2005.12.06

After pulling an insane 12-hour-a-day workweek at the end of November while her co-workers were all burning vacation, Sherylen was rewarded by upper management with a pair of Sharks tickets for the game against the Atlanta (disk?) Thrashers, who aside from Kovalchuk, were a bunch of no-names to a west-coaster like me. Well, ok, so they also got Marian Hossa in the Dany Heatley trade from Ottawa...and former Sharks Andy Sutton and Steve Shields, but whatever.

But anyway, these weren't just any seats; these were two tickets in a Penthouse Suite in the upper realm of the Shark Tank. You actually have to take the elevator up to the fourth floor to access these suites, which come complete with their own minibar, couches, and sitting area.

As mentioned above: seating area recessed from the crowd, complete with climate control and a sliding door to block out noise from the arena.

A view of the other wall: minibar, sink, and two HDTV screens to follow the action if you'd rather park your ass on the couch. They were quite handy for replays, I must say.

And these are the 12 seats available per suite: unlike normal stadium seating, each individual chair is free to roll around on its own, there's plenty of legroom, and the chairs actually recline!

The view from the particular suite we were in was actually decent too. It's only a tad higher than the nosebleed seats I've been in during playoffs past, and there weren't any glaring blindspots.

View of the ice from our box. Notice the protective glass at the bottom...that's to keep our drinks from falling over and hitting an unsuspecting spectator below.

And from this height, I had a clear shot at the banners hanging from the rafters.

But perhaps the biggest perk of having a "Penthouse Suite" ticket (well, aside from the free parking pass into the Arena parking lot) was full access to the Club Level -- this is such an uppity snob-hob-nob thing, that they have security personnel checking your tickets before they let you in to "the Club"...I felt like I was at the movies on a Friday night full of movie-hopping teenagers or something --, where we ran into this crazy character:

Here, SJ Sharkie attacks the neighbouring box (full of kids, mind you) with some silly string.

As for the game itself, it was Joe Thornton's home debut as a Shark; he chips in two points, Marleau chips in his three, and the Sharks score their five goals en route to another victory -- their third in a row since acquiring Super Jumbo Joe. Ho Hum...