Trip of a lifetime-flying in my buddy's plane to NYC/New Jersey to see the Devils-Hurricanes game 3. What a blast!

Trip of a lifetime!

I want to give a huge shoutout to my great friend Chris Vickers for his incredible generosity in flying me to New York/New Jersey to do a little sight seeing in the big apple before heading through the Lincoln Tunnel to the Prudential Center to see the Devils play the Hurricanes, in the BMW suite area no less. Where we were hanging with the likes of Martin Brodeur and the man many of us saw on TV last night doing the draft lottery, Bill Daly. It was an amazing trip.

Chris owns a plane ( pictured) and he gave me an invitation of a lifetime this past Sunday. Fly down with him to see the Devils game, after a visit to NYC. I could not say no, I'm so glad I didn't.

He is an excellent pilot and watching him operate the instrument panel -(pictured- this is not even all of it) as he smoothly flew at 6500', 150 knots ( approximately 280km/hr) on a beautiful summer, Sunday morning. Incredible feeling, really was.

New York is as all of you know who have been - is a real vibe - always. We saw a lot actually in just a few hours before having lunch at Chris's favourite pizza place, Angelo's on 37th street. Where in typical Liam fashion, as the bill was being paid and we got up to leave the table somebody says, ' hi Liam.' You kidding me?? lol.

A gentleman named Paul Robinson stopped us, introduced himself and said he lived in Ottawa in the mid 1990s and remembered me from the radio, the Ottawa Sun, etc, and I am totally used to that around the Ottawa area but in the heart of Manhattan it was pretty surreal. We had a great chat with Paul and his sister. Just incredible.

Off to the game where we caught an absolute beauty. Full house with a very, very vocal fan base. From the singing to the chants to the sheer volume which is amplified by an audio version of local resident Ric Flair of wrestling fame doing his famous, whoooo!! after any New Jersey goal and there were a lot of them! Eight! We saw an 8-4 NJ win, 12 goals, a penalty shot goal, 4 shorthanded, lots of rough stuff and the crowd just eating it up. Man oh man. What a great time.

I met Marty Brodeur in the first intermission and was able to catch up with Bill Daly in the second intermission. Massive buffet, food galore, cold beer and all of that part of it was courtesy of the arena's operation manager, Steve Rosebrook, a very close friend of Chris's going back to their U of Toronto playing days. As most of you know Chris is a former Ottawa 67, played at U of T where he was also their captain and played overseas. I've known him since he was nine years old. I know his siblings and I know his fantastic parents, Wendy and Rich. In fact the picture of me drinking out of the Stanley Cup was taken at the Vickers residence in Manotick on July 1, 1993. Chris and I are currently both members at Rideau View golf club, home of the defending and all time record holder A Champion mens intersectional team.

That day another teammate of Chris's from U of T was working as Stanley Cup security and he brought the Cup to the Vickers house. Something that would never be allowed today but it was then. Chris phoned me - I phoned Peter Oliver - we met at the Vicker's house, Pete Bisdee was also there - and fortunately I happened to have a case of beer in my trunk and we poured 17 pints of glorious Molson Export Ale in that bowl and then we drank it dry. So that's who my friend Chris Vickers is. And besides all of that on Sunday you can add expert pilot.

We had a bit of weather leaving early Sunday evening but he flew around the trouble, took us toward Albany then north to Ottawa. At one point on the way home we could see the lights from the village of Osgoode. Flying home after the day I had - seeing the village where I have lived for more than 23yrs and knowing my mother was there - it was just very, very cool....A tremendous experience that had I known I may have put it on a bucket list or something but I had no idea how cool it would be.

Thanks Chris for an unforgettable day and thanks to Steve 'Rosy' Rosebrook for his hospitality in providing the tickets for the game and all of that experience. What a day!