The Bruins Are In Town

So I went downtown tonight to meet up with my friend Miles, who was in town for just the night as he is heading off tomorrow to work at a fishing lodge for the rest of the summer. I joined him and my other friend Ben at the Empire Landmark hotel and after enjoying the view from the 30 something floor we headed down to the water to have a few drinks and appetizers at Cardero's, an upscale seafood restaurant located right next to a harbour. It was quite warm outside despite being cloudy so we elected to sit on the patio overlooking the ocean and docks, which were occupied with yachts. I was making small talk as the hostess seated us and she admitted to being a Boston fan and pointed out a hotel across the bay and claimed that the Boston Bruins were currently staying there for the hockey game tomorrow. The hostess seated us and asked us how we liked our seats and I replied "perfect, I can even watch over my boat from here." I have used this joke before with good results! but this time it was not well received and I got 0 laughs :( Anyways, sitting 2 tables behind us were some familiar faces and after putting the pieces together we realized that it was none other than James Duthie, Darren Dreger, and one other TSN member that none of us recognized and we assumed that he worked behind the scenes:


We were all thinking that this was pretty cool since the three of us watch SportsCenter all of the time and it was neat to see the guys off camera. I didn't recognize Dreger at first because he was unshaven and Duthie was talking on his cell phone and was wearing a pretty ugly purple T-shirt.

Out waitress was very cute, she kind of looked like Erin from the office only with blone hair. Miles disagreed with me at first but came around the 2nd time he saw her...Ben said "what are you talking about, she's not even brown!" (confusing Erin with Kelly, fail lol). We ordered a pitcher of Sangria because it was on special, as well as some calamari and muscles to share and started tweeting/facebooking how awesome it was to be in the presence of TSN celebrities. It wasn't too long after we got our food that we looked towards the streets and saw three big guys in suits all sporting playoff beards walking towards the restaurant. We immediately assumed that they were Bruins players coming from the hotel and got excited about the fact that they might be eating at Cardero's...not only that, but there was a free table behind us that had room for 4. Sure enough, the staff started to get excited and moments later the three Bruins were seated directly behind us! I recognized Milan Lucic, who is actually from Vancouver I believe, and I did not know who the other 2 players were (no, they obviously weren't Chara/Thomas etc.). Miles, Ben and I didn't really know what to do...do we tell these guys that they suck and to go back to Boston? Drink more and then try and fight them (l o l)? I'm not really sure what the appropriate play is here but we chose to more or less ignore them and not acknowledge their presence. It was interesting to watch everyone's reaction to the players eating in a Vancouver restaurant. They received a ton of stares from everyone but most people were star-struck and seemed to forget where their loyalty should lie. A couple of older people went over to them and shook their hands and said things like "I hate to admit it...but you boys are doing a great job!" An older women went over with her son and even got one of the guy's autographs...for a second there I thought that they were coming up to me for mine. These guys ordered a lot of food, starting with a soup and salad and them mowed down a big burger and fries + a side of asparagus. As we were leaving I contemplated making some kind of last minute remark. I eventually decided that I was going to go up to them and say "good luck tomorrow boys, you're going to need it!" Unfortunately, I pussied out as expected at the last minute and walked on by without saying a word. I ultimately decided against saying anything because A) I would look like a fool B) I was wearing a blue T-shirt and we were drinking Sangria...it might look like I was hitting on them and not insulting them C) These guys are NHL ballers that can bang any girl in the city, they don't care what some homo says to them and D) my whole plan to not acknowledge their presence would be foiled. Alas, I can only hope that the burgers slow these guys down on the ice tomorrow and the Canucks send them packing out of Vancouver with their tails between their legs! Game 5 goes down at 5pm tomorrow and I'll be watching it downtown with about 1 million other people. The series is currently tied at 2-2 so this is obviously a huge game, especially considering that game 6 will be played in Boston. My dad actually has tickets to the game so he'll be watching it front and center! The Canucks lacked a lot of heart on games 3 and 4 so hopefully they find their mojo because they ARE the better team this year. Let's go!!!