NHL Arena #32

I've written before about how we visited all 30 NHL arenas between 2008 and 2010.  Since completing that travel checklist, a few teams have new arenas due to moves or upgrades.  We went to Winnipeg in 2014, so that was technically our 31^st NHL arena, and this past Sunday, we went to our 32^nd NHL arena.

My brother G drove to New Jersey to pick up YaYa (our grandfather) so he could spend Christmas at our house, and last Sunday, C and I drove him back home to NJ.  Since we were heading in that general direction, we decided to see if the Islanders had a home game that day.  The team had moved from Long Island to Brooklyn and are now playing at Barclays Center, which is the home of the Brooklyn Nets.  The arena the Islanders played in prior to Barclays Center was atrocious, so I had high hopes for this arena.

Well, lo and behold, they were hosting the Leafs that night!  We couldn't believe our luck!  We were very excited about the game and looked forward to it all week.

After we dropped YaYa off, we drove straight to the game, which was at 6:00.  Traffic was less than great, it was raining, and we had to park several blocks away from the arena.  We also saw people wearing all kinds of jerseys and hoodies of teams other than the Islanders or the Leafs.  SO weird.  The only other game we attended where many fans were seemingly supporting neither team that was actually playing was a Coyotes game.  We still talk about the fans at that game!

Perhaps we should have recognized all of these things as signs that we were not going to have an enjoyable experience, but we were not prepared for what was to follow.

After grabbing some snacks, we headed to our seats, which were occupied.  The two people moved down the row, but as they stood up, they dropped their bottle of liquor.

I believe that's known as foreshadowing.

It was a completely miserable experience.  The arena was a letdown.  Definitely one of the worst we've been to and it is ridiculously obvious that it was not designed to be a hockey arena.  The fact that the scoreboard and video screens were not centered was extremely distracting - just bizarre.

Worse than the arena, though, were the fans beside and behind us.  Loud, belligerent, drunk.  Yelling curse words every 30 seconds at the tops of their lungs even though there were small kids seated in the same section as we were.  It's a shame that a small minority of people have to ruin the game for everyone else, but that's what happened.  Security and/or attendants were almost nowhere to be found, and the longer the game went on, the more out-of-control these fans became.

We started off being annoyed by their behavior and ended up fearful that a brawl was going to occur.  So we left at the end of the second period.

Hockey tickets are not cheap, and we essentially missed one-third of the game because of those fans and how poorly the arena appears to be managed.

On our way out, we mentioned what had happened to an attendant at the door, and she directed us to her supervisor.  The supervisor apologized, but did not really seem concerned that those fans had snuck liquor into the game, were clearly intoxicated, and were shouting obscenities throughout the game.

Hands down our worst NHL arena experience.

I cannot even begin to explain how disappointed I was.  I understand that the staff cannot control every individual attending the game.  But we have been at plenty of arenas and stadiums where the staff and security personnel was everywhere, not only to keep an eye on things, but to be available for guest concerns.  An excellent example of this was the old Yankee Stadium – and this continues to be the standard by which I judge all sporting events.  The fans were in check because if they misbehaved, they were escorted out.  Foul language was not tolerated.  Fans appearing drunk were removed.  All of these measures allowed everyone else to have an outstanding fan experience.  Our time at the Islanders game could not have been more different.

Oh, well.  We won't go back there.

On the upside, there was a Shake Shack across the street.  AND the Leafs won!  And we drove past Rockefeller Center to peek at the Christmas tree before driving home, so the night was not a complete write-off.

Here's hoping our next game is better – wherever it is!

Happy Tails to you!

NHL Arena #38

A few months ago, we found tickets to the New York Islanders game this past Sunday afternoon, and their arena was the last one we needed to visit in order to be caught up on all NHL arenas. We were really looking forward to the game, since the last one we went to was back in November when we were in Seattle for a Kraken game!

It turned out to be a bit of a busy weekend! We drove up to Maryland for our niece's soccer game on Saturday morning, and had planned to have lunch and cake to celebrate C's upcoming birthday with B1, S1, our niece, and our nephew.

We figured there was little point in driving home Saturday only to turn around and drive right back through Maryland on Sunday, so after we left B1 and S1's house, we drove up to Princeton, NJ for the night, before driving to Long Island the next morning.

We had purchased four tickets for the game, for ourselves and also B2 and S2, since they live less than an hour from the arena. Unfortunately, S2 had a work commitment come up, but B2 met us at the game and we had a great time hanging out with him.

You may recall that a couple of years ago, C and I came up with a list of our favorite NHL arenas (you can see that post HERE). Perhaps the most notable part of that post was that the two arenas we ranked as the absolute worst in the NHL were BOTH Islanders arenas - Nassau County Coliseum and Barclays Center.

