Stratford, NJ
Yesterday was a nice change of pace, so I’ll change pace here and talk about that instead of getting theoretical about life in Stratford.
My mom took off from work early to take my grandmom to the doctor, so I was planning on being home alone.
Just before they left, my brother stopped by so that I could look at his computer. Since neither of us had anything to do while my mom was watching my grandmom, we decided to head up to North Jersey to watch the NJ Devils play the Montréal Canadiens at the Meadowlands!
It was fun!
I was surprised by several things:
- The drive took well under 2 hours from my brother’s apartment in Glassboro (of course, we took the Turnpike, so you can fly). I thought it would be much closer to two hours.
- The Continental Airlines Arena was very nice! For an older building (it’s sad that 25 years is “older,” isn’t it?), I was shocked by how clean, well-kept, and new-looking it was. I was expecting something more along the lines of the Spectrum, and I was pleasantly surprised. It’s a real shame that the Devils and the Nets are moving out of there. Unfortunately, once you count the luxury boxes, it’s obvious why they’re moving, but it’s still a shame for the average fan.
- Nobody was there! We were able to walk up to the ticket window, without even waiting in line, and get two decent seats for $20 each. And there were plenty of other seats available. The NHL listed attendance at just under 11,000. Of course, for a mid-week game in an arena with no public transport, in an area with lots of hockey, I shouldn’t have been too surprised. This isn’t really much off the Devils’ average. But you have to wonder how they survived.
- It was really cool to look at the names on the roster and the players on the ice. I don’t think I had ever been to a game in any sport that had that many big-name players. Even still, the game itself was ok, but just mediocre. I admit that I haven’t been to many NHL games, and I don’t know if I expect too much out of them, or if I just pick bad ones to attend, but I’ve never really been blown away by the NHL. I mean, some things (notably the passing) is noticibly better than in the AHL or some of the better European leagues, but overall, the NHL just doesn’t make me go, “wow.”
- When we were trying to decide what to do, after we decided on going to a hockey game, we had to figure out who was playing. We look up 6 teams: the Flyers, Phantoms, Princeton Univ. (I really want to see them this winter), the Trenton Titans, the Devils, and the NY Rangers. We also could have probably made it to Washington, Reading, or Hershey, but my brother (and probably me) is going to Hershey this weekend, and Glen didn’t feel like driving to Reading or Washington, so we didn’t even bother checking those. We probably could have made it to a NY Islanders game if we wanted to badly enough, too. I never really realized how much hockey there is around here. And this is even after the Atlantic City Boardwalk Bullies folded a couple of years ago!
- LOTS of Titans jerseys. I was shocked by how many.
- I saw three people (one young couple, and a guy alone) wearing Belfast Giants jerseys! I asked the guy from the couple if they had come from Ireland, and he said, “yea,” but with no accent, so I don’t know if he was or not. He didn’t seem very talkative, and I didn’t really have much to say, so I left it at that. Not sure if there’s a Devils-Belfast Giants connection, but it was interesting.
- Quite a few Habs jerseys, but I don’t think any of them were from Montreal.
- Someone had a Swiss flag.
- Montreal has two Swiss players (including Abby, who started. I’ll see him again in February in Pittsburgh with his fan club!), a Frenchman, and a Kazakh!
So, it was a fun night. 
Unfortunately, no pictures yet, but my brother has some on his digital camera, so maybe at some point.
I got a work call from the UAE this morning at around 2:30 am. It’s good to know that I’m not forgotten, and that I can still fix problems at work from here in NJ. Hopefully that means they don’t forget me, and they’ll give me a job once I’m done here.
Because I was up late with work, I slept very late today; I didn’t get up until 1pm! A normal day here so far. Nothing exciting, but I can’t complain!
Filed under: Ice hockey, Life, Sports, Stadiums Tagged: | Continental Airlines Arena, NJ Devils
