Xcel Energy Centre.

Seating – oh about 18,000.

Home of the Minnesota Wild Ice Hockey team.

If you’ve never been to an American ice hockey game and you get the opportunity. Go.

It really is an All American treat.

In 2018 we were in Boston and went to the opening game of the Bruins. My first foray into the American obsession with ice hockey and in fact Americans with their sport. Totally amazing.

Tonight we were headed off to the Twin Cities to take in a Minnesota Wild – Washington Capital game.

Naturally, we are for the Wild.

But first we had to head back to Bayport.

North Dakota to Minneapolis.

Standard check out is noon and check in 3pm but we were on the road much earlier than that.

Sheels opened at 9am and given MoD had forgotten his Wilds ice hockey jersey we absolutely had to go and get ‘something’ to wear to show our support.

And to coordinate with the Bruins hat Mitch and Lori had given him.

They gave me a Wilds hat so I wouldn’t get beaten up. MoD can look after himself.

I love Sheels. The little store that started in a small town just outside Fargo is frickin HUGE.

Hell it’s got a Ferris Wheel in its centre.

I have talked about Sheels before.

And my love thereof.

Not the gun section. I don’t love that.

But we could certainly spend a lot of time and money there.

We didn’t.

Laden with manly Wild T-shirts for the boys and non-manly Wild Hoody’s for the girls, we headed out on one more job before leaving Fargo.

My addiction needed servicing.

The one thing I love about Starbucks is its reliability. No matter which one you go to you always get the same taste and service.

What I am not loving is that I can’t load the Starbucks app.

Well that’s not quite correct, if I changed countries in my Apple profile I could.

I ain’t doing that.

One Vente single shot soy latte, with a $1 tip translates to $12.47NZD.

That’s getting up there.

I have found in the last few years I can’t really complain about the cost of coffee in NZ (I clearly do of course). Even Melbourne coffee prices are now comparative.

Anyway, this trip there was a lot of money spent at Starbucks.

Could have been a hell of a lot more if Mitch and Lori didn’t buy me a 2 litre carton of Soy to go with Mitch’s nice new fangled coffee machine.

And here I go again.

Off the beaten track.

From Fargo we drove south east to Bayport for a quick rest at ‘home’ before heading out to a little restaurant just down the road called Manger.

5pm dinner. That’s what old folks do you know. Early dinner, bed by 7.30.

Tonight though, the olds were staying out late.

The game started at 7pm and it was a half hour drive, with unknown traffic, remember that 18,000 seating capacity, so we had to get in and eat quick.

Which we did.

There was a lot of traffic and there were a lot of people.

Still I got in a few sneaky pics of the Minnesota State Capital thingy. From the car.

Xcel was not a completely full stadium but pretty damn close given it’s a work night. I’m thinking 15,000 fans.

An ice hockey game is loud and full on with an electric atmosphere.

Game commences with a lot of noise and music and then everyone stands, hand on heart to sing the National Anthem.

The guy who led the anthem was clearly classically trained and absolutely amazing.

And then the game commenced – wahoooooo 🏒🏒🏒

A hockey game is 3 periods of 20 minutes.

In between those periods they have a 17 minute interlude where the little kids come out to play. The goals are bought in close and they don’t have goalies but every time one of those rising stars hits the puck into the net the crowd goes wild.

Here they are, the crowd going wild…..

There is a DJ who plays song snippets each time play stops. Which means every one sings and dances during the stops.

Not the girl beside me. She was a bit beige. Poor girl would have felt most uncomfortable sitting beside super excited Lori and I.

Lori and I maintain we did our 10,000 steps and all our arm exercises right there at that game. From our seats.

The guy in the front on the other hand was not at all beige.

We were high fiveing all night✋ well at least five times.

Did I give the score away?

Hmmmmm, back to my take on the night.

Any break in the game gives the cameraman the opportunity to scan the crowd and throw some interesting individuals up on screen.

During the 17 min period breaks the commentators pick fans out of the audience to go on the big screen and play trivia types of games for prizes.

We didn’t get picked – thank the good Lord.

One game was to identify pie flavours.

There were ten.

What?

Surely there is only one???

It’s a Four ‘N’ Twenty meat pie 😜 mate.

DJ also plays music to see who is the fan with the coolest moves.

Up on the screen they go.

There was no shyness in this audience and some pretty cool dancers to be fair.

Periodically the ice needs a sweep so play stops and out come a band of (mainly girls) dressed in all black with duly branded Kwik Trip on their ice sweepers to keep that ice nice and smooth.

I originally thought they were a cheer squad they were so well choreographed.

It was an exciting game with the Wilds getting their first goal in the first ten minutes.

The crowd went wild.

My ‘significant experience’ 😜 and ‘knowledge’ of how fast this game is (by watching the two teams MoD’s plays with), along with my lack of memory from Bruins 2018, in fact did not prepare me for how fast pro players are. They are on the ice for one minute intervals only. It astounds me how they all know when to get on and off. As for their peripheral vision…outstanding. They know where each other are at all times and pass that puck without even acknowledging a look in their team mates direction. With these old eyes it was pretty hard to keep a track of the puck.

Eventually the Capital scored but not being a home game there didn’t seem to be a lot of noise supporting their achievement.

Boo hoo.

MoD did tell me the Capital are a really good side and have actually won the Stanley Cup not so long ago.

End score: Wilds 5. Capital 3.

And only one argy bargy which didn’t amount to much.

It was an excellent night and another tick off MoD’s list I’m guessing.

Tomorrow, we arise at the ungodly hour of 6am, time of day we haven’t seen for ten days, and head to the airport to commence the journey back to Chch.

Good night loyal readers.

Sleep tight.