10 Tips for a Great Hockey Road Trip

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From: The Hockey Writers > Editor's Choice
10 Tips for a Great Hockey Road Trip
September 16th, 2015
Matt Pryor

The 2015-16 NHL season is almost upon us, which means it’s time for hockey fans who love to travel to start planning a road trip. Maybe you want to follow your favorite hockey team on the road for a single game. Maybe you want to follow them through an entire multi-game road trip. Or maybe you just want to see as many games in as many different arenas as possible. Regardless of your motivation, these ten tips will help you pull off a great hockey road trip.


1. Set Your Goal

How many games do you want to see? How many different arenas do you want to visit? Will this be a vacation with a little hockey mixed in, or a hardcore hockey roadie? If it’s the latter, don’t bite off more than you can chew. My first multi-game hockey roadie featured five games, in four different arenas, in four days. That’s not a typo: I kicked off the 2008-09 NHL season by going to five games in four days: Blackhawks at Rangers, Blackhawks at Capitals, Sabres at Islanders in a Columbus Day matinee tilt, followed by Devils at Rangers that evening and capped off by Flyers at Penguins the next day. The trip was an unforgettable blur of planes, trains, rental cars, pucks and arena food. I’m glad I did it, but I won’t do it again. There’s a reason the NHL doesn’t schedule teams to play more than three games in four nights. Following the same rule yourself will make for a much more enjoyable trip.

2. Right-Size Your Traveling Group

How many friends or relatives should you take on your hockey roadie? If you answered, “one or three,” pat yourself on the back. Two or four total travelers is the ideal, for a couple of reasons. First, going with an even-numbered group will save you money on any game tickets you purchase on the resale market. Don’t believe me? Hop on one of the many ticket resale sites and search for three seats together for a New York Rangers game, for example. Note the prices for a particular section, then search again for an even number of tickets in the same section. Ticket brokers don’t like being stuck with a single ticket (which they’ll probably have to discount to sell), so they charge a premium for odd-numbered blocks of seats. Second, a group larger than four will require additional hotel rooms, which adds significantly to travel costs. ...

9. Allow for Tourist Time

Hockey teams get days off and so should you. Budget time on your roadie to be a regular tourist. See the sights. If you’ve never been to Montreal, for example, you don’t want to spend the money to get there, only to see the airport, your hotel and the inside of the Bell Centre. While that may be a normal trip for an NHL player, you’re not a player. You paid out of your own pocket to get there, so get your money’s worth.

10. Stay Classy

By all means, cheer passionately for your team on the road. After all, that’s why you’re there. It is possible, however, to support your team without becoming that obnoxious visiting fan everyone hates with the fire of a thousand suns. Don’t pick fights when you’re outnumbered; it didn’t work out for Custer, and it won’t work out for you. As the saying goes, be magnanimous in victory and gracious in defeat.


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