Thrashers vs Hurricanes...Best Road Trip EVER!

Road Trips. I swore I was done, especially to Raleigh. As a whole, I've had no luck with road trips. Last year we drove to Raleigh with 151 other dedicated fans...our team got shut out. This January we literally braved death to drive up to Nashville after they had a blizzard...we lost. I swore I was done. Yeah, right. About 2 weeks after the Nashville trip, I bought my tickets for this game. SUCKER! It's cool, whatever. I had friends going. As the date drew closer, friends dropped out and sold their tickets. It ended up being me, my husband and our friend David. I'd been kind of dreading this trip. The RBC Center is NOT my friend. I've been there twice and both times my team got shut out.


Of course I brought signs!


I brought the Blueland Satellite Office sign. I just keep changing the section. That's why the blue doesn't match.





Can't go without my beloved Super Moose sign!





I'm thinking the win might have had something more to do with this sign.




If you have ever made the drive from Atlanta, you know you see some interesting stuff. It's all adult entertainment and Jesus. Actually there are a lot of fireworks too, but I didn't get a picture of it. Lots of sock depots and outlets too for some reason.





We arrived in Raleigh and checked in our hotel. We had lunch at this bad ass Chinese buffet we discovered last time we were there. I'm not a Chinese buffet person, but this place is good. TONS of choices and good quality.
http://www.tentenchineserestaurant.com/





We went back to the room and prepared for the game. We made our way over to my nemesis, the RBC Center! There were 60+ other Thrashers fans tailgating somewhere, but we didn't see them. We went and got a good spot in line so we could get a good spot on the glass. When we came to see the Devils in the Stanley cup series, there was a nasty lady who threw a fit about us being there, so I wanted a different spot than that.





We got a good spot alright, we were the first ones down there! As we are coming down the stairs I look over by the tunnel where the Thrashers come out and I see Rich Peverley! I got excited and yelled "PEVS!" He looked over, looked much less than excited and said "hey guys," then walked out. Pavelec came out next, saw us, shook his head and left.


The camera guy liked my signs. I had the above ones, plus one that said "Czech out Pavs" and one that said "A Little is all you need." It had a picture of Bryan and said "Go Bryan." I had to explain it to the camera man.



Warm Ups!


If you haven't been on a road trip, warm ups are pretty much just like home, except they are wearing different jerseys. Moose still stays on the right of the goal (if you are behind it).





The guys still stretch out. Arty is looking like WTF? Note Cam Ward to the right. Glad he didn't play.





I still take 4,238,288 pictures like this.





Hainsey still clears the pucks out of the net.





Johnny still...is Johnny *swoon*





Moose will always do the Moose Cruise. He's peeking at me, probably thinking "damn, they drove 6 hours."





Toby is in his usual spot. Slater has a black eye, but I didn't get a good shot of it.





Moose is in the zone!





"Stick, we are in this together! They drove 6 hours, we can't let them down!"





Pavs peeking over at me. He's probably thinking "Thank God I'm not playing tonight. If we lose those people will be pissed!"





Nik's hair still looks great, regardless of the city.





Max looks intense!





Looks like it doesn't matter the city, Little and Nik (Little Niky) stand together and chat.



First Period!







These lovely ladies are part of the Storm Squad. I really like their costumes. They are completely covered except for a bit of belly, yet they are very sexy. Our guys could learn something from this. Let's put our Blue Crew in something a little more practical. I've never understood why the girls who walk around the arena at Phillips get more clothing than the girls who have to bend over and squat down on the ice. Our girls are MUCH more talented though. I am not exaggerating AT ALL..the only thing the Storm Squad does?? They clap. Yeah, they clap to the music and shake their bottoms a little. They followed Stormy out on the ice for the intermission and 2 of them held a sign. The rest of them? You guessed it...THEY CLAPPED! Three hours of clapping. The one on the right was my husband's favorite. SUPER cute.





YAY! YMCA time. Stormy leads his friend, the Y and an RBC Lion up into the nose bleeds to do the YMCA.





Our seats were great, but not terrific for pictures.
Good job Pevs, take that puck from Dwyer.





Some chaos in front of Manny and in his crease. One of the Carolina guys pushed our guy right into the net knocking it off of the moorings.





The RBC Center DOES have some "talented" workers there.





"Yes baby, that is the Atlanta Thrashers and they are kicking our asses."





Some intermission entertainment of little guys playing hockey. Adorable.





The Storm Squad doesn't skate, but Stormy skates very well.





Of course it has John Deere on it.





Someone had a sign that said "Chris CheliOLD = Depends." +1, I love a good Chelios joke.

It was a great first period even though no one scored. The Thrashers out shot the Hurricanes 18 to 6 and killed off 3 penalties. Stay out of the box, boys!


Second Period!







Moose taking a drink.





Thrashers taking some action to Manny. Max is passing it to...not sure lol.





Pevs is waiting in front of the net. They are about to score a goal, but I missed it.





So if the Storm Squad doesn't do ice maintenance, who does? These guys in helmets, track suits and sneakers. They don't even skate! Appreciate your Blue Crew, Thrashers fans!





Manny makes a save.





Bergy does it again!





"Mommy, what do you mean the Thrashers scored again???"





Welcome indeed!!!





Reasoner taking it to the net.

The second period was the happiest 20 minutes I've experienced in the RBC Center since I was there for the 2004 draft. Only out shooting the Canes 11 to 9, the Thrashers scored 3 times and went into the 3rd period up 3-0!


Third period!







Get them out of there, Ron!





Pops in front of the net. Pops played a ton of minutes (17:34)in this game and did a really good job. He was a +1 for the game.





Thrashers babies kick ass and don't have to wear ear muffs! They do apparently eat quite a few Teddy Grahams.





Okay, I'm already high on victory when the most awesome thing ever happens. My husband and our friend David on the Kiss Cam. AGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





Moose making a save.





Guarding the crease.





How awesome is this? The Canes had Olympic Flags honoring their players who competed. Wish we had something cool like that...or anything cool.





Thrashers win! EPIC WIN! Moose gets a shut out. We are delirious and most of us are drunk.





I found out that hung over Thrashers fans recooperate the next morning at Biscuitville! Yum! We went in and Heatmeiser, Gretchen, Sally, Tim and a bunch more fans were there.
http://www.biscuitville.com/





Before leaving Raleigh we went to this pro hockey store called Cool Sports so my husband and David could look at hockey equipment. They had the coolest store dog ever there. His name is Coach.
http://www.coolsports.com/





As we came into the city the sun was setting. Because it was cloudy, it looked like the sky was on fire. Piss pour picture of something very cool.


Epic Win! Epic Trip! I seriously might retire my trips to the RBC center on this high note. Canes fans by the way were top notch! I know the tailgaters partied with Canes fans before hand. Coming out of the arena, we were told "good game" by many. We stood in the parking lot for about 20 minutes after the game talking hockey with a Canes fan. Good times!