Royalty w/o 2/7 in review

With the football season officially ending in Dallas on Sunday night. I followed it up with a night off after work Monday night.

Tuesday night after work I went out to Newark to see the Devils play the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Devils have been playing better lately. On this night the Devils continued their winning ways as they fought back to tie the game at 2 and they wound up winning it in overtime as Mattias Tedenby scored the game winner with 2:42 left in the extra session. It was his second goal of the game.

Jeff Skinner of the Hurricanes scored both goals in the losing effort for the Canes.

This game started slow. It was a boring first period with no goals scored. Both teams were feeling each other out.

In the second period, things started to heat up.

By the third period, we saw some great action as the Devils turned it up a notch.

As a result, the crowd which was rather quiet most of the night got excited.

The bottom line it turned out to be a good match.

In addition, we were joined by our friend Ira Schwartz. Ira took the train with me back to Queens. He had his car parked by the subway and he was kind enough to drive me home which saved me a half hour. Needless to say, I was very grateful.

Wednesday night after work I went to the Madison Square Garden to see the Knicks take on Blake Griffin and the Clippers.

With Blake arriving on the scene after missing his initial rookie season due to injury, they've become known as the "Blakers".

Blake was making his first appearance at the World's Most Famous Arena in the NBA.

As for the game, the Knicks were rather sluggish throughout the game. They did stage a comeback late in the third quarter going into the fourth but the Clippers were able to keep the Knicks at bay as they build their lead back up to put the Knicks away.

The crowd was very disappointed with the Knicks sub par effort.

Blake Griffin had 21 points in his Garden debut.

Third year pro DeAndre Jordan looked impressive in the middle as he finished with 17 points which included a number of thunderous slam dunks before he fouled out in the last minute.

Veteran point guard Baron Davis dished out 15 assists to pace the Clippers to the victory, 116-108!

Thursday night was another night off as I got prepared for the "Lake" Show on Friday night at the Garden.

Friday after work it was "Showtime" at the Garden as the World Champion Los Angeles Lakers made their annual visit.

Just like in Hollywood, the celebrities came out for this one. Jets head coach Rex Ryan was sitting front and center in the first row at center court. He dressed up in a Walt "Clyde" Frazier #10 jersey. He got to see firsthand what a championship team looked like.

Other notable guests included Yankee ace pitcher CC Sabathia as well as Kanye West.

As for the game, the Lakers didn't disappoint even though they played the night before and beat the Celtics in Boston.

The Lakers wound up cruising to a 113-96 victory. Kobe Bryant starred early as he scored 19 of his game high 33 points in the first quarter. He also grabbed 10 rebounds, six of them came in first quarter.

Quite amazingly when he was out of the game the Lakers lead got bigger on two different occasions.

The Lakers are loaded with talent. They have Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum who created mismatches for the undersized Knicks.

Despite the outcome, I was entertained as were many of the Laker fans who were in the building.

Saturday night I went to Newark to see the Knicks try to rebound against their crosstown rivals, the NJ Nets.

The game drew a record crowd of 18,711 as the Knicks who played without Amar'e Stoudemire.Despite that the Knicks still managed to beat the Nets, 105-95!

Sunday the King and I took a ride on Metro-North to Bridgeport, Connecticut to see the Sound Tigers play the Portland Pirates.

The game we saw got off to a bad start for the hometown Sound Tigers as they gave a goal just 13 seconds into the game. 28 seconds later they fell behind 2-0. It was 3-0 midway through the first period before the Sound Tigers got on the board as a result of a penalty shot.

The Pirates made it 4-1 then the Sound Tigers twice in a 15 second span to get within one at 4-3.

Unfortunately the Sound Tigers couldn't get the equalizer as they wound up losing the game, 6-3!

Our friend minor league Pete was there and he was nice enough to give the King and I a ride back.

In addition, I plan to write a review for my buddy Paul Swaney of Stadium Journey of the arena and the experience I had.

If you plan to check out a venue in the future you should check out his site for the invaluable information you'll need to know so you can have an idea of what to expect when you go.

It's on my blog list. I strongly suggest you take a look.

As always, I want to thank you for following and reading about my whereabouts.

When you get tired of hearing about my experiences and adventures, I recommend that you let me know so I can arrange to have you come along and/or I'll guide you along so you can so you can do it on your own.

I can't predict the outcomes of the games but I can make sure you don't get lost along the way.

All you have to do is let me know.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman