panthers reached the 1996 playoffs, thousands of rats hit the ice after every Panthers goal, resulting in an off-season rule change by the NHL that allowed for referees to penalize the home team if fans disrupt the game by throwing objects onto the ice. I guess by only throwing them after a win, they don't get a penalty,
and based on how they normally play, the fans save a lot of money on rats.
The next morning we pack up and take the 4 hour drive from Sunrise to Tampa Bay. Traffic was light, and cruise control barely got touched until we neared Tampa, and got slowed up by yet another car accident. Luckily we were close to the incident and didn't have to wait long. Thanks to our GPS unit "Austin Powers", we got to our hotel with no problems, and it turns out we are a parking lot away from the arena.
CANUCKS vs TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING
Prior to the game we wandered around downtown Tampa Bay a bit, a nice waterfront area, almost deserted. We found an amazing Greek restaurant looking out on the bay before heading back fro the game. As we walk past the arena to our hotel we spot a few Canucks players walking from the hotel to the arena... then we spot a bunch of Canucks fans lined up to try and get pictures or autographs.
Looks like Canuck Nation will be out in force tonight again.
There are a lot of creatures around Tampa Bay, lots of little geckos, and weird art structures.
Finally it's game time, time to take the 2 minute walk to the Tampa Bay Times Forum... that's a mouthful.
Our seats were pretty good for this game too, Row J behind the Canucks net. Luckily for us, the game was much more exciting.
The Canucks got off to another quick start, with Alexander Edler scoring 2 minutes in. Halfway through the first period Jannik Hansen scores Short-Handed to take a 2-0 lead. In the 2nd Period Steven Stamkos scores his league leading 29th goal for the Lightning. Malhotra and Lecavelier exchange goals before Ryan Kesler scores with 2 seconds left in the period to make it 4-2 at the end of the second.
In the 3rd Period Tampa scores a goal and then scores another with 1 minute left in the game to send it to Overtime.
Tampa Bay has great fans, there is a lot of Lightning jerseys, their fans are very vocal, especially trying to drown out the Go Canucks Go chants. Their mascot "Thunder Bug" has a lot of fun, and they even have a real Lightning machine in the rafters, sending bolts of lightning to start the periods and after every goal. The Lightning didn't go in Overtime, and we are heading to a Shootout... oh boy!
SHOOTOUT
Ryan Malone of Tampa Bay - Save
Kevin Bieksa of Vancouver - Save
Dominic Moore of Tampa Bay - Miss
Mason Raymond of Vancouver - an amazing Spin-o-Rama Goal
Steven Stamkos of Tampa Bay - Save
With Raymonds amazing spin-o-rama goal the Canucks win!!!! The Players celebrate, I celebrate, and one of my crazy alumni and his friends celebrate. It seems no matter where I go I run into someone I know.
The walk back to the hotel was a good one, happy with the win, we load up on snacks for the drive to Disney World in the morning.
Next stop Orlando, Florida... Home of Mickey Mouse and Harry Potter.