Columbus buzzing on eve of first home playoff game!

Check out this read on the front page of USAToday.com titled: City buzzing as Columbus preps for first playoff game

ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit says his 2-year-old son Chase walks around his Columbus-area home carrying a small hockey stick and chanting, "Let's go Jackets. Let's go Jackets."

"I didn't know anything about the NHL in 2000 and I can't tell you what a Blue Jackets fan I've become," Herbstreit said. "My family ... we are completely addicted."

Playoff tickets made available to the general public sold out in less than 25 minutes.

"They went on sale at 9 o'clock in the morning and the first people showed up at 12:30 in the morning and pitched a tent," said Larry Hoepfner, senior vice president of business operations.

Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman issued a proclamation congratulating the team on its playoff berth. City Hall, Nationwide Arena and the street arches in the Short North District are lit blue during the playoff run.

Even the Columbus Crew, the city's champion Major League Soccer team, have hung a giant banner across their stadium saying, "The Crew is behind you."

Commissioner Gary Bettman will attend the first NHL postseason game in Ohio. The Cleveland Barons played in the NHL for two seasons in the late 1970s but didn't make the playoffs.

I didn't know that about the Crew or the Short North... that is awesome!

Great article also from USAToday.com about Jackets anthem singer "LEO!"...

This article says "Home crowd will only carry Jackets so Far"..

"It's our job to energize them," Hitchcock said Monday of the 19,000-plus expected to raise the roof at Nationwide Arena.

The crowd Tuesday night figures to be very different from the first eight seasons when the Red Wings visited Ohio's capital city. For years, Wings fans have flooded south to watch their team. There were so many Yzerman, Zetterberg and even Gordie Howe jerseys around the arena, and the Detroit fans were so loud, often it was hard to tell who the home team was.

Those days may be over.

"It's a loud arena in the regular season, too. The crowd will really get into it and (the Blue Jackets) will certainly come out desperate," the Wings' Tomas Holmstrom said Monday. "We just have to play our game and be prepared for the first five or 10 minutes and try to turn the momentum our way."

I do expect a good amount of Wings fans... mostly of the local "turncoat" variety... but not as many as usual. If your a Jackets fan out there with extra tickets... do your part and sell that ticket to Jacket fan!

Bill Tiller of hockeybuzz (an Atlanta Thrashers writer) says "Enjoy this Columbus"...

God, how I envy you Blue Jackets fans. Oh, not just because your team is in it and my team isn’t…again. But moreover, because I remember how that first time felt for us 24 months ago when the Thrashers bolted onto the ice in that first ever playoff game. It was the last time an NHL franchise experienced its initial foray into the spring championship tournament.

I was there… section 316, row E. I had a great view of the ice, overlooking the surface from just behind the goal Atlanta attacked twice. The first ever post-season unfolded before my very eyes. The first ever Thrashers playoff goal, scored by Eric Belanger off a feed from Nic Havelid, played out right in front of me. When it was happened, Philips erupted in such volume that the upper decks shook below my feet. I remember it as if it were just yesterday.

And it’s been too long since that electricity has charged through Thrasherville

But now you get to experience that same thing tonight…you lucky so-and-sos!

However, be wary that this single moment will fly past you in a heartbeat. So do yourselves a favor tonight, take time to ingest this whole “first-ever playoff game” thing. Soak it all in… the sights, the sounds, the feeling and the absolute pleasure of it all.

First time experiences only come…well, once. And even though you are guaranteed a second home game Thursday night, nothing will quite match the uniqueness that will be tonight’s extravaganza. I’m not saying game 4 of the series won’t be as loud and as exiting…especially if you enter that match with a chance to tie the series with the Big Red Borg…but tonight’s the game you’ve waited 12 years for, not just two days.

If you we’re there for opening night back in October of 2000…try to remember how loud…how frantic…just how intense Nationwide Arena was. Try to recall just how much the joint was rockin’, rollin’, movin’ and groovin’.

Uh-huh, that’s it…now multiply that by 10. No…10,000.

Well said Bill!

....and finally fans.... let's turn the Nat into a SEA OF BLUE!!

-LTL