556. See a NHL Game

One of the things I've wanted to do for a while now is going to an NHL game. When the hubby was going to his annual meeting in the Twin Cities, the Wild were never in town. Last year, the Coyotes weren't in town when we were in Phoenix. This year luck was on our side and the Phoenix Coyotes were home AND they were playing the Anaheim Ducks. The Ducks were my second favorite team after the Minnesota North Stars.

Once it was decided we were going to the hockey game, I go order tickets and nearly died at the service fees they wanted to charge.. almost the price for another ticket. Stupid Ticketmaster. I tried to convince my cousin to pick up tickets for me when she was down there visiting her dad but she suggested I call for tickets instead. There were still some fees attached but there weren't quite so ridiculous.

The Phoenix Coyotes play in Glendale which is just west of Phoenix at Gila River Arena. Since we were in Scottsdale for the Brewers/Rockies game and then stopped to get some wine in Chandler, we planned on 30-45 minutes to get us to game. We left Whataburger at 5:50 for a 7:00 game. GPS said 30 minutes... 90 minutes later we finally got to the arena. That's how bad traffic was. Apparently traffic sucks at that time of the day in Phoenix.

Parking isn't too bad. The area around Gila Arena is sort of an entertainment district with shopping, restaurants, and bars. We parked in a lot near by for $10 or $15. It was totally reasonable.

We get in the arena and our seats are upstairs which is no big deal. We just want to be there. The hubby has a fear of heights so escalators are out. We took the grand tour on our elevator ride stopping on each level. We get to our seats to discover we must enter from the top (so we walk down to our seats). Uh-oh. The hubby isn't gonna make it. We spent the rest of the first period hanging out by the rail watching the action. They don't want you to get up while the puck is live anyways. During intermission we matched to get tot our seats. I really thought we'd be standing the whole game.

The game itself was very entertaining. I've been to Admiral games before so hockey wasn't anything new to me. Besides the Mighty Ducks is one of my favorite movies.  I get the whole line change. The hubby never saw live hockey before. To watch it live is some much better than watching it on TV. It moves so quick and you can see the entire ice (especially from the nose bleeds).

We were both enthralled by the game. The hubby said if Green Bay had an NHL team, we would go to games. He also said a Coyotes game needs to be on the docket for next year. I'm glad I was able to get him to see the benefits of seeing a live hockey game. It is so much better and we definitely being seeing more NHL games in our future.