Friday Night At Ice Level
Thanks to a scheduling snafu for my good friend, Tara, she offered up the tickets to another clsoe friend who, in turn, asked me to use the second ticket. I owe Tara a package of gratitude as I had zero plans for a Friday night other than cleaning up the house, and I know she's a massive hockey fan who would never miss a game unless something very important was on her schedule. I also owe Janie a massive thank-you for offering me the second ticket of the two, and we had a blast watching the Jets pick apart the Buffalo Sabres tonight.
Seeing NHL hockey from Row 1 in an arena is ridiculous for a number of reasons. You literally have to remove a cervical vertebra bone to see anything on the Jumbotron, and the video board almost becomes a secondary fixture when you're sitting that close to the action. I can tell you that all of Logan Stanley, Owen Power, and Tage Thompson all look larger than their listed heights, but it's also incredible to see how all of these players can skate like no one else. When people say that the difference between the NHL and the AHL is skating, you get a brand-new appreciation for that up close. It's effortless!
Like any event, though, it's the people you go with and the people at the event who make the difference, and we were among some good people. The two older gentlemen who sat beside us were fun and respectful despite me wearing a Sabres jersey, the women who sat behind us from communities surrounding Winnipeg were fun and our interactions came with a lot of laughs, and the remaining people in the section were quick to cheer and respectful at all times.
The only negative was that two men were trying to squeeze down the row mid-period when one spilled his adult beverage on another fan. Nothing came of it at that moment outside of a repeated "sorry" apologies and the wetter fan saying "don't worry about it", but the spiller made up for it by buying an adult beverage for the fan who got wet in the third period. Nods and smiles were exchanged, and all was right with the world again. See? Canadians are peacekeepers!
The Sabres' training staff even made one fan's night better. Associate Athletic Trainer Bob Mowry spotted a loose puck after warmups that hadn't been collected, and he scooped it up and found a young lady in the section next to us who had been looking at that puck like she had dropped it down a sewer grate. Mowry pointed at her, flipped the puck over the glass, and the smile from the young fan beamed like she had just won the lottery! Creating moments like that need to be mentioned, and I'm proud of Bob Mowry for helping a girl who was no older than five or six make one of those core childhood memories!
There even was a hockey game played outside of all the stuff happening off the ice, and tonight's game was a collection of all the stuff you hear about in the NHL, but never get to see live... until tonight! Adam Lowry was awarded a penalty shot that Ukka-Pekka Luukkonen stopped, there was a Mark Scheifele goal late in the game called back due to a missed offside call nearly one minute earlier, Cole Koepke scored his first Jets goal on a fantastic move, and the Jets skated to a 4-1 win over the Sabres! Did I need to be sitting in Row 1 to enjoy all of this? No, but it was better in the moment!
I'll say this: had Tara not selflessly handed these tickets over to Janie who invited me, I wouldn't have been sitting in Row 1 where I could reach out and touch the likes of Josh Morrissey and Rasmus Dahlin had the plexiglass not been between us. Seeing plays develop in real time in the nosebleeds is always fun because it looks more like an animation, but seeing them come to life on the ice when it requires skill, agility, hand-eye coordination, communication, and timing gives you a better sense why NHL players are the best at what they do.
Let me be clear: I am not advising anyone to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars to take in an NHL game from the first row in any arena. The normal price of these tickets would fall well outside my budget, meaning I would not be writing this article had it not been for the generosity of two friends I hold close. The message I want everyone to take from this article is that you should see an NHL game from the lower few rows just to gain an appreciation of how good these players are. But it's not worth blowing up your budget.
If I go back to my initial question where I asked if the experience was better, I would say it was different. Like all experiences, there are things to be learned and there will be memories that stand out, but it was still an NHL hockey game where ticket prices, concession prices, parking prices, and merchandise prices make these experiences nearly impossible for the majority of the population. I enjoyed the game and seeing a different perspective of the game than what I normally see from the nosebleed seats, but, as stated, I wouldn't pay the ticket prices that these seats normally cost. I simply cannot.
It was great seeing the Jets win, the people around us were fun, there was a penalty shot and a disallowed goal, and I sat with a good friend and had a great time. If you have the means to take in a game from ice level, I'd recommend it just to see the game up close and how good the players are, but I'll always recommend financial intelligence over spending beyond one's financial means. Choosing between necessities and an NHL game shouldn't even be a question.
I had a good time tonight thanks to two friends presenting an opportunity that I could not pass up. Seeing the Jets and Sabres up close was better than watching it on TV like I would have done, but I also realize the costs of being at ice level as an NHL fan.
Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!
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