Greetings everyone.
Following the Toronto Maple Leafs game against the Boston Bruins this past week, I woke up Sunday morning barely able to move. As the day went along, it turned out I had a pretty bad flu. The good news is Iโm probably getting better. But maybe this is my bodyโs way of telling me to take it easy just a little bit.
The weekend before, we returned from Sweden and the Leafs had about a week before flying to Chicago and Pittsburgh for consecutive road games on Friday and Saturday. Because the game was on in the afternoon, I saw no reason to head to the United States a night earlier on U.S. Thanksgiving when it is dead in the downtowns of any major American city.
I booked a 6:52 am flight on Friday morning, thinking Iโd have more than enough time to make Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefeโs media availability at 10:45 central time. Nope. I was wrong.
We ended up sitting on the tarmac for over three hours. Unitedโs crew explained to me that the waterline didnโt go through its usual inspection last night and they had to wait for a mechanic to give them the go-ahead. The mechanic they were waiting for was working on another aircraft for over two hours. Then about a third of the plane left to book other flights since their connections were missed. It was not fun.
Hey, at least I had some awesome legroom.
The good news was I made it for the game. I missed the pre-game availability. But it happens.
When the game finished, I had another flight to Pittsburgh right after. Itโs the first time that Iโve entered a city, covered a game and left for another city that wasnโt home. That flight, too, was delayed by 90 minutes.
Needless to say, it was a long day, but everything was covered successfully.
I arrived in Pittsburgh and was immediately reminded of how ridiculously far it is from the main city center. Ubers and Lyfts were charging $60. Cabs were charging $50. I saw that the airport bus was arriving in a few minutes for a perfect price of $2.75 and went with that. It was just a five-minute walk from there. (Awesome tip for this coming later)
I checked into the Pittsburgh Marriott City Center hotel which is right next door to PPG Paints Arena. This is the go-to hotel for Pittsburgh if you are going to a game. But itโs usually expensive. I got in for just $116 which was perfect.
I was late to booking so the flight options back from Pittsburgh were terrible. I managed to rent a car from Budget for $170US where I could pick it up in Pittsburgh and drop it off in Toronto. I picked up he car after Torontoโs morning skate and parked it at the hotel. With Platinum status or better with Marriott, you get 4 p.m. checkouts, which is what I did for this game. I covered the game and then drove him fairly quicky. I was in my bed by 3:30 am.
All in all, it was under 48 hours. After having just returned from Sweden, I was anxious to be home for an extended time. The schedule has been pretty taxing.
For Chicago, the media meal was a delightful breakfast that I had to skip because it was in my fasting window (I fast 18 hours a day).
But they had treats up in the press box and by first intermission I was allowed to eat again.
The green goddess sandwich on the right was better than I expected. I think I hit all four food groups here.
The Pittsburgh meal was adequate. It was a choice of beef or cooked salmon. I took the beef. They have great deserts. I had vanilla ice cream.
The Maple Leafs media meals are back after they had previously used the voucher system.
A big thank you
My main gig is managing the Leafs content at THN.com and Sports Illustrated at THN.com/Toronto. Weโve smashed records over the last two months with November coming in at over 760,000 views. If you have visited, Iโm eternally grateful. For someone who makes money linked to performance, it truly has been a bet on yourself and win moment that I hope inspires everyone else out there.
Saving myself from expensive Airport Uber in Edmonton.
