BLACKHAWKS BANTER 4

After a Thanksgiving day practice, the Chicago Blackhawks hosted their St. Louis neighbors on Friday afternoon at the United Center.  For the first time all season the Hawks overcame a significant two point deficit to beat their longtime rivals.  Alex DeBrincat scored in overtime from a pass by Patrick Kane to conclude the Black Friday game.  Instead of witnessing the excitement from the comfort of my couch, as I’ve been able to do for the last few games, I was running around the venue at 1901 W. Madison.  Following a successful interview, I was hired to work for the Fan Event Experience team in early November. I plan to pursue a career in the sports business, so I am grateful for any hands on experience I can gain.  Due to an extensive road-trip, Friday happened to be my first day of work.  I don’t think I fully expected being throw into action right away, but I wouldn’t have wanted to start any other away.  Upon arrival, one of my first tasks was to assist with hanging a banner in the “tunnel”.  I followed the rest of the team through dozens of hallways to get to this “tunnel”, but didn’t get any insight on why we were doing this and where exactly we were going.  As we got to the “banner wall”, I began to understand that this was where players walk in.  Cameras were several feet away from me, along with media staff, and other authorized personnel.  My job was to simply unfold the left side of the fabric mural, so I was done with that task in seconds.  When I turned to answer a coworkers question, I saw a familiar face.  Not the coworker, Blackhawks goalie Marc-Andre Fleury was walking in for warmups. In complete shock, I stared at him.  My eyes lit up, and you could probably see my smile through my mask.  The event team had no interest in Fleury, but that’s only because seeing players so close is not a rare occurrence.  When my excitement wore off, several more players rolled in; Ryan Carpenter, Brandon Hagel, Seth Jones.  It sank in that I now work for the same organization as all my favorite players, and exchanging smiles and “good luck” with them in the hallway would be a part of my daily routine.