Mullets, jean shorts, french fries on sandwiches, generic sport shirts (the ones you see people selling on the side of the street for $5), shirts that say “he farted” with an arrow to their buddy, people screaming out the phrase “fire up the El Camino” with the Clarks blasting in the back round, the smell of rust, body oder, grease and pure sight of sure ignorance. There is only one place that fits that description and that’s PITTSBURGH. Those are the sights, smells, sounds I heard as I rolled into the small city to see game 4 of capitals/penguins series. After hearing all the commotion of the Penguins in the Stanley cup and the endless war between Philadelphia Flyers fans and Pittsburgh Penguins fans, I decided to share my experience as a Flyers fan heading into enemy territory to see the Pittsburgh Penguins take on the Washington capitals in a playoff game.
So the big question everyone probably asking. Why is a die hard Flyers fan going to game 4 of the Penguins/Capitals series? Well there is no secret, I’m from Pittsburgh, but that’s besides the point before the critical game 4. The Penguins foundation came out with a lip dub contest for the surrounding high school in the area. My school district decided to take part and I was granted with the position of playing the Washington Capitals goaltender, who of which they score on. They originally asked me to wear my Flyers jersey and I said “there is no way I would do that”. So we met in the middle with a Capitals shirt, they were playing them anyways so it worked out. The Penguins foundation end up picking our school as the winner and the prize was 40 tickets in a luxury box with all you can eat food. However, it just wasn’t the all you can eat food in a luxury box that made me wanted to go. It was going to a playoff hockey game in a luxury box, which is something I always wanted to do, Flyers or not. So I made sure I got a ticket and not a lot of people were happy about that, because of my history of ripping on the Penguins on my twitter account @Bambrizzle28 Personally I didn’t care, I was going regardless.
Here is the winning video! I’m at the end in the red shirt
I didn’t want to wear my Flyers shirt, because I knew I would not make it out alive, So I wore my “Straight outta Pittsburgh shirt” so I would blend in with the crowd. When I arrived at the box, they had all the food and beverages all set up and ready to go, I felt like a kid on Christmas day. Before the game started the Penguin foundation’s owner stopped by and congratulated us on being the winner. But the best thing he said was “So where is the Washington capitals fan?” as I was in the middle of going to town on my food, I stopped and said “Right here, But I’m not a Washington capitals fan, I’m a Philadelphia Flyers fan who had a Washington capitals shirt” He looked at me and chuckled and said “Well being a Flyers fan is much worse.” When the game started is when I went into full Penguin fan mode. I cheered when they cheered, I booed when they booed, I clapped when the clapped. At times I had to say to myself “remember you’re a Flyers fan, Joe.”
During the second period we notice we were 2 boxes over from the Washington Capitals box. If you remember Brooks Orpik, the former Penguins defensemen, was suspended and he was serving his suspension during that game. We decided to scream over and mess with him and as a Flyers fan that is the stuff flyer’s fans love to do, so I jumped right in screaming “Why aren’t you helping your team on the ice” and he started to get mad and he started yelling back at us calling us “kids” and at the worse possible time, they scored and they went nuts. They were jumping up and down, pointing at us and clapping. The period ended and Capitals were back in the game. As the third period was about to start, I notice up in the upper deck, I saw the bravest man in the city. He was a Philadelphia fan wearing a bright orange Flyers jersey.
This guy deserves a beer #PensVsCaps pic.twitter.com/p5CQkzNP3c
— Joe (@GusBus106) May 5, 2016
The third period ended and it was going into OT. The OT didn’t last long when the Pittsburgh Penguins put one past Holtby, the place erupted. Every yinzer (that’s what you call someone from Pittsburgh) went home happy that night, but there were a couple of things I learned about the penguins and their fans from that game.
1) Penguins fans don’t chant “Let’s go Pens” unless a loud air horn blows from the mascot iceberg
2) Penguins fans love to talk about the last time the Flyers won a Stanley cup in any situation
3) Penguins fans are really arrogant
4) The organization gives their fans a completely different shade of yellow shirt than what their players wear
5) Some of the Penguins players are alright players and humans except for Sidney Crosby
6) Consol is a really nice arena
7) Pittsburgh people are still stuck in the 70’s
8) French fries are a condiment
And the biggest one…..
9) Penguins fans still have a grudge against Jaromir Jagr
