Last Saturday my bride (pictured above) and I drove down to
Chicago to see the Blackhawks play the Columbus Blue Jackets at the United
Center. Both of us have followed hockey for years; watching the Hawks last
season, which ended in another Stanley Cup victory for them, was a blast.
Toni grew up on Chicago hockey; as a teenager she listened
to the late Lloyd Petit call Blackhawks games on her transistor radio. She
bugged her parents to take her to Blackhawks games and even got to know some of
the players. She maintained her love for the sport and was even an officer of
the Badgers Blue Line Club during the Jeff Sauer years.
The last time we’d been to the United Center was quite a few
years ago, to see the New York Rangers play the Blackhawks. We took our
hockey-loving son to see his beloved Rangers about a decade ago, so we were
looking forward to returning to the United Center to see a game in person
again.
The drive from Madison to Chicago is an easy one, now that
the Northwest Tollway (I-90) is six lanes all the way from the Illinois line
into the big city. We hop off the I-90
at I-290, The Eisenhower Expressway, and the sight of the city skyline (above)
from “the Ike” is always a special treat. We had hotel reservations for
Saturday night at the Marriott a few blocks from the United Center.
We checked into our room late Saturday afternoon ($289 for
one night, plus $45 for the privilege of parking my venerable giant gas-sucking
SUV road warrior in their lot overnight), changed into our “hockey fan garb”
and went down to the hotel bar for a little pre-game pre-gaming.
Here we are at Rooks, the hotel bar and lounge. Toni has on
her official Blackhawks Brendan Saad #20 jersey from last season, though you
can’t see it in this picture. Saad was traded to the Blue Jackets just before
the start of the season, to her dismay – and to the chagrin of millions of
Blackhawks fans, who were hoping the team would keep Saad on the roster.
One of the reasons we picked this game to go to was that it
would be the return to Chicago of Brendan Saad, although tonight he’d be in the
Blue Jackets uniform.
Before long it was time to catch the Marriott shuttle to the
United Center. That’s one of the benefits of staying where we did: the hotel
shuttle will take you to the game, and after the game, you just call the front
desk and they’ll send it over to pick you up and bring you back.
We made our way to our seats and this was our view – pretty nice!
We were in the last row of the section, and – stroke of luck! – I was in the
seat above the aisle, so I was able to stretch my legs out all the way! The
sightlines were good and we were able to see every part of the rink. Toni did a
GREAT job of buying the seats! By the
way, face value on our seats was $150, and we paid double that – which is about
standard. It’s not easy to get Blackhawks tickets unless you’re willing to
shell out some serious jack.
Chicago prices in general are high, just as they are in any
major city. At the United Center, a Vienna Beef hot dog was about 8 bucks; a
12-ounce soft drink was 8 bucks and a 12-ounce beer was 12 bucks.
After we’d downed the hot dogs, Toni took a selfie in front
of a huge electronic Blackhawks mural that was on the opposite wall. The
players are Kane and Seabrook, for those who don’t follow closely.
We got back into our seats in time to see the teams warming
up on the ice.
Here’s Toni’s photo of her man, Brendan Saad, wearing number
20 for the Blue Jackets, warming up with his new teammates before the game.
The Blackhawks did a nice thing for Saad – during the first
TV time-out, they had a special video recognition for Saad, who had just gotten
his Stanley Cup Champions ring earlier that evening. The Blackhawks fans were
gracious and gave Saad a big round of applause after the video, as they had
when he was initially introduced in the starting lineups before the game.
The game experience at the United Center is first-class.
There’s always the high of Jim Cornelison singing the National Anthem, and the
Blackhawks fans tradition of cheering through the whole song. And during the
game, the huge video boards keep you apprised of all the relevant game stats,
and during the breaks, the entertainment video bits are really good.
Here’s another selfie Toni took of us, this time in our
seats, between the first and second period of the game. Speaking of selfies….the
two young ladies seated to our right, who came to the game with their
boyfriends/dates/significant others/whatever spent most of their time during
the game taking one selfie after another.
The guy seated next to me on my left was a long-time
Blackhawks fan, very knowledgeable and very active. He looked to be about my
age, but he was a multi-tasking multi-media machine during the game, texting
his kids, posting to Facebook, sending out Tweets, all while keeping right up
with the game.
He said he and his wife had just been to Camp Randall for
the Iowa game, and they both raved about “the game experience” in Madison.
There was a lot of sports energy in Chicago that night and
you could feel it at the United Center – the Cubs were in a playoff game in New
York, and they had that game on all the TV’s in the concourses at the United
Center, and the Bears were at home that weekend. It was a great time to be in
the city.
The Blackhawks clobbered the Blue Jackets, and hearing that
horn they blast after a Chicago goal in person is an auditory experience not to
be forgotten. It’s LOUD. With less than a minute left, after the Hawks had
scored an empty-net goal, there was a brawl just left of the goal below our
seats, so we got treated to a little extra-curricular activity on top of the excellent
game itself.
When it was over, we made our way out of the United Center,
called the hotel, and the shuttle was there to pick us up in about 10 minutes –
not bad! We went back to the hotel bar for a post-game libation, and were
joined by another couple staying at the hotel who had also been at the game.
Mike owned an auto repair business in Lombard, IL and his girlfriend Kim lived
in Germantown, WI. We had a great time recounting the game and talking sports
with them – and before we knew it, the bartender was yelling “last call!”
It’s been a while since my bride and I closed a bar, but it
was a great night, and we really enjoyed the entire experience.
We rolled out of bed a little after 8 – showered and went
down and grabbed breakfast, and then checked out and headed back to Madison.
Our next hockey odyssey will be in early February, when we
fly to Columbus to watch the Blue Jackets (and my wife’s “boyfriend”, Brendan
Saad) at the Nationwide Arena in downtown Columbus.
Cant’ wait. Meantime –
go Hawks!
