Last night, Sev scored some hockey tickets, so he, Lisa, Karen and I went to go see the Lightning play.

Not just any tickets, either; tickets to the XO Club. I saw no massage tables, but we did avail ourselves of the copious food.

Before the game, some fans proved themselves no better than some Canadian hockey fans by booing during O Canada, but they were soon drowned out by the more numerous cheers of civilized folk. During The Star-Spangled Banner, two face-painters below us doffed their blue-and-white Afro wigs, yet a pair of yahoos three rows behind them left on their baseball caps.

Alas, the seat next to Lisa became occupied by an odiferous drunkard; what he lacked in personal hygiene, he more than made up for in enthusiasm and lungpower. As Sev observed, drunks and babies never lose their voices. Karen — who didn't have to sit next to him — egged him on by yelling Woo! every time he shouted encouragement to the team.

The XO Club certainly provides more perqs than general seating; during the break between the first and second periods, as most fans headed back to the buffet, waitpersons moved up and down the aisles, picking up emptied beer cups and replacing them with full ones. Take that, Tooth Fairy!

The Lightning pulled into a 2-1 lead early in the second period (or "quarter", as announcer Dave Mishkin called it, to my mathematical incomprehension), and maintained it for the rest of the evening. All around, it was a satisfying and exciting game, feculent patrons notwithstanding.

Postscript: They no longer call the Zamboni a Zamboni. They refer to it as a Zamboni Ice Resurfacing Machine. Every single time.

Post-postscript: The only things that aren't corporate-sponsored yet are penalties. We've got the St. Pete Times Forum, the XO Club, the TECO Instant Replay, the Kraft Zamboni Ice Resurfacing Machine, the Verizon Power Play, the Kash 'n' Karry Goal...

Post-post-postscript: I may have asked this before, but speaking of power plays, why is it considered so fantastic to score a goal when the opposing team has a player in the penalty box? It just implies that you weren't good enough to score when they had all their players on the ice...