Seeing my favourite player again

I love travelling in winter apparently but I guess that is to be expected since I LOVE hockey. Early in 2020, before the pandemic really hit North America, I made a trip to Winnipeg and boy, February is the wrong time to go. 

When I am not travelling or exploring my province, I am in a rink most times. Since the 2012-13 hockey season, I have been a Halifax Mooseheads season ticket holder. In June 2013, a player from Denmark named Nikolaj Ehlers was drafted in the import draft by the Mooseheads and he made the team for the 2013-14 season. Pretty much immediately he became a fan favourite including myself. He was drafted by the Winnipeg Jets of the National Hockey League in the 2014 NHL draft and made it to the big leagues for the 2015-16 season. This means for the last 5 years, I had been watching him on television which wasn't often because Winnipeg is 3 hours behind Nova Scotia so their games are on tv at 11pm here if they even are on television. I really wanted to see Ehlers play live again so I was able to save money to take a trip to Winnipeg in February. 

I left on February 12 very early in the morning, it was an interesting drive in a blizzard and I had a plugged up nose so the flight wasn't very fun. I landed in Winnipeg, picked up a cab and checked in to my hotel before I did a little shopping for medications and food. It was so cold that first day (-40 with windchill) and I was sick that I didn't go outside again until the following morning. 

The game was on Valentine's Day, Nikolaj's birthday, and Winnipeg played the San Jose Sharks that night. I got to the arena early so I could look around and picked up some memorabilia. It was a very nice rink, I'm always surprised how big the concourses are coming from the small Scotiabank Centre here in Halifax but NHL rinks have twice as many spectators. There were a lot of food options including a Pizza Pizza and a hot dog kiosk. I had supper at the arena which was a hot dog wrapped in bacon, cheese and dough wrapped around it. It came with chips and a dip, it was so yummy - I almost went back to get another one. My seats were in the first row of the 200 level but it wasn't very high up so I had a good view anyways. Nikolaj played okay and got an assist but the Jets didn't win which really sucked. San Jose has a former Mooseheads player on their team as well; Timo Meier and he scored the game winner. It was over way too quickly but I still had a good time cheering on my favourite player with my new jersey. 

I did some exploring around the city and actually was able to get to an American Hockey League game as well. I wanted to go because the Manitoba Moose had been loaned another former Herd player in Danny Moynihan about a week before I went. I found out after I got to the game that he was scratched for that game which was unfortunate but I'm happy with watching any hockey. 

This was the fourth NHL arena I have visited.