Game 50 & 51 - Philadelphia Flyers and 76ers

Game 50 - Ottawa Senators vs. Philadelphia Flyers @ Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, PA (4/2/2016)



I was left in Wisconsin for a week while Deb and the kids went on a Caribbean cruise with her sister, nieces and parents for spring break.  No baseball, no curling, no family at home?  Perfect opportunity to catch a game or two in Philadelphia. While not quite as easy as my trip to Cleveland to see the Indians and Cavaliers on the same day, this was pretty close.  I was able to check off the Flyers and 76'ers on the same day and in the same building, too.

 A college buddy, Kevin Heaphy, and his son were kind enough to pick me up at the airport and we headed to lunch at XFinity Live outside the stadium, a very large grouping of restaurants and bars, which is great to visit before games.   I really like the sports venue set-up in Philadelphia.  All three arenas - Wells Fargo Center where both the Flyers and 76'ers play; Citizens Bank Park for the Phillies and Lincoln Financial Field for the Eagles - are located in the same spot.  I spent some time there in the past when I went to the Eagles game back in September of 2012. 




I bought my seats rather last minute, but they ended up being terrific....5 rows behind the Flyer's bench.  

The Flyers are in a fight for the last playoff spot with only about a handful of games to go therefore, every win is extremely important.  After a scoreless 1st period, the Flyers took a 2-0 lead in the 2nd period with 2 power-play goals.  The Senators made it a game mid-way through the 3rd period at 3-2, but Philadelphia held on for the win and the much needed 2 points in the standings.

One interesting fact about this season (not necessarily this game):  This will be the first time since the 1969-70 season that the NHL playoffs will not include a team from Canada.  Crazy!

I really enjoyed this venue.  As with most Philly sports, the fans are terrific and really support their team.  As mentioned earlier, the location of all the stadiums in one place is terrific and easy to access.  Inside the stadium, I walked around a lot and took in some of the displays.  They have done a nice job showing off the history of the Flyers, current players and a few other cool displays.  The one I liked the most was the Hat Trick History wall (photo to the left) showing all the hats collected off the ice any time a hat trick has been scored by a Flyer.



This game marked the 50th on my tour.  With the Flyers win, my record moves to 30-20 for the home teams.




Game 51- Indiana Pacers vs. Philadelphia 76'ers @ Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, PA (4/2/2016)

I had about 4 hours between games to kill.  I could have easily sat in my hotel room (which was within walking distance of the arena) and watched college basketball, but I want to thank my friend Drew who was reminded by a Facebook post that I was in town and decided to meet up with me to watch the 1st semi-final game of the Final 4.
 

We went back to XFinity Live where the crowd was obviously pumped up for the Villanova game.  They were even more excited when they beat Oklahoma by 40+ points.  After a burger, a few beers and the largest soft pretzel I have ever seen covered in crab meat, I quickly ran back to Wells Fargo Center for the 76'ers game.  This was only the 3rd game out of 51 that I have attended by myself.

Now if anyone is following the 76'ers this year (and why would you unless you lived in Philadelphia), they have quite a bit of young talent, but unfortunately most of them are injured.  As a result, they are working on one of the top 10 worst records in NBA history.  At the time of this game, their record was 9-68.  Ironically, the Golden State Warriors had 68 wins at this point.  Crazy.



Well it is good to set goals in life, so I guess the 76'ers might have a goal to at least get to 10 wins for the season (albeit, setting the bar pretty low).  The Pacers on the other hand are clinging to the last playoff spot in the East and a win is a must.  Early on, it looked like it was going to be an easy win for Indiana as they took a 61-49 lead into halftime.  However, Philadelphia showed some life in the 3rd quarter by outscoring the Pacers 28-13 to take the lead fueled by a franchise-tying 16 3-pointers for the game.

Philadelphia's chance of winning was quickly squashed in the 4th quarter as they fell apart and were outscored by 16 points.  In the end, the Pacers came away with a 115-102 win.

Despite the awful season the 76'ers are having, the crowd was still very excited to see them play and very loud as they made their run in the 3rd quarter.  Perhaps some of this was because the entire city was so excited for Villanova's win earlier in the day.  Turnout was much better than I expected for this game.  My seats were decent (lower level, behind the basket), but I fully intended to be able to move around and find other open seats.  I'm sure if I really tried, I could have, but decided to stay put. 

To be honest, the game was actually very entertaining.  High-scoring and a total of 9 players in double-digits (4 of them with 20 or more).  Yes, I like stats, so here is an interesting one:  Indiana's CJ Miles scored 25 points in less than 22 minutes.  That is the shortest amount of time in team history for a player to score 25 points.  Random.  I want to know who tracks this kind of useless trivia.

Although I was at this venue earlier in the day, I still spent some time walking around checking out the attractions.  It does amaze me at how quickly they can change over not only the floor from ice to a basketball court, but a lot of the signage and merchandise as well. 

Although it will go as a loss for the home team in my record book, it still generated $217 for cancer research, which is extremely important.  For more information, please go to:
http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/christopher-apel/



I had a little drama trying to get home.  I still do not know how I did this, but my return flight was booked for 10:30 PM, instead of AM.  I normally check these things two or three times.  I didn't actually find out until I was trying to find my flight on the board.  I considered renting a car and driving to New Jersey for the Nets game, but instead was able to get on an earlier flight.  Back home to Wisconsin and the April snow showers!