Any Ice Hockey Fans on OcUK..?

GarethDW

GarethDW

GarethDW

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Joined
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Swindon
Tonight I went to see my first ice hockey game ever, Swindon Wildcats versus Romford Raiders, and I've got to say it was brill. Never been interested in ice hockey before, but I thought I'd go along as my cousin plays for Romford.

I didn't really understand most of the rules, but it was still very enjoyable... think I'll need to up on it before I go again.

I was really impressed by the atmosphere of the game. The fans were all mixed up together, but there were no problems whatsoever (makes such a change compared to the footy matches I've been to). The only incident involved an oiky chav from Swindon who started shouting "f'ing this" and "f'ing that" during the final period, which I took objection to as there were loads of kids sitting all around him. I asked him to watch his language which annoyed him no end... until his Mum gave him a clip round the ear and told him to shuddup :D Apart from him, I was very impressed by how well everyone got along.

So, is anyone else into ice hockey? Are most matches like this, or did I just get lucky?
 
Been a season ticket holder at Basingstoke since '96.

Hockey players put footballers to shame. Basingstoke will play their fourth game in five days tomorrow, like to see what Sir Alex or Arsene would say about that!
 
It's a shame the Elite League is so dire compared to the NHL and the major European leagues.

I had the great good luck to snag a ticket to the Winter Classic in Buffalo NY on New Year's day. 75,000 people watching an outdoor hockey game, it was pretty intense. It was minus 10 and snowing pretty heavily, and it was a tie after three periods so it went to overtime and then a shootout. Luckily the right team won in the end :)

The best part was the tailgaiting in the parking lot beforehand. We had an oil drum for a bonfire, a deep fat fryer for Buffalo Wings, a barbecue, sound system, all kinds of fun stuff. It was a great way to see in the New Year.

I'm hoping to get tickets to the Pittsburgh/Ottawa games in Stockholm in October. I went to this season's opener in London too.
 
GarethDW said:
I'm still kinda confused by the English leagues... is the Elite League the same as the Premier League? :confused:
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The Elite League is the top professional league in Britain.

Like all American pro-sports, the teams are operated as franchises, meaning there is no promotion or relegation. Players can move between the leagues, but the teams stay where they are. The Elite League operates in the same way.

In North America, the NHL is the top or major league. The AHL is the minor league. Most NHL teams have an affiliate in the minor league, they treat it almost as a B team. Young players, players coming back from injuries, and second string reserve players are 'sent down' the the AHL affiliate to keep them match fit.
 
I think Ice Hockey is great. Don't go very often but took in Basingstoke vs Newcastle about 3 weeks ago. The arena has barely changed since my first game 16 years ago (when they were known as the Beavers, not Bison!) which shows how little money there is in the game.

I think Ice hockey is a good sport to follow if you have a young family and live near a venue. No probs getting tickets unlike football and there is a far higher proportion of women and child fans - a bit less intimidating than many football grounds. The standard isn't the best (compared to NHL/WC matches) though so it's kinda pot luck whether you get to see an exciting match or not.

Going to NYC in a couple of weeks, hotel just across from the Garden so would like to get tickets to the Rangers-Bruins game. Got a feeling it may be tough though.
 
HangTime said:
Going to NYC in a couple of weeks, hotel just across from the Garden so would like to get tickets to the Rangers-Bruins game. Got a feeling it may be tough though.
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The Rangers website would be the first place to try, failing that try the US Ticketmaster site. They have an exchange place where season ticket holders can sell tickets if they can't make it themselves. I think you'll struggle though, games between Original Six teams are always very popular.

You could always try going to see the Islanders though. They play on Long Island, it's about 15-20 miles from the Garden. The Isles are struggling and they have one of the oldest and smallest arenas in the league, should be easy to get tickets. Or failing that, the New Jersey Devils play 10 miles away in Newark, you should be able to get a train. They're doing well but have lots of problems filling their arena, which is the newest in the league, it only opened in October. The Devils had to play 9 straight away games to start the season before it was finished.
 
GarethDW said:
I didn't really understand most of the rules, but it was still very enjoyable... think I'll need to up on it before I go again.
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It's not that difficult once you get into it. The hardest part is probably understanding what all the penalty calls are. The rules always give the team that was infringed against a chance to see out the play, the second the penalised team touches the puck the play is whistled dead and someone has to go to the sin bin. It's kind of like the 'advantage' rule in football and rugby.

It can be a little confusing if you didn't see the offence and then suddenly a whistle goes and someone is being led off the ice. You can spot these delayed penalties because at least one of the referees will put his hand up.
 
Scottly said:
The Rangers website would be the first place to try, failing that try the US Ticketmaster site.
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Yeah I looked on the Rangers site and it just seemed to forward to Ticketmaster. I'm a bit sceptical about ordering tickets on there as I don't live in the US.
 
