These are photos I've taken over several nights.
It's a cold winter night in Albany, New York, and you're looking for something to do and have $16 burning a hole in wallet?
What about the Albany Devils Hockey team? No, this the AHL, not the NHL, we're still playing, even if it means your favorite players only gets $75,000/year. They might have to apply for food stamps, I mean SNAP.
Ok, The weather is not that great:
and the poor Player have to take a bus from Hartford instead of a plane. Poor babies! It's still early, so we'll walk down to team store and window shop, then go upstairs and wait:
Well, the weather got worse. Let's look at the light show:
The doors finally open:
and you get something to eat and drink:
Before sitting at your seat:
You notice the Banner say "Albany River Rats". They're now the Charlotte Checkers, and the reason for the Curtain on on the Upper Rows?
Then the other team (The Conniecut Whale) comes out, and you sort of forget about that:
And the anthem singers gather:
still not a lot of folks? Well, it is 15,000 seat arena and this a minor league on a weeknight (avg is 4,000). Add in the lockout, and our nifty "next to last in the AHL" standings, and then couple with "Perennial Frozen Four" Contender RPI 10 miles up the road and you get low attendance.
Still, the show goes on:
(Our Humble Opponents: The Syracause Crunch), and it's not bad. Granted you do the Lockout staved folks chanting "let's go Rangers(?)" during the CT game (their "Big Brother"), which makes having both teams share the same name a better option, But for $15, how can you go wrong if like the game?
Albany plows the Trail:
But Colonie doesn't:
and don't go skating:
Half hour of riding = on hour of Cleaning:
