Ottawa Senators farm team

[lhousesoccer]

I had a chance to go to an AHL game last night in Glens Falls, NY to see the Adirondack Phantoms play the Binghamtom Senators at the Glens Falls Civic Center. The Phantoms are Philly's farm team. Pretty good hockey, and the guy who hooked us up with the tickets has 7 season tickets at ice level right in the corner. There were alot of smashed faces in the glass 3 feet from my and my 5 year old son, who just started playing hockey this year. He was psyched, but I had to talk to him during the game that checking was only for "big boys".

 

The thing I thought was most interesting was the optical illusion of ice space. These guys were huge, and there looked to be no room on the ice at all when 10 players and 4 refs were skating around. I kept thinking to myself, this ice surface has to be small than NHL size. It just looked totally cramped out there. But the giant TV's they had hanging at each end showing replays looked just like watching NHL on TV. I'd watch a play in real time, with a guy coming in over the blue line around a couple defencemen and taking a shot on net. How did he squeeze through there? Then, I look up to see the replay and it looks like he's got 20-feet of open ice around him! It was weird!

 

I checked on the ice surface dimension later and the Civic Center's ice is exactly to NHL specs - 200' x 85'. I've only ever been to 3 NHL games in my life and have always sat way up high. Never at ice level. A completely different perspective.

 

Senators beat the Phantoms 5-3, by the way, and Michael Leighton (many NHL games under his belt) was in net for the Phantoms. He didn't look great, but apparently is recovering from back surgery.