I didn't want to seem pretentious and make my own thread for this so I hope this is the right place to say how impressed I was with Columbus yesterday.
We came over from Pittsburgh just for the game and really wish we could have stayed longer. Very nice town, very clean (at least the Arena District), friendly folks (for the most part, but we did have our Pens jerseys on) and what an amazing crowd.
The arena was great, easy to get around (compared to Consol anyway) and the seating area was exceptional in my opinion. Taking into consideration that you don't have a very deep playoff history I thought the crowd was unreal, when/if you guys put a Cup contender in that place I can't imagine how loud it will be. I don't understand the Crosby hate, though. I mean it was obvious. I'm probably older than most here and can remember when we got to see Gretzky play at the old Civic Arena it was a treat and you were in awe of his ability, he never got boo'd that's for sure. As much as I hate, and I mean HATE the Flyers I still respect the talent Giroux brings to the ice. Sid is an amazing talent and I'm not sure why he garners so much hatred, maybe it's just the cool thing to do, I dunno.
In any event one thing that really stood out to me was when the Pens tied the game at 3-3 the crowd almost immediately got right behind their team with a "CBJ, CBJ, CBJ" chant. That was pretty amazing. I can tell you here in Pittsburgh if that happens against us you certainly wouldn't hear much support right away, just *****ing and moaning. That's something I hope you all take pride in.
Anyway, I was impressed with the city and the arena, but mostly with the crowd as it was amazing. Good luck the rest of the way and if you get past us, will you please knock out the Flyers for us? Seriously, not sure if I mentioned it, but I hate them.