LIVE TO SEE ANOTHER DAY....

Yesterday was a pretty long day, beginning with hosting a party of about 50-60 firemen for FDNY Medal Day and ending with hosting a Stanley Cup Viewing Party for a bar filled with mostly LA Kings fans, hoping to hoist the cup (and brooms).

The afternoon was spent attending to the firemen from one of the Manhattan houses, who were there to honor their boss, who had received a significant award earlier in the day.  They were a pretty group of guys who enjoyed the afternoon by telling stories and enjoying some good food and drinks.  I had stayed awake half the night stressing over the details of the event and it all turned out for naught.  As far as parties go, this was pretty easy; far easier than I expected.

After dealing with that, I had another issue to deal with;  We had a Stanley Cup Viewing Party scheduled for last night; a possible Cup-clinching game for the LA Kings.  One of my TV's had stopped working the night before and I needed to get it up and running before the game began.  So I called my TV tech guy and he was going to come in and get it fixed, but he wouldn't get there until after regular office hours.  So I stressed a bit until he finally arrived, about an hour before gametime.  Luck would have it, he traced the problem, fixed it and had the TV up and running, with minutes to spare and a group of LA Kings fans, waiting to celebrate a Stanley Cup victory.

As far as the game goes, I was amazed at the number of Kings fans there were in the bar.  It seems like they come out of the woodwork when things are going well.  I was also surprised to see how few Devils fans there were at the bar.  Did they give up already?  Talk about jumping off the Titanic! The game started out predictably enough, with the LA Kings taking the fight to the Devils. I was impressed to see the Devils hold their own as they were close to getting chased out of the building.  That being said, I was still worried about them winning the game because they looked tentative and not like a team who not fighting for their playoff lives.

When the Devils finally scored to take the lead (their first lead in the whole Stanley Cup Final, by the way), the merry band of Devils fans in the bar were ecstatic.  However, their celebration was short lived, as the Kings came right back and tied the game moments later.  Now we're late into the 3rd period and we could either be seeing a bar full of Kings fans going ape shit or the merry band of Devils fans dancing a sigh of relief that they get to watch another game.  All I know is that for once, the last thing I wanted was an overtime.

Thankfully the Devils scored and then capped the game with an empty-netter.  So while the Kings fans didn't get to celebrate the Cup, they still have a huge 3-1 lead.  And the Devils avoided being swept and live to see another day.  And I got to go home at a reasonable hour.


TONIGHT:  Celtics vs Heat Game 6 Viewing Party. Can the Heat rebound from their Game 5 loss in Miami?  Or will the Celtics close the door on their season?  Catch the game (w/audio) and see how it unfolds!  $4 Bud/Bud Light & Coors Light pints and $4 Sangria (red/white) from 5-10pm!

EURO 2012 kicks off TOMORROW!

Cheers!