Attending an NHL game is an experience that most fans haven't had in over two years, and while many in Vancouver have already acclimated to it again there are some who might need lessons in civility, and how to follow some of the new, very-basic rules.
I attended the Canucks VS Oilers game at Rogers Arena on October 30th and was thrilled with the experience, despite encountering some not-so-courteous fans.
Upon arriving at the arena you line up at your gate just like you did in the before times, and halfway through the lineup you reach someone who's checking vaccination passes and IDs (non-vaxxed are not welcome here). Once you get to your gate it's the same process as it always was where you go through a metal detector, have your ticket scanned, then someone tells you what direction your section is.
Oh, and of course you have to wear a mask the entire time.
Easy peasy.
Once you get into the stairwell entering your section, the host greets you by letting you know you need to keep your mask on the entire time, unless you're actively eating or drinking. The friendly host in my section mimed the motion of pulling their mask down to take a sip, then pulling it back up again until the next sip, just to make sure everybody understood.
What exactly is "actively drinking" anyway?
The man sitting right in front of me either couldn't comprehend the host's basic caveman sign language or he decided he didn't need to follow the same rules that the tens of thousands of other fans did, to minimize the risk of passing a deadly disease onto each other. He smirked at and nudged the person he was sitting with, letting them know how clever he was for holding his beer up to his mouth to make it appear as though he was about to take an extended sip, skirting the rule.
For a whole ten minutes I was distracted by the sight of this grown man mouth-breathing into his beer which he managed to hold a few inches from his face, pretending he was about to drink it. I couldn't help but wonder what other rules he breaks and if maybe he had COVID-19 because of the reckless behaviour I imagined him participating in elsewhere.
Eventually his arm must have got tired, because he put his beer in his lap and put his mask back on, finally following the rule.
Without the distraction of an extremely clever man breathing germs into his beer and my personal space a couple feet behind him, I was able to enjoy the rest of the game, even though we lost.
Wear a mask when you're yelling at the cops while getting kicked out
Close to the end of the third period I left my seat and did a lap of the arena, to see what else might be different there during a pandemic game. I found that not much has changed aside from the mask protocols etc.
As I neared my section I wasn't able to enter it because two drunk and disorderly women were busy blocking it, arguing with security guards and a police officer who were telling them they needed to leave the premises. I couldn't quite get the drift of what they were getting ejected for, but their slurred speech and the way they were nearly falling over led me to believe they had both consumed a couple too many $18 drinks, and that might have contributed to it.
Neither had masks on, and one woman continued to berate the people ushering her out, very close to their faces, as her also-maskless friend tried to reason with her.
Eventually the police officer and security guard had to physically remove her from the arena, and her friend followed. They then stood outside the arena for a few minutes, yelling incoherently while literally stomping their feet.
The moral to the story
I've had quite a bit of time to think about what advice I would offer these fans if they approached my self-righteous perch and asked me for some, but I only have one piece of it, and that is to follow the new golden rule:
Wear a mask and be courteous like the rest of us.
Easy peasy. Enjoy the game.
