I wanted to share a pretty cool experience I had last night as a noted Penguins fanatic. I took some clients from out of town to the Pens game last night, and we opted to go to the Cambria Suites post game for a drink or three to wait out traffic. We found a great little place in front of the TV with two chairs, a huge ottoman, and a couch for our wives. Not long after we get seated, I see a friend, so I get up for maybe two minutes to speak with him, and as I return, I see that a man had taken my seat, next to my friend, my beer, and our wives. My friend is grinning at me, because he probably figures that the ignorant Steve may question why this gentleman had jumped his chair. But as I get there, he very graciously offers my seat back, and I think, what the hell, he is a very nice guy, I can sit on the ottoman, and everyone is happy. We begin to talk hockey, and our new friend very readily joins the fray. I will not say what he said on these topics because the conversation was private, but we talked about the game in general, the team in general, Jordan Staal, Fleury, Asham knocking out Beagle and the hockey media's retarded fascination with same, the affect of so much travel, and so many games in a condensed time frame, and then how some players become whipping boys for the local fans, despite their contributions. I expressed my disdain for those who are ripping Staal, and likened it to the Goligoski beatings that occurred here before his trade. I quoted some points from a Mazmania post comparing Goose to Kaberle in terms of production and cap hit, as well as his stats relative to Letang at the same number of NHL games. The man then said, "I guess you were against the trade to Dallas then?" I reply along the lines of no, that despite my thoughts on Goose, the Pens needed a top winger, and moved from a positon of strength to acquire a marquis power forward, a postion of weakness, so that the Pens got more than they gave up in my opinon. The gentleman then said something like, "What the Penguins got in return for Goligoski, was my son, James." I am Peter Neal, James' father. After I picked my jaw up from the floor, we went to talk for about another forty minutes about everything from James' impressions of Geno, Sidney Crosby, our city, his experiences in Dallas playing with Loui Ericcson and Brad Richards, his experience with Sean Avery, and many other topics including the usual mantra of how well the Penguins organization treats it players. Mr. Neal also expressed an excitement about the annual Dads trip the Penguins take, something that Dallas does not do. Peter then noticed my tattoo, and said his son would think that it was cool, and he wished that he had his camera, so he could take a picture for James to see. Neither of us had one, so he gave me his email address, and I promised to send that photo. A little bit later, he got a text from his son that he had arrived, and Mr. Neal asked me to come and show James the ink. I, of course did that, spoke briefly with Jame,s and also Paul Martin. I did not want to infringe upon their evening together. We had a couple of pictures taken, and then they, along with James' mother got a table right in the middle of the place and ate together. They were such gracious, nice, down to earth people, and we had yet another very postitive encounter with members of the Penguins family. It is tough to not be a big fan when you meet these people, and they are this gracious and willing to engage with the fans. In more ways than one the Neal's are the Real Deal.
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