During the first couple days driving around from Boston to find coasters at different places, while I normally turn the radio of the rental to a local music station, I decided to listen to one of the local sports radio stations to hear what all was going on, especially with Boston having a lot of success with their different teams recently. On several occasions, they would talk about the Boston Bruins who were only a few games into their season at the time. I became curious about if there would be a game while I was in town, and as luck had it, they had an afternoon game against the Colorado Avalanche the last day I would be in town. So before I made my visit to the North End, I stopped by the TD Garden box office to buy a ticket for that afternoon's game. After spending the morning exploring American Revolution History, I was ready to see a game feature one of the National Hockey League's original six teams. When I was growing up in Seattle, we didn't have an NHL team there, and the junior league team known as the Thunderbirds never got nearly the same attention as the Mariners, Seahawks and Sonics for baseball, football and basketball respectively. It wasn't until moving to North Carolina and having the Carolina Hurricanes nearby that I started to pay attention, and have greatly enjoyed the sport ever since. In fact, I think it surpassed the other sports as my favorite to see in person, so naturally I had to go to a game featuring one of the first teams in the league! Coming to the TD Garden for the game, I found myself passing by the iconic statue of Bobby Orr that replicates one of his more famous goals from the 70's. It's neat to see this tribute of the city's hockey history heading into the building. There were a couple things that I found interesting about the TD Garden that I had not seen at other arenas I've been to before. For starters, the actual arena floor where the game takes place is built above the main waiting area for the North Station train station, as opposed to being at ground level, or below street level as many other arenas are built. While the area itself is over 20 years old, it still feels like a fairly new facility compared to other arenas I've seen a hockey game at, such as the Saddledome in Calgary or Joe Lewis Arena in Detroit. Walking around the arena amongst the fans and looking inside the arena, there was no mistaking that this was Boston territory. Something I really liked about the Garden was how you had a few different areas in the concourses where you could look out to the city. I tried to see if I was looking in the right direction of Charlestown Navy Yard as I had been able to see the arena from there the other day. I also appreciated that they paid tribute to their local college hockey, including special tournaments hosted at the garden for area colleges, including the annual Beanpot Tournament featuring four teams each year, and the annual Hockey East conference tournament. For the game itself, I purchased a seat up in the nosebleed section of the second deck, and while this isn't always the most desirable section to sit it, I'm actually alright with it for hockey as I like to be able to see the full rink and watch plays unfold. Ideally, the best place to sit would have either been to the back of the first level, or the front of the top deck, but this wasn't a bad place to watch the game. Unfortunately for the home team, several of the stories mentioned in the local sports channel I listened to was that several of their main players were dealing with early injuries, so they were not involved in this game, which may have led to the 4-0 shut out by Colorado for this game. I was a bit disappointed they didn't at least get one goal as I always like to see what different teams have for their goal horn and song (one of my favorites being that of the Chicago Black Hawks playing of "Chelsea Dagger" if I'm being honest). After getting to watch a hockey game, I had a bit of time left to do a little bit more exploring before it was time to head back to the Airbnb and returning home the next morning. |
See More of 2017 Northeast Trip
1: Charlestown Navy Yard / 2: Bunker Hill & Cheers / 3: Funworld Game Center & Topsfield Fair / 4: An Evening in Salem / 5: John F. Kennedy Presidential Library / 6: Edaville Family Theme Park / 7: Six Flags New England / 8: Lake Compounce / 9: Finding Coasters on the Islands of Coney & Long / 10: Taking in More Boston History / 11: Bruins Hockey at the TD Garden / 12: The Last of the Northeast Trip |
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