We figured the team's new home, UBS Arena, would have to better than both of those, and we were correct. Overall, it is a beautiful building and we were very impressed! Our seats were incredible, the history of the team is displayed with pride, and the graphics on the ice were amazing.

However, the fans are terrible. This is in line with our previous two Islanders games. I was so glad to have an empty seat beside me (even though I obviously wished S2 could have been there!) because the cursing and rude comments were so obnoxious. Someone on the big screen was answering movie trivia questions during a timeout and instead of answering the final question, he chose to use his "air time" to make a very offensive political remark, which was followed by the crowd cheering wildly. To say I was disgusted is an understatement. You're entitled to have whatever political beliefs you choose, but that was neither the time nor the place to share those beliefs. It kind of got the crowd fired up and there was more cursing and yelling and frankly, it didn't help that the Islanders were not playing particularly well. 

We left the game with about seven minutes to go in the third period because we wanted to get out of the parking lot ahead of some of the traffic so we could get on the road. The Islanders ended up losing to the Hurricanes 5-2, so I'm sure those final seven minutes were filled with continued nonsense from the fans. Fan behavior has such a huge impact on the atmosphere and it is hard to enjoy the game when security doesn't keep people in check. That was one of my major complaints from the last Islanders game we went to in 2015 when they were playing at Barclays Center.

I'll focus on the fact that the arena itself is great, that we got to spend the afternoon with B2, and that we are caught up with all NHL arenas for now! The Arizona Coyotes will be moving to a new home, so there may be a trip there next season!

our seats were fabulous!

we never get used to him
not being a Bruin

yes, there are TWO players named
Sebastian Aho in the NHL and they both
played in this game!!!

Happy Tails to you!

Our Top Ten NHL Arenas

We spent a few hockey seasons traveling to all 30 NHL arenas from October 2008 to December 2010.

We love hockey. Love it. LOVE IT. We watch it all the time, as in, every single day there is a game on and we're home, we watch hockey. While Disney+, Netflix, Hulu, and the like are awesome, having no hockey on has been a bit of a downer for us during this quarantine. Thankfully, the NHL Network has been replaying old games, which is certainly better than no hockey at all (and, admittedly, some of the games are super exciting to watch, even when we already know the outcome!), but we are really missing live hockey broadcasts!

I've already written in the past about several of our trips, and we are currently all caught up on the NHL arenas. Since completing the original 30 arenas, six new ones have been built, and we visited those between 2014 and 2019, with the final one being Edmonton last year. The links to my posts about arenas #31 through #35 can be found HERE, and the Edmonton arena post is HERE.

When we created our Top Ten MLB Stadiums list last week, we already knew we'd be doing a list of NHL arenas for today's Travel Tuesday and it was surprisingly easy to come up with our top ten! Unsurprisingly, there was no difficulty in quickly identifying the very best arena in the NHL, and the worst arenas, too!

As with the baseball stadiums, we took in account the overall fan experience, the architecture, the arena features, the staff, the parking/transportation, and how the arena seemed to be managed and cared for. Also along the same lines as our stadium list, there were times when we were home team fans, visiting team fans, and hockey-but-indifferent-to-the-two-teams fans. This is evident because two of our top ten arenas are home to teams we dislike, and five of our top ten are home to teams we feel fairly neutral about. Those choices speak to how great the overall experience was, even though we don't count ourselves among that team's fans. One of the top ten choices where we dislike the team, I also really dislike the city, so I think that says a lot about the arena!

The top arena is absolutely number one. No other arena even comes close! The other nine are listed in no particular order!

The best arena in the NHL! 

Beautiful!

I wish we lived closer
because I would attend a game
here as often as possible!

L & C's Top Ten NHL Arenas

Little Caesars Arena

home of the Detroit Red Wings

PPG Paints Arena

home the Pittsburgh Penguins

ScotiaBank Arena

home of the Toronto Maple Leafs

SAP Center

home of the San Jose Sharks

T-Mobile Arena

home of the Las Vegas Golden Knights

Nationwide Arena

home of the Columbus Blue Jackets

Bridgestone Arena

home of the Nashville Predators

Bell Centre

home of the Montreal Canadiens

Gila River Arena / Jobing.com Arena

home of the Arizona Coyotes

KeyBank Center

home of the Buffalo Sabres

As for the WORST arena, that dubious honor belongs to the New York Islanders. Actually, the two worst arenas both belong to the Islanders! Their old arena was a complete dump, and the new one offered the most awful and disappointing fan experience ever. More than four years after attending that game, I am still disgusted. You can read about that nonsense HERE.

THE WORST:

Nassau Coliseum

home of the New York Islanders

AND

Barclays Center

home of the New York Islanders

36 arenas visited with #37 on the horizon when the new Seattle NHL team gets going!

Happy Tails to you!