Monday, January 28, 2019

NHL Arena #36


Tuesday, January 22


We checked out of Château Lake Louise around 11:30 am because we had to drive to Edmonton for the Oilers game that night. The scenery was just as beautiful as between Calgary and Lake Louise, and we arrived around 4:00 pm to check in to our hotel, which was a Home2 by Hilton. We dropped our stuff on in our room, went out to grab a quick dinner, and then stopped back at the hotel to grab our coats before the game. Well, our room keys would not work. C went down to the registration desk and the manager came back up with him to help us out. After many, many tries, we was finally able to get the door open. He repeatedly apologized for the inconvenience, told us to gather up our things and that he would return with new room keys, and when he did come back, he walked us down the hall and told us he'd upgraded us to one of the big king suites and was giving us a gift certificate for breakfast! Two hotels, two hotel upgrades! What are the chances?








Once we got settled in the new room, we took an uber to the game at Rogers Arena. It is a very impressive arena from the outside, and it was pretty nice inside, too. Obviously it is a major upgrade over their former arena, Rexall Place, which was absolutely the WORST arena of the original 30 we visited. It was atrocious. So Rogers Place is very nice in comparison to that monstrosity! However, compared with the rest of the league, I found Rogers Place to be nothing special. It's nice and new and so it feels fresh, but there is nothing really fantastic about it. It is the 36th NHL arena we have visited, and it falls somewhere in the middle of the pack. The gold standard remains Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. It is unmatched!

Coincidentally, the Oilers were hosting the Red Wings and while the first period was quite boring, the game picked up and was actually pretty exciting during the second half of the third period. I was happy that Detroit won 3-2 and overall, it was a pretty good fan experience. Despite their team not playing particularly well, the fans were respectful throughout the game, which has not always been our experience at other arenas!






























Wednesday, January 23

We got up early because we had to drive back to Calgary for our flight, and as you can see from the photo below, the weather was not on our side. We were worried that our flight would be cancelled, but thankfully, the closer we got to Calgary, the more the weather settled down.



When we dropped the rental car off, the employee took note of C's "Original 6" sweater and chatted at length about hockey with us. That in and of itself would have been a delightful experience because it is not often we encounter people near where we live who can really discuss hockey, but he then made a pretty hilarious joke, too! We mentioned that we don't really like the Caps despite where we live and his response was, "Who does?!? It's all about the Original 6!" He really made my day! And then he proceeded to give us a huge discount on the cost of the rental because we are Leafs fans! It really was a very lucky trip for us!

We flew to Dallas again on the 2x2 commuter jet, and then home from Dallas with an empty middle seat between us in the exit row. It does not get much better than that in economy!

For now, we are caught up on the NHL arenas, although there are a few new arenas on the horizon and Seattle was awarded an NHL team, so there will certainly be more hockey adventures in the future!



Happy Tails to you!

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