Saturday, October 1, 2016

Penguins - Week 5

One game to recap this week!

It was a meaningless and boring preseason game that featured very few regular Penguins in the lineup, but it was my first real game with the Pens as I continue to get a feel for what a typical game night feels like.

The Pens defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 1-0 Friday night in their first home preseason game of the year and their third preseason game overall.

We got to the arena at 3:30 and continued to figure out what we do pregame, which included setting up the press box and making sure the media work rooms are all in order.

I also manned the credential table for about an hour before the game before eating dinner (press dining at the Pirates is better).

We did our normal pregame routine which is really just distributing the starting lineups for both teams to everyone in the press box, then we sat in our booth and watched the first period. During the game we are typically writing notes about the players and teams, but we are just practicing now for preseason to get a feel for it. There weren't a lot of notes after a 1-0 win.

In between periods, we have to pass out stats to both the media and the coaches in their offices. After the game, I went to the Penguins locker room and got sound from Marc-Andre Fleury's interview and went to our head coach's press conference. I was in charge of passing the microphone around to the media members asking questions.

Once we get going with the season, everything will be pretty formulaic and standard. We had the benefit of working the World Cup of Hockey to really get a feel for how games work.

My work with the Pirates is also officially done for the season. We ended Thursday with our final game that resulted in a 1-1 tie, the first tie since 2005 in MLB and our first tie since 1998. The whole night was bittersweet and I kept thinking how lucky I am to be in my position. It was a weird night considering we tied, but it was a fun way to go out. I'd rather go out with a tie than getting slaughtered in a Wild Card game like the past two years.

We have a pair of preseason games next Wednesday and Saturday for the Penguins against Detroit and Columbus before the regular season officially begins Oct. 13.

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