My wife got me a pair of tickets (and parking pass!) to a hockey game for Valentines Day. The game was last night, Avalanche vs. Predators.
It was a great game, and the culmination of a late season charge by the Avs to stay in the playoff hunt. Unfortunately, it was the end of that chase: They lost. They were in it all night and led much of the game, but the end of the 3rd period things went flat. Bummer.
In spite of it all, we had a lot of fun. The parking pass was helpful, but next time I think we’ll probably take the light rail as it has a line that takes us from our end of town right to the Pepsi Center.
I’m a casual fan of hockey. About 10 years ago my wife’s oldest sister’s husband (at that time) introduced me to the fun of watching playoff season hockey. For several years I didn’t watch much regular season, but when the playoffs started I’d get into it fairly seriously. Then one of the networks introduced that goofy “zoom” effect on the puck and I became annoyed and stopped watching it on TV.
The latter part of the 90s we were living in Phoenix. While there, I’d go with friends, co-workers or consultants to a few Coyotes games each year. I learned that I love “live” hockey a lot more than watching it on TV (living in Phx was the first time we lived in a town with a NHL team). Then we moved to Denver and my boss had incredible season tickets that I was able to use a few times (stuff like row 10, lower level seats. Man… awesome). That ended with the “big crash” earlier this decade. Last night was my first game in probably 5 years.
So I’m a casual fan. That made explaining the nuances of icing to my wife a challenge. Probably amused the folks around us too. 