OT: going to Red Wings/ jackets game

Congrats on your first NHL game. Be prepared to be taken by surprise if you mostly watch college: the NHL is just stupidly fast by comparison, and you see that even moreso in person.

I haven't ever been to a Columbus game, but I would probably expect a fairly full house and a lot of red, judging by the United Center in the late 1990's and early 2000's (when the Hawks were pretty bad) and the distance between a fair amount of Detroit fans and Columbus.

With the CBJ having one of their most forgettable seasons, there is a good chance there are more Red Wing fans than BlueJacket fans in the house. It is a great arena so if you have a chance, take a walk around the main concourse. The local fans will not give you any grief and they have come to know their hockey. Plan to have an after game beverage either in the arena bar or one of the many local bars next door.

Thanks guys. I figured there will be a lot of Wings fans being so close. I live in Dayton, so it's only a 45 minute drive. My wife actually bought me tickets for Christmas. We are in row K, so we should be pretty close to the action.

If you don't don the winged wheel you will be looked upon as a visitor. Yes, you will be in Columbo but it's also Detroit's 2 point per "home' game". Lot of Detroit fans and displaced Detroiters there. Look at it this way, when you used to go to a Lions game, there were these strange looking idiots in the Dome and Ford field with cheese on their heads, more than Lion's fans. Hope this helps out in a backass analogy.

Yell out to the guy looking like a polish keilbasa on skates wearing  # 93, let him know this is not open skating time.

Enjoy

i'll be there as well. My company rents out a suite once a year to take our Honda counterparts to a game. It's a very nice arena. even for C-Bus.....

From what I've heard, when Pittsburgh and Detroit are in town, it's hard to tell Columbus is the home team.



You should be largely amongst fellow fans, based on the Jacket's season.

It's a nice arena in a nice area and there will be a lot of Wings fans.  Have fun!

Glad you're headed over, we'll be at the game ourselves.  Great arena, very clean, lots of concessions.  We've been to several Wings games down here, always a pretty friendly, pro-Wings crowd.  There are always one or two lame hate Michigan moments (on the scoreboard, chants by Ohio fans).  Several options near the arena for a pre-game beer and/or food.  Overall, should be a great experience for your first game (capped by a big Wings victory!).    

Anyone have a link to first row sports for the wing game? Thanks.

Really nice arena, you will enjoy the game. Like others said, expect lots of wings fans.

Been to at least 7 different NHL venues.  Compared to the Joe it's quite a bit quieter in regards to music volume but the venue itself is quite nice. 

We went down for a game 2 years ago and was laughed at when I asked the beer vendor if he was really allowing people to walk away with open glass bottles.  His response: "Hell yes.  You're in Ohio now."  I swear I'm not making this up.  I was stunned.

My friend had an internship with the Blue Jackets. Got to take a tour of the place and it's really nice. Never been to a game there though.

Hockey cheerleaders.  YOu are not in detroit

You'll feel right at home. Easy parking, fans are chill.  Not a hard ticket to get this year-unlike the upcoming NCAA tournie games down here

Ed:If you're looking for a place to grab a bite beforehand, I'd recommend Milestone 229-its from Columbus Brewing Company and it isn't as packed as CBC or Gordon Biersch. Good CBC brews on tap, awesome triple pulled pork sandwich

freeredwings.tv has been shut down. :'(((

The guy who runs it says the NHL contacted him and that he could get some jail time if he didn't stop. He also isn't planning on changing the url or anything either.

I also am going to this game as I do at least once a year. there are always more RedWings fans at Natiowide Arena when they play the Blue Jackets. Very entertaining atmosphere and the fans are always respectful towards DRW fans 'cause they know who fills the stands!!

there's like 4 people on this thread who are going to the Redwings game in Columbus.  How random is that?

You'll be among friends for sure.  Nice Arena, nice area around the arena.  In general I like Columbus just can't stand the Buckeyeness of the whole area.  Its insane.

so you'll see more Wings fans than Jackets fans. Have fun it's a great arena!

My first NHL game was a Red Wings game in Columbus as well. Their fans are almost as bad as Ohio fans, yet incredibly more ignorant about the sport they are watching. A man sitting behind me spent the entire second period trying to stuff peanut shells down my shirt. A real classy group of people. 

The R-Bar (http://www.rbararena.com/) is a pretty cool good pre-game hangout.  My friend from Detroit runs the Anchor Bar near the Joe and is friends with the R-Bar owner. It should be a short walk from the arena - I used to work around that area and the Arena District is... better maintained than OSU's campus neighborhood.  In the same way that Mattison is a better defensive coordinator than GERG.

(GERG's hair is better maintained than all these things, of course)

Like Hlprn302 said, Milestone 229 (haven't been there yet, unfortunately) on the Scioto has got a great reputation as one of the city's best new restaurants.  Columbus, for all its flaws, has a lot of great restaurants for its size.  Do note that Milestone 229 is also a bit far away from the arena.  You probably could walk to it, but it's several blocks away. 

I personally find Gordon Bierch overcrowded and vanilla but I'm not a beer drinker myself.  For more pre-game dining options, If you walk up a block or so north from the arena, you'll see the North Market - it's kinda like Cleveland's West Side Market with a lot of cheapish but very good dining options covering a pretty broad swath of cuisines.  My personal faves include the Vietnamese place or the wild game place.  Also, Jeni's Ice Cream is always worth it.

Add one more to the count of folks headed to the game tonight.  Even though its kind of a chain, the Boston's Pizza on Nationwide across the street from the rink runs good game day specials.  I think its $2 domestics and $1 slices of pizza, something like that.  And echoing others, R Bar is a hockey bar; its a great place to go after the game as they will have other games on about 10 TV's.

Another bar that I have been known to frequent is Novak's on High.  Its right behind the North Market parking lot, about 2 blocks from the rink.  Just a good dive bar.

Enjoy yourself, and Go Wings!!

Fun fact:  the Boston's the Gourmet Pizza brand was founded in Edmonton and is now headquartered near Vancouver, British Columbia.  It's known in Canada as simply "Boston Pizza"  From what I remember, the founders called it 'Boston' simply because it sounded big and metropolitan.  (You might ask why they didn't name if after Toronto?  In Canada, that'd be a death mark on the chain everywhere outside of the 416)  Naturally it sued Boston Market over the use of the word Boston when Boston Market expanded to Canada.

I work right around the corner from the arena and while I agree that Red Wings games usually have more Detroit fans than CBJ fans, and that CBJ fans usualy aren't too in your face, there has been a real buzz about the team trading Carter and trying to deal Nash today.  People might actually show up tonight / be a little more frothy than normal.