Hamburg Freezers

Last Friday, I attended the sold-out, 6-1 win for the Hamburg Freezers ice hockey team which sent them into the playoffs. And watched it all from a box. It was such a neat experience and I'm glad I was invited! I went with my colleague, Linda, who received the tickets from one of our vendors. They do something special each year and this was what they chose this year. Good choice.

We met outside of the building and then our group of 15 went up to our box. My only previous box experience was at a Chicago Red Stars game with my sister. That's women's soccer in case you didn't know :)





We each received a scarf and a USB stick on a lanyard. We started out the evening with a glass of Prosecco and then started in on the wonderful food. But just before we could reach the food, a (n injured) player stopped by to say hello. We took pictures with Marius Möchel and he signed autographs.




We took on the Krefeld Pinguine -- the Penguins, who were also black and yellow just like from Pennsylvania. The opening was unlike anything I'd seen. The graphics on the ice turned to flames. Once everything was "hot" is started to "freeze" and then "ice" fell from the "sky". Yeah, that's a lot of air-quoting, but this is what happened. And then there were fireworks! The team came out of a giant inflatable helmut and then a teeny, tiny approximately four-year old girl skated out and brought the puck to center ice. With no anthem to sing, that's just for us crazy Americans, the game was on.



The Freezers converted on a lot of power plays and played really great defense. It was a pretty good game. Possibly even better than the current Chicago Blackhawks. There was great music and lots of singing and cheering. Of course, we saw the wave. We even got cheer the Eismeister out on the ice to scrape off some blood after a 5-minute major on the Pinguine.

It was nice to sip on great wine and beer out of real glasses while watching this sold-out performance. I even consumed three different desserts. (I have to try everything!) Even though the 12,822 fans were not match for a United Center crowd of 22,000+, it was LOUD. I think the only real difference I noticed, as compared to a Hawks game, was that the intermissions were 18 minutes long instead of 15. However, the game felt like it went quicker -- perhaps because there weren't any TV timeouts.



Naturally, we ended the evening with another glass of Presecco. As a hockey fan, I feel very grateful that I was able to participate in such a unique experience. Hopefully the Freezers will go far in the playoffs!