The Pennsylvania Polka

(Editor’s note: these two games not only weren’t that close together timewise, but were in two different seasons, really the only reason I’m combining them is because I’m trying to get through my backlog because I’ve really slacked off on this little blog, and they’re in the same state)

Pennsylvania is a fairly large state. As a large state, it has multiple large cities, two of them have multiple professional sports teams. Pittsburgh in the west, and Philadelphia in the East both have NHL teams, and I went to see both of them at home.

Breaking the Ice in Mentor

In the time I’ve been going to hockey games, I’ve been to an alphabet soup of letter leagues. NHL, IHL, AHL, ECHL, USHL, NAHL, EIHL. All actual hockey leagues that have existed at least at the time I went to them.

WELL NOW WE CAN ADD ANOTHER ONE TO THE LIST!

New York Redux

(Editor's Note: Even though it's January of 2019, I actually went to these games in March of 2018, started this blog entry, and then other stuff happened and I only finished it now basically, so that's why the timing in the article seems odd)

Farewell to the Joe

Editor's Note: I actually went to Pittsburgh a week before, but want to get in on the Joe Louis Arena thinkpieces before the train on that runs out. So I'll talk about Pittsburgh's new boring building soon enough.

Let's get this out of the way first. Detroit has and always will suck. This is an undeniable fact of life. The only certainties in this world are death, taxes, and Detroit's suckitude.

However, my first, last, and only trip to Joe Louis Arena was like an old Western movie. Good, bad, and ugly.

Summer posting: Blackhawks A-Z

It’s summer, and, even though I didn’t really make any posts during the season (focused too much on video games and stuff), it’s time for my yearly tradition of ripping off stuff other sites do but for the Blackhawks and doing my own thing, because I’m too lazy to come up with ideas.

This time it’s Puck Daddy’s A to Z series, with something starting (or related to, or something) with each letter in the alphabet from the team. It should be obvious which team I’m doing, but some of the letters are just plain hard. So I’ll put in honorable mentions as necessary.

Who's the scariest seed in the NHL?

So this NHL season is winding down to a close, and the playoffs are coming for 16 special teams. Each of the top 3 teams in the divisions are seeded 1-3, with 2 playing 3 and 1 playing one of the two Wild Cards from the conference (the leader with the most points plays the worse WC team and vice versa). Of course, there's a difference between an 82 game marathon and a 7 game sprint, so let's take a look at which teams in each seed look most dangerous right now.

All data is accurate before games played March 19, 2015. All photos are from NHL.com unless stated otherwise

HOLY TOLEDO!

Recently in February I took a trip to Toledo Ohio, for various reasons (including the city’s gaming convention, BASHCon, which I’ll cover on my gaming related channel).  I also had the opportunity to take in a Toledo Walleye game, which was my first ECHL game, meaning all I need now is a SPHL game and I’m set for American hockey leagues, other than the really minor junior ones.