With the NHL officially about to call it a year, I decided to get my live hockey fix somewhere last weekend. Turns out the closest home game on Sunday was the Reading Royals of Reading, PA, a 3 hour drive. (It's pronounced "Redding" or like the past tense of "Reading", btw. I suppose if it were "Reeding", the team would have to be the Reading Rainbows and the uniforms would be a little too Queer Eye for the working class town.)
Reading is in the ECHL, essentially two levels down from this NHL everyone keeps telling me about. And the play was about that level. Toledo, a Red Wings farm club, played the night before (although so did Reading, but not as far away) and they gift-wrapped more pucks than the Sutter family as Reading won 6-2. But it was still a fun night--for $15, I was right on the blue line, four rows back. Now if only it didn't cost me $22 in gas to get there...
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Tallahassee used to have an ECHL team, but they left town when the Civic Center would not cut them a break on the outrageously high rental fees for the arena. So we started to go to Tampa to see Lightning games once in awhile. Now I have to go to... Pensacola? Wh-wh-WHAT!?
The amazing thing is that the Pensacola team is actually pretty darned good. In fact, they currently have the best record in the ECHL. Go figure. Coolest team name in the ECHL may rest down in Florida as well: The Florida Everblades. :-P
--Shane
I really like watching the Muskegon Fury, which is in the UHL, which I think is also two steps down from the NHL. The games are pretty sloppy, but there's a lot of back-and-forth, and everybody plays with a lot of energy. Plus, you can sit right on the ice for less than $20.
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