Hockey - Auditory Bliss

The symphony produced during a hockey game is unmatched in sport.

The sounds are as much a part of the action as the participants. The speed and physicality of hockey, defining qualities of the sport, easily resonate through the air.

The collective gasp of thousands after the clank of a puck off the goal post? Beautiful.

I love the moment following that gasp when there's either an eerie silence, like everybody watching got away with something, or the frustrated groan of a home crowd feeling cheated.

There's the thunderous rumble of the boards. That boom will undoubtedly bring everyone to their feet, looking for the source...and the aftermath.

Certain sounds are like a language, where conversations are unspoken and if successful, instantaneous. Awe is to behold those fluent in the authoritative tap-tap-tap of a stick on the ice, answered by the swift crack of a puck traveling tape-to-tape.

You can hear the speed in the steady, almost soothing sound of the ice being carved beneath the player's skates. You can hear it in the ice shavings after an abrupt stop.

The sounds of hockey are unlike anything else, and that's not including the atmosphere.

Even without the deafening bellow of a goal-horn, organ music, constant chatter from the participants and spectators chanting, hockey stands alone in its auditory bliss.

Going to The Joe

(click on picture for full view)

Come January 14, I'll be sitting in the very location this picture was taken.

One of my first and closest friends after I came to college is a Red Wings fan. For nearly five years we've talked about going to a Hawks-Wings game together, but that's as far as it got.

That changed recently, when during a brew fueled hockey discussion (the best kind of hockey discussion) we decided now was the time we HAD to do it.

On the afternoon of September 1st, Wings tickets went on sale. It was an emotional roller coaster for a few minutes. The virtual box office opened and ticket prices immediately sky rocketed. After some furious mouse-clicking, swear words, butterflies, sweating, and possibly a movement, I found two reasonably priced tickets.

I'm beyond excited to see this rivalry in-person. I can't wait for the road trip, the shady probably-will-get-mugged motel we're staying at, the economy jokes, and the prospect of seeing sad Wings fans en masse.

I've never been to the Joe and I only know a few Red Wings fans. The ones I know are alright dudes, but I have no idea what it will be like inside their rundown mecca, surrounded.

So Hawks fans that have made the trip to Detwat for Hawks-Wings...what's it like?

Comment away.