Friday, December 30, 2011

Nassau Coliseum is better than Madison Square Garden


          In the next game on my hockeysee, I went to Nassau Coliseum to see the Islanders play the Calgary Flames.  I admit, I was expecting this post to be all about how it's a dump, especially compared to the world famous Madison Square Garden.  That, of course, was before the MSG Incident in the last post

Thursday, December 29, 2011

The Madison Square Garden Incident

So, Madison Square Garden sucks



Really bad.

Worse than I could have possibly expected from the “World’s Most Famous Arena”.  It was just bad, not fun at all.  To show you all WHY the experience was so bad, here’s our view.

That big thing up there was the concourse.  


Monday, December 19, 2011

Where the Sabres roam...





So, for the next place on my odyssey, or “hockeyssey” (I was originally going to say “hockyssey”, which is what my mother almost demanded I put, but I like how “hockeyssey” looks, even if it is pronounced “hockey-see”), I traveled to Buffalo, New York. The Sabres were playing against the Toronto Maple Leafs, whom I’d already rooted against (and seen lose) at their place.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Masterton Trophy candidates at about a third of the way through the season.


           So it’s that time of the year where every blogger posts their nominees for (x) trophy at the (x) way point of the year, but one trophy I never hear ideas for is the Masterton trophy.  The Bill Masterton trophy, for the unitiated, is awarded to the player who “ best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey” (Source: NHL.com).  In modern times, it has become somewhat of a “comeback player of the year” award.  With that, I want to list a player for each team who, I feel, would be most deserving.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Minnesota here I come!

            Next up is the State of Hockey, Minnesota and its Wild.  On the day after Thanksgiving, I embarked on an epic journey to Minneapolis, to see the resurging Wild play host to the young Oilers (again).  I’ll see Edmonton at least once again before I head to Alberta, but that’s neither here nor there.  The Wild have come from pretty much nowhere to become one of the top teams in the NHL, and I needed to find out why (plus I needed to go, so it was a good fit).
One piece of advice, don’t go to the Mall of America on Black Friday, just don’t.  Stuff was needed, and we figured that by noon the place wouldn’t be as crowded (it was).  However, this did give me an opportunity to gauge the popularity of the Wild in the area.  Of course, the fact that I was in the “State of Hockey” (more on that later) helped facilitate the process.  Between the hockey stores, the sports stores, and Sears, there were plenty to choose fr from.


Thursday, December 1, 2011

Minnesota Post will be up shortly


I went to Minnesota last Friday (November 25th), but I've been swamped with homework and other stuff since then, so I'll post it next week when I get that done.

In the meantime, here's a pic I took from outside the building afterwords.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Hockey in the Desert


Remember, Remember, The Fifth of November
The Coyotes battle the Oil
I know of no reason, this Coyotes season should ever be forgot.

It may end up being their last, but more on that later.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Hockey is back in Winnipeg!

Pregame at the UC

But I'm not. Of course I never was, but that's neither here nor there.

Thursday, September 29, 2011

The Case for Expansion

First, I hope everyone keeps the tragedies of this summer in their hearts and minds throughout the year, and that the hockey community can use these to help educate itself on many of the underlying issues on the fringes of the game that contributed in any way to these horrible events.

That said, I hope this becomes a better season than last year, and I personally have more than a few of my next games planned out (if anyone has some cheap tickets to the Winter Classic...)

Ok, on to what I already wrote.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Soccer, ways to fix it, and the start of summer

Well, it's the beginning of summer, and you know what that means!  No hockey until October.  While I need to keep posting on this blog for at the very least my own sake, so I don't completely forget it and not chronicle my journey, I really can't post about anything new.  So, I plan on making a post every week or month or so about something preferably sports related, until I can start on the next season.

And I've looked at the new schedules, and see a few trips to the East Coast in the not-too-distant future...

However, on to the post which took by far the longest of the posts I've written.

I like soccer.  There, I said it.  It’s a very entertaining sport to watch, especially in the summer, where the only other major sports are baseball (which is as exciting as watching Astroturf grow) and NASCAR.  Now, as any snobby European will tell you, soccer is for some reason not very popular in the States.  So I decided to suggest ways to fix it, because, to quote Top Gear, how hard could it be?

Pictured: Soccer

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Ending the regular season in Saint Louis

For what would most certainly be the last game of the regular season for me, I traveled to nearby St. Louis for a Blues game against their division rival Nashville.  This was after an aborted attempt a week earlier to go to Minnesota.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

My goal/mission

I should probably start this first post with a quick introduction.

My name is Sean, I'm from Chicago, and have been a Blackhawks fan since I first became aware of hockey (which really is the most beautiful game, imho).  That was sometime around 1994-1995, ish.

So, after rekindling my love of hockey, after living in the middle of nowhere for a few years with maybe 1 game a week on TV, and being able to actually see my Hawks on TV a couple years back, I made a decision.

I was going to go see a game in all 30 NHL arenas.  Admittedly, some of these will be a lot easier than others.  Going to a game at say, the United Center is a few blocks away, whereas Vancouver is quite an excursion.  So I gave myself some time.  Luckily, my first game came on October 13, 2010.  This makes 30 months roughly April 13, 2013, which is about the end of the 2012-13 regular season.

Now, since I'm currently at 3, I'll add posts for each of those games, with pictures I took at the venue/city.  Hopefully I'll be able to fully chronicle my entire journey.

Wish me luck!

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Sean goes to Canada!


Given the title and above picture, it's pretty obvious that my latest journey took me to the Great White North.  Even though this time of year it was the Moderately Dreary North.  This trip took me to the great city of Toronto for a Maple Leafs game, plus the Hockey Hall of Fame.

There's the cup, shiny... 

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

New Years in DC!

So, for game 2 of my excursion, I went to beautiful Washington DC, which happens to be one of my favorite cities.  While I was there, I went to a game between the Capitals and Tampa Bay, which, as it stood, had serious implications, as the two were tied coming into the game.