A Dance with Lord Stanley.

My blogger nightmare became a reality two days ago. Out of absolutely nowhere, my phone decided to implode, selfishly taking with it all of my pictures and videos from the last several months. When I took its lifeless corpse to the Verizon store, the worker looked at me with sympathetic, knowing eyes before informing me he couldn't fix it, couldn't access the files, and yeah, idiot. Why didn't you buy insurance?

In other words, all my pictures from our trip to see Hamilton in Chicago, my Grandmom's memorial in Eau Claire, and the Indy 500 are gone. Fortunately, I saved several pictures I wanted for this post prior to the apocalypse, so without further ado, I bring you Bucket List Item #50 - Attend the Stanley Cup Final.

The day after the Indy 500, Wheat and I piled ourselves back in the car and took off for Pittsburgh. Let me rewind a bit - Ever since I fell in love with hockey, I've desperately wanted to go to the Stanley Cup Final (duh). When it looked like the Pens had a good chance of beating the Ottawa Senators in the Eastern Conference Finals, Wheat not only agreed to buy tickets to the Final, but he even had to convince me it was okay to spend that kind of money on a once-in-a-lifetime experience. In hindsight, he was absolutely right.

So, we took a deep breath, thanked God for our tax return, and clicked purchase with the knowledge that if the Pens advanced to the Final, our bank accounts would be a little emptier. Sure enough, they beat the Senators in overtime in a vomit-inducing Game 7 and we were headed to Pittsburgh for Game 1.

We took it as a sign from the universe that the Pens' opponent was the Nashville Predators (Wheat's hometown and other favorite team), playing in their first ever Stanley Cup Final. Side note: He wore a Predators shirt under his Phil Kessel shirt and I never would have forgiven him had the Pens lost. We arrived several hours early, so we took the opportunity to walk around PPG Paints Arena, peruse the gift shop, and soak in the electric atmosphere. I successfully fought the urge to buy a plush Sidney Crosby, but did cave and buy a Crosby Final t-shirt.

The entire city was brimming with excitement for the series. Storefronts had signs of encouragement for the team, everyone was dressed in Pens gear, and I felt like I'd died and gone to hockey heaven. NHL Network and NBCSN were doing live pre-game coverage right outside the arena, so we saw Jeremy Roenick, Steve Mears, Kathryn Tappen, and Mike Rupp. There was also a watch party set up outside the arena and it was amazing to see how many people crammed into the area to support the team.

When the gates opened, we were given yellow rally towels (I will NOT call them terrible towels. Ever.) and gold Penguins t-shirts. I insisted that we watch warmups from the lower level, so we staked out a spot and waited for the team to hit the ice. Insider tip: If you can't afford good seats, show up early and watch warmups from the lower level. It's the best way to get a good look at the players, see how fast they actually skate, and tell Sidney Crosby you'll wait forever for his love. Ahem. Seriously though, the players actually interact a bit with the fans, bumping into the glass or tossing sticks and pucks over to fans.

After warmups, we made our way upstairs to our seats, which were conveniently located about ten rows from the top but provided a surprisingly good vantage point of the action. I was starting to wonder if I might actually pass out from anticipation when the lights finally went off and the arena announcer proclaimed, "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Stanley Cup Finals." Cue the water works. It was that exact moment that I finally realized where I was and what I was doing. We were treated to an incredible laser light show on the ice and a pre-game video intended to hype the crowd. I felt like I could run through a brick wall.

Players were introduced, the national anthem was sung by Jeff Jimerson and the entire arena, and the puck dropped. I'll be honest - the Pens didn't play their best game. Far from it. The first goal of the game appeared to come off the stick of Nashville defenseman PK Subban, but it was overturned when Coach Mike Sullivan successfully challenged that a player was offsides. The end of the period saw three quick Penguins goals - one from Evgeni Malkin on a 5-on-3, one from Conor Sheary, and another one off a bad shot (by Nick Bonino) that bounced off the back of a Predators defenseman and into the net. We'll take what we can get.

I was thrilled and very cordial with the Predators fans sitting next to me. Then, because I was having such an amazing time, the Penguins didn't register a shot on goal for the next 37 minutes. THIRTY SEVEN MINUTES! ...and the Preds began to chip away at the deficit. A power play goal from Ryan Ellis, a goal off a deflection and credited to Colton Sissons, and the tying goal - a blast from Frederick Gaudreau. My heart sank and, according to Wheat, I sat in complete silence until the Pens broke the tie. Our Predator-loving neighbors began to frustrate me and I bit my tongue. A Preds fan threw a catfish onto the ice, which promptly exploded and sent fish guts flying in every direction.

We’ve got a (really gross) catfish in Pittsburgh pic.twitter.com/BuQWs7nvcW

— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) May 30, 2017

Things were looking pretty bleak and I was absolutely dreading overtime when rookie Jake Guentzel answered my prayers with a beautiful goal. The arena erupted, screaming, waving towels, and singing along with Andrew W.K.'s "Party Hard," which the Pens have hilariously adopted as their goal celebration song. Bonino scored an empty-netter to seal the 5-3 victory a couple minutes later, despite the team being outshot 26-12 in the game. My word.

The drive from Pittsburgh to Columbus, Ohio after the game can only be described as euphoric. We excitedly discussed each goal, each penalty in detail and arrived around 3:00 AM. We checked into our hotel, slept for four hours, and hit the road again at 7:00 AM. And by "hit the road," I mean that my saint of a husband drove while I slept in the passenger seat and dreamed of hoisting the Stanley Cup.

Spoiler Alert: The Penguins soon did just that when they beat the Predators in six games to win their second consecutive championship and the fifth in franchise history.

And man, being there to watch Game 1 was worth every single penny.