TYMNHS- Game 6 - 5/9/16

Things You Might Not Have Seen on the tube. Well... The crowd of 19,808 was into it. The game entertainment crew (pic to the right) was hitting on all cylinders. Everything was perfect for a clincher...but...a bad stretch in the first period sends the series back to Dallas for Game 7 tomorrow night. Final..3-2 Stars.

• The production crew has a meeting, usually about 2-1/2 hours before each game. Director of Entertainment Jason Pippi (that's him peaking into the picture from the right) goes over the script and timing of events for that night's game. Senior Director of Event Presentation Chris Frome makes sure all of the technical necessities are in order. All of the "players" are in attendance...Yours truly, In-game host Angella Sharpe, Organist Jeremy Boyer, Music Coordinator Carl Middleman and, as you can see, many others totally adept at what they do. (The photo doesn't include several other key people) Camera operators, technical directors, scoreboard and matrix board operators, and, for the playoffs, our visiting crew of on-ice projection folks, are all involved. We discuss any new and different elements in detail. Much preparation, production, creativity, and thought goes into each element of the game. That's why Scottrade Center's presentation has been judged one of the tops in sports. 
• I first met Trevor Nickerson when he was a teenager and working as a production
  
  assistant for the late Joe May who was operating a company that produced numerous high school sports broadcasts in the Metro-East. Trevor, obviously a talented and thoughtful young man, quickly established himself as a valuable person on the technical and production side of the broadcasting business. I don't have his complete resume' to work with, but he eventually worked his way into a broadcast engineer vital to the CBS Radio operations in St. Louis. (KMOX/Y-98/KEZK). In the recent past he accepted the position of Producer/Editor for the Blues. He will engineer the radio broadcasts of the games, home and away. And he performs many other important, but usually unseen, broadcasting and production tasks for the team. Here he is getting ready in the KMOX booth, where he works with Chris Kerber and Kelly Chase, for last night's broadcast. 
• I'm often asked about the pre-game meal at Scottrade. Usually 2 hours before game time, the
  
  press lounge buffet line becomes active. Most employees of the team are provided with coupons for a free meal. Members of the press and other credentialed personnel are provided a meal at a highly-reasonable $7. As to how the quality of the food compares to that offered elsewhere, I can't comment. But I keep hearing that Chicago offers a stellar feed. During the Dave Checketts ownership, food started out at barely edible (a carryover from the Bill Laurie days) to occasionally spectacular with carving stations and other high-end offerings that you would only find in a top restaurant. The menu these days is not nearly so spectacular...but very good on a consistent basis with few complaints being heard.  
• Winning The Hardware...the in-house feature added for the playoffs spotlighted the great Hall-of-Famer Brett Hull at last night's game. We all remember his 86-goal season and the Stanley
  
  Cup-winning goal he scored while with the Stars. We all also should remember that his spectacular offensive shows brought fans back to the Blues and made it possible for the franchise to transition from almost moving to Saskatoon in the mid-80's...to it becoming possible to build a new arena downtown in the early 90's which would house pro hockey in StL for many years. His contribution to our enjoyment of the sport in the Heartland of Hockey can never be over-estimated. After I read the summary of his career on the PA system, in-house video cut to a shot of Hullie in one of the management suites. By then the Blues were down 3-0 and he had an understandable look of total disappointment for the video board. Hopefully, the boys will remember their knack for winning on the road at American Airlines Center tomorrow night. 
• Poor John Kelly and Darren Pang. Their first-intermission, in-house report for the crowd last
  
  night had to be a severe challenge. With the team down 3-0 at the time and everybody wondering what the hell had happened, the guys did a great job of analyzing the situation and also keeping things as positive as possible. 
• Two of the best, referee Brad Watson and linesman Greg Devorski were the back-up officials for last night's game. 
• In my last post, I complained about the energy level in the crowd at last Thursday's game that Dallas won in overtime. I couldn't understand how so many people could be so quiet and uninvolved for a playoff game. Well, as I said at the top, the crowd was into it last night in a big way. Lots of energy at the start...and until Dallas went up 3-0. But as the Blues crept back into the game the crowd was really great. Way to go Blues fans! The loss had nothing to do with atmosphere in the building. 
• I'll have another of these after we play game 1 of the Conference finals. Thanks for reading.