Newcastle vipers fan here. Go watch them a bit.
Also went down to london to watch the ducks against the kings, was quite good.
One thing i like about it is the toughness
dont look if your squeemish. now can you imagine a footballer doing that? they fall over when someone comes near them. for him to scate to the bench he must be a tough guy
 
Not so much of a UK hockey fan, been put off a lot by all the problems with the various London teams down the years.

NHL am a Canucks fan, although i'll happily admit it's not for any particularly good reason, my in-laws live in Phoenix so i might convert to a Coyotes fan since it's easy as pie to get tickets and i go out there 1/2 times a year.

HangTime said:
I'm a bit sceptical about ordering tickets on there as I don't live in the US.
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You're right to be cautious, i tried to get Coyotes tickets last time i was out there and ticketmaster were useless, their website has issues with non-US billing addresses and wouldn't accept my Visa. On top of that they have a fully automated phone line so actually talking to someone is virtually impossible, takes ages and uses a premium rate number.

I ended up missing the game because of ticketmaster messing me about, next time i'm using a pre-paid US credit card.
 
chimaera said:
You're right to be cautious, i tried to get Coyotes tickets last time i was out there and ticketmaster were useless, their website has issues with non-US billing addresses and wouldn't accept my Visa. On top of that they have a fully automated phone line so actually talking to someone is virtually impossible, takes ages and uses a premium rate number.

I ended up missing the game because of ticketmaster messing me about, next time i'm using a pre-paid US credit card.
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Strange, I've never had any problems using any of the foreign Ticketmaster sites with my UK card and billing address. Were you trying to get tickets shipped to you? The best way of doing it is to use the 'Will Call' option, if you choose this you can pick up your tickets at the box office before a game.

Perhaps your issues were down to the fact that the Coyotes' billing department is as bad as the team :)
 
Used to play the sport when I lived back home (Sweden). Also had a play with the Guildford Flames several years ago :) Brilliant game but along with rugby and mountainbiking it has left my body rather worn :p
 
Scottly said:
Strange, I've never had any problems using any of the foreign Ticketmaster sites with my UK card and billing address. Were you trying to get tickets shipped to you? The best way of doing it is to use the 'Will Call' option, if you choose this you can pick up your tickets at the box office before a game.

Perhaps your issues were down to the fact that the Coyotes' billing department is as bad as the team :)
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I'll let you off that last comment since it did make me laugh :p

I wanted the tickets shipped to my in-laws house in Phoenix, but i never even got that far as it just kept kicking back my billing address; they used a dropdown menu for 'state', which was a mandatory field and didn't have any options for 'non US address'.

This was about a year ago now, maybe i missed something but i didn't find it as easy as someone like amazon.
 
chimaera said:
I'll let you off that last comment since it did make me laugh :p

I wanted the tickets shipped to my in-laws house in Phoenix, but i never even got that far as it just kept kicking back my billing address; they used a dropdown menu for 'state', which was a mandatory field and didn't have any options for 'non US address'.
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All part of the service...

I'm a Penguins fan so I know what it's like to follow a terrible, terrible team. I'm just glad to be emerging from a long period of complete dross. A few years of high draft picks can make such a difference to a team!

I should imagine you'd be able to get Coyotes tickets on the night of a game, or failing that get the in-laws to order them for you.

I'm going to try and get tickets for the Pens/Sens games in Stockholm at the start of next season. A nice long weekend with a couple of hockey games sounds like it would be brilliant.
 
I went to see a couple of games about 15 years ago and really liked it. Then a Month or so ago a mate asked if I wanted to goto a Panthers (Notts) game. I've been to another since then and really enjoyed both of them.

It one of the only sports I'm interested in watching. Footyball bores me to tears and I can't stand the nancy boy 'Oh I've fallen over and hurt myself' attitude. Last Wednesday some guy got his head rammed into the barrier, shook it off and carried on.

The only thing that annoys me is the continual voice over 'You know what the Panthers do when they want to do their accounts. They use Sage Line 50' and 'Nottingham Panthers powerplay, powered by Starbucks Coffee' etc etc.
 
Orange Peel said:
The only thing that annoys me is the continual voice over 'You know what the Panthers do when they want to do their accounts. They use Sage Line 50' and 'Nottingham Panthers powerplay, powered by Starbucks Coffee' etc etc.
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That's a symptom of how poor the league is. The teams are desperate for cash so they're willing to sell just about everything that isn't nailed down, it's why their jerseys are covered with sponsor's logos and you get thoses daft little messages. Plenty of teams have folded, and all of them have had money issues at one point or another.

Just read through the history of the league on Wikipedia, it's pretty depressing actually.
 
I'm a fan :)

Don't really get the chance to go to many games since they don't play up here! Went to a game when I was in Finland just before christmas and manage to watch quite a few games of NASN :)
 
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