Season Opener! Thrashers vs the Capitals

FINALLY! It's time to drop the puck in Phillips Arena. Fans were excited to see their new players and get the season underway. Some (and by some I mean ME) were more excited than others. Michelle was awesome enough to get a picture of me with my signs for Big Buff and Chris Mason.

I was getting all kinds of love for my signs. Chris Mason looked at my sign and waved his glove at me and smiled. He later skated by and gave me a stick tap. While Buff was leaned up against the wall like this, he looked at my sign and smiled, then gave me the "what's up" head nod. Swoon!



The Gremlin! Brent Sopel swirling around being dramatic.



Chris Mason in his very popular old school mask.



Abby with her "Pavelec Saves" sign.

the crowd was excited to see Big Buff, too!

Don't worry, Johnny, you are still my favorite!

My signs weren't the only ones for Mason and Buff.

Welcome to the NHL, Alexander Burmistrov!

First picture of "swarm the goalie" with Mason!

Tonight was set to be a super awesome night. My friend, Randy won a suite and we had it for opening night. If I won the lottery, I'd be in a suite every night. Only cool people would be allowed. It would be a douche bag free zone.

Opening face off of the first game of the season!

So the game has been going for a few minutes. We are watching the action in our zone. All of a sudden I hear someone say "what's wrong with Pavs?"



Michelle took this moments before the drama unfolded.

I look down at the other end of the ice and see this. No one saw anything. He didn't get hit, he wasn't tackled, he just collapsed.

*DISCLAIMER* I struggled with the decision to post pictures of the incident. I didn't want it to be in poor taste, especially as we don't fully know what happened. I very carefully selected the photos for this section to be informative for those who weren't there without being graphic and exploitive. I have many photos from myself and others, some of which are pretty close up, but I will not be posting those.


This is how he stayed the entire time, no movement, twitching or shaking.

The team doctors for both teams came out to tend to Pavs. What was really scary is that he wasn't moving at all. He just remained splayed out on the ice. My husband was an EMT and what disturbed him was how long it took them to get Pavs on the stretcher.

After what seemed like an eternity, the medical staff got Pavs on the stretcher. The team banged thier sticks when they got him on the stretcher. After minutes of stunned silence, the arena erupted into applause.

The doctors taking Pavs out of the arena.

This was the scariest thing I've seen at a game. You just didn't know what happened. Everyone was so worried. The game had to go on though. It's not how I wanted to see him play, but welcome to the game, Chris Mason!

The Gremlin, Sopel, guarding the net.

Johnny trying to stop the cherry pickening Russian.



Cherry picking bastard!



Ladd up in Neuvirth's grill.



After some scuffle in the crease, Mike Greene covered the puck with is hand and Evander Kane was awarded a penalty shot!


Kane approaching...



YES!



Pevs almost gets one in.



Action behind Neuvirth.



Thrashers win!



First star of the game, Evander Kane!


I don't know how the guys managed to put aside their worry for Ondrej and play the game, let alone win. I could barely concentrate and I was just watching! Big Buff told them on the bench "win this one for Pavs." Looks like this horrific incident is gonna bring out the good in the team. Go Thrashers!