FanHouse in the Stands: Game 3

There's a scene in an old Simpsons episode (the exact episode escapes me) where Otto the bus driver is attending a concert, sitting amongst a sea of spectators who are all standing up, screaming, and enjoying themselves. Otto, annoyed by his line of vision being obstructed by his fellow concert-goers, screamed for everyone else to "sit down, sit down, you're ruining it for the rest of us."

A similar scene played out high atop section E-16 of Mellon Arena on Tuesday night, nearly leading to a fight between two women as the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings frantically played the final six minutes of the third period of Game 3.

Shortly after Sergei Gonchar had given the Penguins a 3-2 lead with a power play goal at the 10:29 mark of the third period, Sidney Crosby and Chris Kunitz found themselves on a two-on-one break that could have potentially extended the lead to two goals in the closing minutes. To this point, it was the most important stretch of hockey in the Penguins' season, and every person in the arena knew it. As soon as Crosby and Kunitz hit the blue line on their rush, every person in the arena stood up in anticipation, waiting to erupt even more than they already were.

Well, almost everybody.

The woman sitting at the end of our row opted to remain in her seat, and felt the need to scream at the woman in front of her for having the audacity to stand up, along with the other 17,132 people in the building at that time. They were bellowing at one another with such vile anger that people at the opposite end of the row could hear their profanity-laced arguments over the chaos taking place around them. Honestly, I didn't know whether to keep my eyes glued on the ice and the exciting game taking place in front of me, or watch these two people scream at one another until they were ready to start clawing their eyes out and taking swings.

For some reason, that moment, more than any other, stood out to me following the Penguins 4-2 win in Game 3. I can understand asking somebody to sit down in the middle of a random regular season game in November when nothing particularly interesting is going on ... but in the Stanley Cup Final, in a one-goal game, when the home team is on a two-on-one break in the third period? If you're not standing up at that point, when the hell are you going to stand up?

Here are some more sights and sounds from Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final:

Perhaps you've heard a thing or two about it, but the Penguins' outdoor viewing parties on the lawn in front of Mellon Arena have become quite a success the past two playoff runs ... that is, until NBC decided to rain on the party. Since Tuesday's game was on VERSUS, the party was most definitely on, and the Penguins even took time during the second period to specifically thank the network for allowing them to broadcast the game on the outdoor video screen.

This group of kids decided to bring the living room sofa. Nice helmet.



And here is the evil video board that NBC hates.



And here are the legions of people that currently hate NBC for ruining the fun.



Too many men on the ice! Actually, it's just warmups.



The Penguins' version of the White Out. Look cool? Yes. As good as Winnipeg's? Nobody is.



-- Several of the Pittsburgh Steelers were in attendance, including head coach Mike Tomlin in his customary seat in the front row along the glass, while James Farrior, Hines Ward and Deshea Townsend were also spotted. Following the game, as people poured out into the streets a small crowd began to gather around a tricked out SUV making its way up the street, as fans dished out high-fives to the person riding in the passenger seat. As the car made its way closer to me I realized that it was Farrior and Townsend.

-- Some of the jersey's not containing the name Crosby or Malkin spotted around the pre-game bars and arena: Grant Jennings, Zarley Zalapski, an Oakland Seals sweater (really regretting not getting a picture of this), Rob Brown, Randy Carlyle, and one Paul Baxter jersey.