It’s nice to believe in the integrity of sports fans sometimes.
Prior to Game 1 of the Pens/Sens opening round series, I got an email from Penguins fan Wayne. He had this ticket to the game, couldn’t make it, didn’t want to sell it or let it go to waste, and the game was starting in like 3 hours. He hit up the local radio stations to see if they could connect him with any fans who wanted the ticket, but no one at the stations truly believed that a guy just wanted to help another fan, free of charge.
I trusted him, cos why not? We blasted Twitter with a contest, and the 13th person who saw the message and emailed me won the ticket. Simple as that. I got like 11 emails within a minute or two, but then nothing. Just as I was about to lose faith in Penguins fans, Blaine came through with email number 13, and just like that she had a spot at one of the last playoff games ever at the Civic Arena.
So we gotta take a moment to thank a guy like Wayne, who went out of his way to not only make the day of a local Pens fan, but also made sure that the Igloo wasn’t mysteriously sporting an empty chair to kick off the playoffs. Can you imagine if a Sens fan saw the empty seat and just sat there? Vomit.
All in all, it was pretty surreal to see something come out of nothing in a like a 30 minute span prior to the puck dropping. Blaine got to see the Pens, despite the loss, and Wayne gets the satisfaction of being probably the coolest Penguins fan on the planet.
Wayne requested some pics, and Blaine didn’t disappoint. Check out how close to game action Blaine got, just for responding to a Twitter request. And all thanks to Wayne.
Now that we can rest easy knowing Pens fans are truly genuine, we can look at Game 2 and lay all focus on beating Ottawa.
Go Wayne.
Go Pens.
