Philly Trip

Spent part of the weekend in Pennsylvania watching the NCAA D-3 defending champion Neumann U squad take two games from Geneseo out of NY.  This was Neumann's season opening weekend and I'm sure they were a little nervous about the number of players lost to graduation but they played a pair of solid games featuring a puck pressure style that was entertaining to watch.

So, the visit was extended by several hours when a Flyers ticket was waved under my nose. I hadn't yet been to the Wachovia Center so I jumped on the opportunity to watch the Flyers play the visiting Panthers. If you pay any attention to pro hockey, you've seen the replays of the Mike Richards hit on Florida's David Booth that took place in that game which, for me, led to an interesting technology moment.

Since I was at the Flyers game I was not watching the Capitals play the Islanders, relying instead on the out of town scores at the Wachovia. Looking for an explanation as to why the Caps were losing and scoreless after two periods against the woeful Islanders, I fired up the iPhone early in the third to see if any of the usual suspects was live-blogging the game.

When I got to Japers Rink - the first entry was a link to the Richards hit on Booth.  Although I'd seen the aftermath of the incident (including a fairly up close look as they wheeled him off the ice right below me), I was not well-positioned to see the actual check (which was a little away from the play) and - needless to say, I guess - they weren't showing the replay in the building - choosing instead to run a series of ads on their 9 bajillion dollar high-def screen in lieu of supplying any kind of actual customer value.

The link at Japers was a YouTube clip taken by someone in the building lucky enough to be recording the action on their phone when the hit occurred and then uploaded it to YouTube so that I, in turn, could view the action the Flyers management wouldn't let me see from my rather expensive seat. It reminded me of long-ago days in the Spectrum when the upper tier seats in the next section were converted to a temporary press box during the playoffs and you got a big thrill by peeking over the shoulder of the reporters to see instant replay of the big plays.