So as if the game wasn't bad enough on its own (although we do have a good time win and/or lose)...
The guy sitting beside me was quite large...I'd guess 400+ pounds. Was spilling over onto my chair but this isn't out of judgement that I'm posting this. I like people in general and he was pleasant and courteous. It's health related, so that's why I even mention it.
In consideration of the recent Hamlin incident in the NFL and with it being so fresh, we experienced a bit of a scary ordeal at the game.
The guy got up at intermission and made his way past everyone in the aisle until he reached the stairs. Our seats are at the top row of the arena. All of a sudden he sat down on the stairs and I thought, "ok, he just wants to have more room to spread out a bit". His wife/partner followed behind him and she was standing on the other side of the rail beside him. No big deal, a guy was standing up a few rows in front of us so perhaps they wanted to watch the on ice event with an unobstructed view.
I looked over at one point to see what was up because people were starting to file back up the stairs to their seats and this couple was still there. Suddenly the guy fell backward and was laying there, sprawled at the top of the stairs. A woman seated beside him starting yelling...there were no attendants in the area. The buffet section was directly above me so I flagged a waitress and told her to call for help, which she did. Shortly afterward, a bunch of paramedics were on the scene (I was surprised...they all looked very young). Then Rogers arena staff and police. They shut down the stairs for a bit to attend to this fellow...I turned away because I just couldn't take any more of this after the Hamlin event. It's too gut wrenching and sticks with me. I saw my friend come through the tunnel and look toward me...she was unable to access our seats as the stairs were blocked. Thankfully, the guy eventually did sit back up and I noticed he was chewing something (perhaps he was diabetic)...they'd also given him a Gatorade. After a bit of "regrouping" he decided to come back to his seat! I was surprised at that...but the arena staff were great...they came to him (and me) and asked us to give a signal to them if there were any further problems. They watched from the tunnel (like hawks) and we had to keep giving them the thumbs up. I'm glad the guy was ok...it was super scary. The game suddenly wasn't so important and the feeling of frustration subsided as all concern had been for this fellow. Relief kicked in. Life's uncertain, even crummy hockey games can have a good ending if things go the right way. For this guy, they sure did.