Royalty w/o 3/26 in review

Another royal week of attending sporting events has come and gone.

Here's how it went:

Monday night after work I went to Madison Square Garden to see the Knicks play the Bucks. Both teams were battling for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. I went with expectations of seeing a really good game. I wound up not getting the result I hoped for. Both teams played awful most of the night. They shot terribly and they didn't resemble teams that even belonged in the playoffs or in the professional ranks for that matter. The Knicks wound up beating the Bucks, 89-80. The Knicks played without Amar'e Stoudemire who hurt his back and Jeremy Lin was listed as day to day. In their absence, Carmelo Anthony led the way for the Knicks as he scored 28 points and he pulled down 12 rebounds.

Tuesday night after work I went to Newark, NJ to see the Devils play the Blackhawks at the Prudential Center.

As for the game I saw, it was 1-1 after regulation time. It remained that way after the overtime session, so it was decided by a skills competition. The Devils got rewarded with the extra point as they won the shootout, 2-1.

Wednesday night I went back to the Garden to see the Knicks play the Magic who were still without Amar'e Stoudemire and Jeremy Lin.

The Magic got off to a good start with their guard Jameer Nelson leading the way in the first quarter. After that the Magic disappeared for the night as the Knicks shot the lights out as they destroyed the Magic, 108-86.

Thursday night I went back to the "Rock" to see the Devils again. This time they hosted the Tampa Bay Lightning. This was a rare high scoring game as the Devils lit the lamp early and often as they beat the Lightning, 6-4 despite Ryan Malone of the Lightning who had a hat trick.

Friday night after work I went home to do the laundry so I could have some clean clothes to wear. I was very tempted to go to the Garden to see the Rangers play the Canadiens but I thought better of it.

Saturday afternoon the King and I went out to the Nassau Coliseum to see the Islanders play the Bruins. We were joined by our friend Rich Wolber aka Staten Island Rich.

We took public transportation to get out there so it seemed like a road trip for the King and I. When we got inside the building we thought we were in Boston. They're were a tremendous number of people who came down from Boston to see the game too. People were dressed up in their Bruin gear to root on their defending Stanley Cup Champions.

As for the game we saw, it was competitive for the first two periods as the score was tied at two. In the third period, the Bruins put the pedal to the metal as they crashed the net much to the delight of their fans who were in the house as they went on to whip the Islanders, 6-3.

After the game, the King and I took another road trip if you will to Madison Square Garden courtesy of public transportation. We arrived at the Garden with plenty of time to spare as we prepared to see the Knicks play the Cleveland Cavaliers.

As for the game we saw, not only did Amar'e Stoudemire not play, I found out that Jeremy Lin is now out for the rest of the regular season with a knee injury. To make matters worse, the Cavaliers were without potential rookie of the year candidate, Kyrie Irving. I was looking forward to seeing him play again. With those key players out, the Cavaliers had a very tall order to overcome. They did hang around for the first three quarters but the Knicks pulled away in the fourth quarter as they cruised to a 91-75 victory. I was hoping the Cavaliers would find a way to win for the great people I know from Cleveland but it wasn't meant to be on that night.

Sunday afternoon the King and I took our last road trip to the Nassau Coliseum to see the Islanders battle the Ottawa Senators. Unlike Saturday afternoon, the visiting team only had a handful of their fans there this time.

As for the game we saw, the Senators raced off to victory after they gave up the first goal of the game to the Islanders. After that, they didn't look back as they scored five unanswered goals to beat the Islanders, 5-1. Kyle Turris of the Senators had two goals and an assist.

Thank you for reading and following along.

Yours truly,

Gary Herman