Hockeytown USA

There is one thing that has really surprised me about Charlotte - we have a hockey team. Now being a fan of the short-lived Columbia Inferno, being able to watch a game of hockey is something I have missed for the past few years. I mean, you can rarely even catch it on TV these days. So when I found out on Sunday that Charlotte has a team, I did some research. I Googled "Charlotte hockey".

Apparently we have a pretty decent team. In only their second year in the league (the franchise moved from Albany only to have another team start), the Carolina Hurricane AHL affiliate Charlotte Checkers are no joke. Last night, I got to see for myself what kind of hockey gets played here in Charlotte.

The Checkers play in the Time Warner Cable Arena and compared to the Carolina Colosseum, it's like being in the Taj Mahal (I'm sure I misspelled that...). It is very well lit, they have the huge scoreboard up, and the atmosphere there is not at all what I was expecting. The people there are really into it.

Now being that it was a very dreary Monday night, I wasn't sure if I'd be walking into an empty Arena. Now granted, the second ring is closed off, but there are still probably 8000 seats that are available during the games and I would estimate 65 - 70 percent of them were filled with some people looking to enjoy a game of hockey. The front section behind goal was filled with a group of people who had cowbells. They did a good job of trying to get inside the heads of the opposing team (which were the Lake Eerie Monsters). Their goalie (last name Cann) got quite a few good ones. The whole section would start chanting "Cannnnnn...Caaaannnnnnnnnn...Caaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnn...YOU SUCK!" And it would go on to any other player who was around.

The overall experience was much better than most baseball games I've attended (minus maybe the Dodger game when I was in LA a few years ago). Not able to compete with a Gamecock football game, but overall if you go to a Charlotte Checker game, you won't be disappointed.

But no night is complete without a little twisted humor. This week I am driving a borrowed car as mine is getting some service done. Nonetheless, I am driving a hotrod of a vehicle - a 1995 Monte Carlo. Now before you start to hate on it, its only got 40,000 miles on it, so it still drives like it's fairly new. But one of the "minor" defects in the car is that the door sometimes won't unlock - even with the key in the lock. This happened, so THIS happened:

Also, for humor sake, after the game we went out to a restaurant at the Epicenter. Apologies it won't rotate but I hope you enjoy this one: