My First Professional Hockey Experience



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While I was on my Spring Break in North Carolina, my family and I decided to experience our first professional hockey game. It was the Carolina Hurricanes, third place in the Southeast Division, against the Tampa Bay Lightning, who are in second place of the same division. My mom, who is weary of sports that have a lot of physical contact, was definitely hesitant about whether or not she would enjoy the game at all being that hockey is known for the fighting and blood. However, as we left the game, she couldn't stop saying "That was great! That was so much fun!" (Mind you, it happened to be a pretty calm game.)



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So my parents dropped my brother and I off at the ticket booth to look at ticket prices and availability while they went to park the car. We had decided that if the tickets ended up being more than $30 we would pass on the opportunity. My brother, Ben, and I were standing in a pretty crowded area checking out ticket prices when these two guys walk up to us and were like, "Hey our wives couldn't come to the game so we have two extra tickets. Do you just want to take them and sit by us?" We didn't really know how to react; we were kind of dumbstruck when we answered, "Sureee...?" They then walked away and when we looked at the tickets we saw that they were 3rd row, $105 season tickets.



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Now, we might not be the biggest hockey fans out there, but regardless, 3rd row tickets, right in front of the rink are awesome! I remind you that they only gave us two so we still had to buy two more tickets. As it turned out, the only tickets available at the booth were $40 each (a little above our price range) But Ben and I decided that we would basically be paying $80 for four tickets, so why not?! Since there were only two season tickets, my mom and I rotated to where I sat down by the rink for the first and third periods and she got the second. My dad didn't mind staying up in the noise-bleed seats for the whole game and Ben got to stay down the whole game, don't ask me why?



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Hockey might just be my new favorite sport! Okay, that might be an exaggeration, but it was awesome! As we were sitting down there Ben was explaining the rules the best to his knowledge since I knew basically nothing about hockey coming into the game.  By the end of the game we were definitely getting into it and understanding what was happening, when. When the 'canes scored, everyone around us would stand up and give each other high fives. Going to sports games creates such a feeling of community, no matter where you are. There were a few times the refs made calls that were questionable and the fans would all start yelling at them and banging on the glass; very high energy!

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You can't go to a hockey game without seeing some kind of fight or confrontation. And quite frankly, I was looking forward to seeing some, as bad as that may sound. The first one was between one player on the Hurricanes and one player on the Lightning. They through a couple punches at each other in between plays so it the other players were skating back to their sides of the rink. Since the teams were teams were heading back to their respective sides, the refs weren't really pay attention to any one; therefore, they didn't see when the fight initially broke out. It wasn't until Eric Staal, the Hurricanes' captain, was banging on the wall of the rink with his stick to get their attention, that they finally saw it. When the refs became aware of the situation, they basically pushed both guys onto the ice to get them to stop punching and let them get up once every one was calm. It was an odd way of handing the situation, but I guess everything is different when you are on ice. The second one was far more exciting. It was only with a minute or so left in the game and the Hurricanes were down 4-2. Next thing I know, two Hurricanes players were teaming up on one of the Lightning players. It was almost as though they were trying to sandwich him among doing other things. Then, as you can see in Image 4, both teams joined the confrontation, whether they were trying to break it up or join in, it was basically a big mosh pit. After that, the Lightning player who had initially been "attacked" just left the rink since there was so little time left in the game. While I find these things exciting, I suppose they are considered pretty normal among avid hockey fans. But it was definitely an experience to remember.