Baltimore Hockey Classic!

[Comeds]

I am heading out for the game, will give a report later on the game and the wonderful Baltimore Arena (first mariner) if I am fortunate enough to survive. Last time I was in the arena was probably 20 years ago and it looked ready to fall down then.

The winner of the this inaugural event has gone deep in the playoffs some of the times in the past. Almost. So this is an important game.

 

[dash]

Enjoy the game, comeds...

 

[SLY]

^ what he said.

 

[SLY]

Nashville 5 - 3 Washington

 

[Automattic]

Nashville 5 - 3 Washington

It's actually only 1 - 0 Nashville. Where the hell do you get your info from?

 

[forty_three]

5 Minutes into the Inaugural game of the Baltimore Bandits, a D-man checked a forward into the boards, causing two stanchions and a glass panel to fall on the ice.

A guy screamed, loud enough for the whole place to hear, "Welcome to the fabulous BALTIMORE CIVIC CENTER!"

Biggest cheer I heard that season.


I still have a soft spot for that arena. Seen more games there than any other place. By a factor of five, probably. Kind of like Memorial Stadium. Total dump, but I had a lot of great times there.

 

[ritari330]

Let me know how Eakin looked will ya?

 

[puckhead]

at least the ice was in terrific shape

yfrog Fullsize - http://yfrog.com/h8125pcj

 

[Comeds]

The whole arena is in horrible shape. I haven't been to a sporting even there since I saw indoor lacrosse over 20 years ago so I forgot how bad the arena is. I am not sure any seat in the upper deck could see the entire ice except for maybe the first row. "Luckily" they had a big screen set up so you could look up to see the action your seat did not let you see. Our seats had us missing the action along the boards closest to us so we moved to the end behind one of the goalies. (the only goalie you can sit behind, its a U shaped arena with seats only on 3 sides) Much better seats, if you didnt care to see the closest goalie or 10 feet in front of him. The corners of the arena end at 90 degree angles and all the seats face straight ahead so a good bit of seats look directly at other seats. My favorite was it only has one entrance so 12,000 had to go through two doors and up the same ramp to get in. Its always fun to be herded like that. My wife had never been there and accused me of exaggerating how bad it was until she saw it.

Having said that, it was a good crowd and it was nice the teams played their stars. The game wasn't great but wasn't bad so it was fun to watch. All in all a fun couple of hours.

I loved leaving my house 45 minutes before the game and getting there on time. When I go to DC I need to leave a lot earlier.

 

[elocomotive]

Thanks for the report, Comeds.

I think the last time I went to an event there was a Baltimore Blast game back in the last 80s/early 90s. Looking at it now, the arena looks like something out of the KHL. Not exactly a lot of luxury boxes and I think this shows the seating angle issue you mentioned...

I'm glad they did a game up in Baltimore though (so many Caps' fans up there) and it's kinda cool that Boudreau and Trotz had both played or coached in the building before.

 

[DevilishWon]

The whole arena is in horrible shape. I haven't been to a sporting even there since I saw indoor lacrosse over 20 years ago so I forgot how bad the arena is. I am not sure any seat in the upper deck could see the entire ice except for maybe the first row. "Luckily" they had a big screen set up so you could look up to see the action your seat did not let you see. Our seats had us missing the action along the boards closest to us so we moved to the end behind one of the goalies. (the only goalie you can sit behind, its a U shaped arena with seats only on 3 sides) Much better seats, if you didnt care to see the closest goalie or 10 feet in front of him. The corners of the arena end at 90 degree angles and all the seats face straight ahead so a good bit of seats look directly at other seats. My favorite was it only has one entrance so 12,000 had to go through two doors and up the same ramp to get in. Its always fun to be herded like that. My wife had never been there and accused me of exaggerating how bad it was until she saw it.

Having said that, it was a good crowd and it was nice the teams played their stars. The game wasn't great but wasn't bad so it was fun to watch. All in all a fun couple of hours.

I loved leaving my house 45 minutes before the game and getting there on time. When I go to DC I need to leave a lot earlier.

Is it true they played with a frozen crab cake instead of a puck?

 

[elocomotive]

Is it true they played with a frozen crab cake instead of a puck?

Lol. Nice Maryland zing!

 

[Comeds]

Is it true they played with a frozen crab cake instead of a puck?

If so I would have had nothing but rave reviews.

 

[elocomotive]

If so I would have had nothing but rave(n) reviews.

Fify.

 

[BOSSMANPC]

I hope it didn't cost too much comeds. The place sounds nasty !

 

[forty_three]

I hope it didn't cost too much comeds. The place sounds nasty !

It is epic, and you hush up now!

It really is the worst arena ever.

 

[DevilishWon]

It is epic, and you hush up now!

It really is the worst arena ever.

ever?

 

[forty_three]

ever?

Where I played my Pee-Wee hockey was built in 1950. It had two sets of wooden bleachers and one locker room divided by a curtain. The concrete pad under the ice surface was poured onto sand and the cracks were so bad under the ice surface that you could actually see sand in the ice later in the season. There were holes in the roof big enough that occasionally I would be partially blinded. Yes. I lost pucks in the sun.

It would take millions in renovations to make the Baltimore Arena that nice.

And frozen crab cakes bounce terribly on rough ice surfaces.

 

[DevilishWon]

And frozen crab cakes bounce terribly on rough ice surfaces.

picky

 

[puckhead]

Where I played my Pee-Wee hockey was built in 1950. It had two sets of wooden bleachers and one locker room divided by a curtain. The concrete pad under the ice surface was poured onto sand and the cracks were so bad under the ice surface that you could actually see sand in the ice later in the season. There were holes in the roof big enough that occasionally I would be partially blinded. Yes. I lost pucks in the sun.

the rink I played my minor hockey was like that too.

for early evening games, the sun would shine in through those doors, and the ice surface was a bit lower down. So not only it would soften the ice into slush, but create really nasty blind spots. In bantam & juvenile we always used to dump the put into that right side corner - that poor fuckin' d-man rarely ever finished the game.

played in another rink (Burnaby 4Rinks before the expansion) where one of the rinks was literally downhill. The ice was so shitty that the neutral zone lines and face off dots were depressions that felt like speed bumps. Good old Green B.