First Game Day

We went to N’s first hockey game, and I can’t even begin to tell you how much fun we had. What a blast, we thoroughly enjoyed it. Better than the NHL, no question about it.

The game was a bit of a trek, we had to travel to the big city of Burlington, which is about 2 hours away. I’d heard horror stories about travelling for hockey games, but I think for this age group, they don’t get too crazy. As I’ve mentioned in the past, hockey parents are quite the dedicated group. We toyed with the idea of going up the night before and spending a night in Burlington, but then balked at the idea and decided to just go up for the day.

The drive up is nice, and we had great weather. It took a bit to find the arena, which is located outside of town. You can tell hockey is in the air because there were numerous families in the parking lot, all getting their kids ready for their respective games. We were there early and watched Stowe beat the heck out of Burlington in what I believe were the Bantams, they looked about middle school age. The kids were big and they were doing some serious checking. It was a little intense, and R commented that they were being bullies, and it was true, but such is hockey strategy. Beat up the other team’s best players and shut them down.

Everyone was excited, and the energy in the locker room was palpable. The kids were into it, the parents were thrilled, and the coaches all prepped and ready. Once the players filed out of the locker room, the fun really began. Burlington Arena is nice, not in a state of the art kind of way, it’s kind of older and a bit run down, but the bleachers are heated. I’d never seen anything like that, but it’s nice not to have to bundle up. I freeze my you know what off on home ice.

Now for whatever reason I was under the impression that Burlington was a hockey powerhouse, but I thought the kids were pretty well matched. Granted, they were 8 years old, but even still, our mites did well, and I would say that the game was about even. Of course, the best part was that N scored at least four goals, maybe five. Some of them were highlight reel quality.

They looked great, they had a blast, we all really enjoyed watching, the kids are too cute for words. The games only last about one hour, which is kind of crazy considering we drove over 100 miles to get there. There was a squirt game earlier that day, and there were parents who went to that game and then drove up to Burlington for the mites game. Talk about dedicated, that’s crazy.

After the game, we went into the big city to check out the ECHO and then have supper at the Skinny Pancake. I would have liked to have driven home with some daylight left, but no such luck, and we ended back at home around 7:00. Long day, and we were beat, but was it ever fun. Hopefully that will be about as far as we have to go to a game, for now.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Dave Di Biase for the pic.