For Pauline’s Birthday, I took her a Leafs game. Ok, so it was in Buffalo, and it was only pre-season; but on the plus side, we didn’t have to spend the downpayment for our home on it! Actually it was really awesome, because I got rinkside tickets, which meant that when someone came down the wing and shot at the net (especially the prospects), it was an OH SHIT DUCK moment. Here’s our view:

The bad part of the view was that any time the play was down at the other end, we couldn’t really tell what was happening. Other than that, it was an exciting game. The score was 0-0 through two periods, before the Leafs went out to a 2-0 lead. Only to have Buffalo score a goal at 2:21 left, another goal with 5 seconds left in regulation time. And finally the winner at 1:03 in overtime. We were surrounded by Buffalo fans, so everyone around us erupted during the comeback. Even though the Leafs didn’t win, it was very exciting, especially when someone got checked.

This game was also a special event because Buffalo rolled out the red carpet for the Leafs. I thought this meant that the Leafs would walk down the red carpet, but it was only the Sabre players. We were lucky to have loud kids in front of us so the players would come over and sign their shirts/jerseys. I couldn’t recognize any of them but here is I think Jochen Hecht and Rick Jeanneret (play-by-play announcer).

We stayed overnight at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Buffalo. Surprisingly (until you get there) there are no 4 or 5 star hotels in Buffalo, and the Hyatt was a three star. Although, for some reason it’s only the 18th ranked hotel in Buffalo on Trip Advisor. After reading the reviews, I was prepared to be disappointed by their rooms, but it wasn’t that bad. I have a new rating system for hotel room size, and our room rolled in at 3 Japanese-Hotel-Rooms size. Here’s what it looked like: