father last May: (D=Dad M=Me)D: Hey how are you.....question for you. There's a guy that plays for the LA Kings (NHL team)...his first name is Ryan.
M: Um.....the only guy i can think of is Ryan Smyth.
D: No that doesn't sound right. I think he used to play for the Oilers....and then maybe the Islanders?
M: Yeah that's definitely Ryan Smyth. He's a pretty big name. They called him Captain Canada.
D: Are you sure?
M: (by now I've got on the kings website) Dad I'm looking at their roster. There's no one else named Ryan on the team and the guy you described is definitely Ryan Smyth.
D: Huh......well he's my roommate for the weekend.
M: Dad where are you and what the heck?
So it turns out my dad was at some conference last May in California and Ryan Smyth was his roommate. Throughout the course of the weekend they were the only roommates who were also in the same small group and seminars or whatever. So by the end of the weekend they're like buds. Like my dad has Ryan's cell number and talks to him pretty regularly. WHAT??? Seriously. So Ryan casually says...."if I'm ever playing in Pittsburgh I better see you."
That's cool enough. But the chances of that happening aren't good. LA only plays Pittsburgh one game every other year and they switch where that game is played between the two cities so it's really once every four years chance. So I get this great idea that Columbus is a West Coast team and so LA has to play them more often and in Columbus too! So I figure my dad could drive to Columbus which isn't all that far from where he lives and see Ryan. So I get on the Kings website and as I'm looking at their schedule......yes you guessed it.....the Kings play Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh February 10th. I instantly call my dad (this is back in the fall)...and he talks to Ryan.
So my dad sets up getting together with Ryan for dinner on Wednesday the 9th when the team gets into town. Ryan casually says, "well would like to come to the game too?" "Yeah that would be fun." Ryan says he'll give my dad some tickets and wondered who he'd bring. So my dad instantly says me. Now back in May my dad had told Ryan that "his son" played hockey too (not knowing that Ryan was a big deal). Ryan didn't know how old I was so he encouraged dad to have me keep with it because there's always a need for young goalies coming up. HA HA I'm older than Ryan is! So anyway....they talked about us and the boys. So fast-forward now....Ryan says that if I'm coming, he'd like to meet me and he'll leave visiting team guest passes for us!
So I met my dad north of the city and we drove in together to have some extra time to talk. We got there and had to find will-call. Even the ticket guy was surprised that there were two envelopes. We asked him what the visitor guest passes did for us and he didn't know. We asked another attendant, she didn't know. FINALLY we got the head of the section to tell us what that did for us (more on that later). We got to our seats. Good seats, lower bowl on the end where the Kings shot during the first and third period.
Now here was the dilemma. Who do we root for? We're both normally Pens fans. We're in Pittsburgh watching the home team play. However our buddy just hooked us up...and he plays for the opposing team. The ride into the city we discussed what we were going to do. As soon as the puck dropped instantly we both knew we were going to have to root AGAINST Pittsburgh. Crazy. It was a great game. Pittsburgh won with 18 seconds left in overtime. Normally I would've jumped out of my seat to pump my fist...instead we both just sat there dejected.
So the visiting passes got us into this restricted club and then lead us down to ice level right by the visiting bench to wait for "our player" to come out. So we're sitting there waiting with some other people. I look over to the next section and there is Bill Cowher (previous coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers and football analyst....and probably soon to be coach of some other team) waiting for a player to come out with his family! WILD!
So finally out comes Ryan. If I hadn't just watched him play a game and saw him on the street I wouldn't have guessed he was a professional athlete. He's not much bigger than I am (and I'm not a big guy). He got cut on his brow during the game and had a stitch in.
First thing he says to me is congratulates me on winning a hockey tournament back in August. I'm like "Ryan it's just a silly beer league tournament." He was like NO, you play for fun and you won, that matters. Good job. Um........OK.
Ryan Smyth is an awesome guy. Very mellow. Very down to earth. He asked my dad if he could have a picture of our whole family so he could show his wife and talk to her about us. How rad is that? He loves Jesus. Every morning while checking hockey scores, I now check to see if he's on the score sheet. Here's me and Ryan Smyth.
