October 24-30

The weather around here has been ridiculously unpredictable, the week began with cooler temperatures but on the weekend it was in the 70s and 80s. Had my usual Monday morning lunch at the mall, in the evening we were at the rink for the start of street hockey week #6. Three games on the schedule with the Misfits winning over the Kings, the UniLords over the Blues and the Riot over the Hammerheads. On Tuesday we had the final three-game night of the regular season, all of the remaining dates have makeup games plugged in at 8:45. On this night the Misfits defeated the Hammerheads, the Owls beat the Pub Dawgs and the UniLords downed the Steamers. On Wednesday Jenny and I had our traditional midweek lunch date, on Thursday rain moved into the area and stayed for most of the day. The night's schedule at the rink was washed out and reset for November 6th. The weekend proper was quiet except for Saturday lunch with Jenny and a Sunday AHL hockey game in Hershey. Marty has a connection for free tickets there, he had called earlier in the week and asked me if I wanted to go to this game since the Phantoms were the opponent and I had nothing else going on. I saw my first live pro game at the old arena in Hershey in 1968, from '73 to about 2001 I was a virtual regular there but things changed with the advent of the Royals. Hershey opened a new arena in 2002 and I still got to several games a year but in recent seasons I cut back severely, this was my first time there since January of 2014 and it didn't take me long to be reminded of why I haven't missed it in the least. The current building has none of the charm and atmosphere the "Old Barn" had and a hockey night in Hershey just isn't the same anymore. When I was younger the games at the old arena were major events, nowadays the experience is lukewarm at best (I guess you could say I've "been there, done that"). The game was tied 2-2 in the second period, the Phantoms goals courtesy of rookie Nicolas Aube-Kubel and veteran Colin McDonald. Late in the period Hershey broke the tie on a power-play and made it stand up for a 3-2 win, third-year pro Anthony Stolarz was the Phantoms goalie of record. There's a possibility that I might go back for another game or two (depending on when Marty can get tickets) but only if it fits into my schedule, Hershey is a place I simply don't go out of my way for anymore. I get the Royals home schedule taken care of and we make it to a Phantoms home game in Allentown each season, anything beyond that is gravy. Take care, thanks for reading.