My night on press row...diary style

My press credential

Thanks to my good friends at my internship, I was given the opportunity to have full press credentials for the Capitals vs. Bruins game.  It was a great experience overall.  And I decided to write a running diary of my night.  Enjoy!

6:10 p.m. ET: Walked up to the TD Garden like I owned the place and said, "Jeff Hancock, WHDH Sports."  Of course, I get a response saying, "you're not on the list."  So I whipped out my WHDH 7Sports I.D. card and BAM! The guy writes me a credential (NOTE: my internship is now officially over, but I still have my I.D. card.  I could totally take advantage of this situation).

6:15: Headed to the press room.  I didn't recognize anyone.  Just a bunch of old guys with gray hair wearing some sweet NHL blazers.  They look important.  I'd love to have one of those blazers. 

6:20: Arrived at my seat on press row.  Seat number N4-2.  I'm sitting so high that I'm above all the banners.  The Garden is beginning to fill up.

Free food

6:27: I'm consider press tonight.  You know what that means?  Free food.  I head over to grab some popcorn and soda pop (That's right New England...I said pop, not soda.  Deal with it).  As I'm walking past the NESN broadcast booth, I run into Andy Brickley.  Not literally though.  No sign of Jack Edwards.

6:45: Both teams have been warming up for awhile.  No signs of HBO cameras.  Some players will be mic'd up though.  No sign of Gary Bettman either.  Although, I doubt he's here.  Probably in Pittsburgh.  I'm really looking forward to watching Ovechkin live.  As I write this, he's taking one timers off passes from Backstrom.  Ovie, Carlson, and Green are the last guys off the ice.

6:50: I decided to go to the bathroom before the game begins.  There are two urinals in the bathroom.  Guess who's using one of them?  Jack Edwards.  I literally took a leak standing next to Jack Edwards (and no, he does not laugh like a mad man while he pees).  After I washed my hands, he sticks his hands under the water and looks at me and says, "GEEZE! This water is ice cold! You think they'd warm this up! It's like they ran it through a refrigerator!  It's colder than what comes out of the ground!"  We had a very, very brief exchange about the game after that.  The man might be crazy, but he's a nice guy.

7:00: Bruins pre-game video montage with Trans-Siberian Orchestra music and crazy Jack Edwards calls.  Awesome mix.  Nicely done, Boston.

7:08: The puck is dropped.

My view from press row.

7:14: All B's early on.  A quick Caps' turnover...Wheeler to Bergeron.  Bam.  It's 1-0 Bruins.  After watching 24/7 on HBO, this doesn't look good early on for Washington.  I can only imagine the F bombs from Boudreau and the blank stares in response from his players.

7:20: Ference shot is blocked.  Comes right back to him.  It's 2-0 Bruins.  Timeout for the Caps.  They're in trouble.  Garden is loud.

7:22: Right off the faceoff, McQuaid and Bradley got a full 12 rounds.  Real good fight.  McQuaid wins.  Garden is even louder.

7:25: Ovie with a great chance right in front.  Thomas stoned him.  Just announced that it was Ference's first goal in 99 games.

7:30: TV timeout...more free pop and popcorn for me.

7:34: Ovie getting huge boos every time he touches the puck.  Silly Bruins' fans.  They must think he's Crosby.

7:38: Wheeler scores and it's 3-0 Boston.  The Caps look horrible.  Can you fire a coach during a game?  Ove's line was on the ice for the goal.  Backstrom snapped his stick in half over his knee in frustration.

8:01: Second period is underway.  More Ovie booing.  Green just got smacked into the boards face first by Chara.  He went down.  Play was stopped.  Skated off and went to the dressing room (he would return).

8:04: Seguin stoned on a breakaway.  Caps go the other way and score.  Bradley gets it.  It's 3-1 and the Caps are showing signs of life.

8:09: Caps go on the first PP of the game.  Ovie hits the post.  If you ever get a chance to see him live, just watch his movement on the ice with or without the puck for an entire shift.  It's fascinating. 

8:28: Much better period for the Caps, but how 'bout a goal to make things interesting?

8:33: Colin's kid with a nice chance.  Good save by Neuvirth.  He was hurt on the play.  You could almost hear is groin tearing from press row.  Surprisingly he's okay.

Tons of stats given to me before the game and after each period.

8:54: Third period is a go.

9:03: Great Caps' pressure all period so far.  Ovie and Backstrom two chances point blank in front of the net and Thomas stops them both.  Need a goal soon to stay in this.

9:10: The Bruins' do an extremely nice job of blocking shots.

9:18: We have ourselves a ballgame!  Alzner scores from the point.  It's 3-2 with 5:28 to go.

9:19: Two fans literally just climbed over the glass and ran on the ice!  Unreal.  I've never seen that before at a hockey game.  They didn't get to far though.  Running on ice isn't the easiest thing to do.  Refs grabbed them pretty quickly. 

9:24: Headed down from press row on the 9th floor to the dressing room area on the 3rd floor.  As I got off the elevator, the two clowns who jumped the glass were in handcuffs and getting in the elevator.

9:26: Met up with my photog Myron.  Looks like he's right off the old crappy Islanders' sweater.  He's a real life Gorton's fisherman.

9:30: (watching game on TV in press room now) Ovie somehow goes in all alone! Stoned by Thomas with 10 seconds left.

9:32: Bruins win 3-2.

9:35ish: Headed inside the B's dressing room.  Collected sound from McQuaid, Bergeron, Thomas, and Wheeler.  I took crappy video on my cell phone, while the photog got the quality video for the station (My crappy video is below.  You probably can't even hear what the players are saying.  The arm with the stripped shirt?  Yeah, that's me.)

McQuaid

Bergeron

Thomas

9:54: Had the opportunity to speak with Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe.  Made sure to thank him for doing an interview for my hockey show that I did for my class.  He's a ridiculously nice guy.

9:57: Press conference with Claude Julian.

10:05: Grabbed the tape from Myron and literally ran back to the station.  My producer needed the tape fast to get the sound edited in time for the sports hit in the 10 p.m. newscast.  My cross-country background helped out here.

10:15: Sat down and went over the sound.  Helping pick out the good bites for the newscast.

Afterward, I stuck around to observe the 10 and 11 o'clock sports segments from the control room and finally headed home around 11:40.  A great last day at my internship and a great experience.