Roadrunners' Arena

Landon Arena

Location: Topeka, KS

Opened: 1987

Seating Capacity: 7,773

The next arena I will be covering in my blog is Landon Arena, which is home to the Topeka Roadrunners in the North American Hockey League.

The building sits in the heart of Topeka, Kansas and serves as a multi-purpose venue. The arena is home to hockey games, concerts, monster truck shows, and other entertainment. It is a large arena, especially for an arena hosting a NAHL team. It was similar to the Ohio State Arena that I wrote about earlier because the arena never filled up. There would be roughly 2000 people there but it appeared as if it was empty.

The arena, like many large arenas that I have covered in this blog, the ice surface felt extremely warm and sticky but the boards and glass were lively and forgiving. This arena had dim lightning because they would not use all of the lighting for hockey games. Don’t interpret this the wrong way; there would be sufficient lighting to play a hockey game, but there was no need to use all the lights in the building for a junior hockey game.

The arena had a concourse that divided the lower and upper bowls, similar to most professional arenas. They would sell Topeka Roadrunner jerseys, which is really cool for being a NAHL team. They were a large budget organization so they would have promotional games where they would give away t-shirts to the first 500 fans. Their fans were passionate and they were not afraid to let us know it. There was a group of men who sat behind the visiting team’s bench and they would call themselves the “Bucket Brigade.” These guys would bring a bucket and cowbells so that when our coach would try and talk to us during media timeouts, they would bang the drum and ring the bells so that we couldn’t hear him. Topeka was already a frustrating team to play against to begin with, and having this circus act behind our bench would make it even more difficult to play there. I’ll give it to them though. I don’t get distracted easily by things outside of the rink, but I’ll admit that these guys had real estate in my head.

Topeka’s arena is not one of my favorite arenas to play in, but it was a good venue for a NAHL team. Plus they had very emotional and obnoxious fans, which made it fun to play there.

Thank you for your continued support of my blog. Please feel free to share with your friends and family!

  

-       Joshua Lammon 

Source: https://scotthockey.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/arena.jpg

Farewell Joe

Joe Louis Arena

Location: Detroit, MI

Opened: December 12, 1979

Seating Capacity: 20,027

I have covered all the NCAA ice arenas that I have played in. Therefore, the next arena I will be writing about is the Joe Louis Arena which is the former home of the Detroit Red Wings.

Joe Louis Arena was the home for the Detroit Red Wings since its opening in 1979. It has been named one of the toughest arenas to play in in the NHL. Most hockey fans referred to Detroit, and Joe Louis specifically, as Hockeytown. The Red Wings won four Stanley Cups while playing at the arena and they had an impressive 25 consecutive year playoff run that was snapped this season. Maybe it was fitting that the playoff streak ended the same year as LittleCaesars Arena takes the title from the Joe as “Home of the Detroit Red Wings.”

I have watched the Red Wings play at Joe Louis arena throughout my entire life. I have also skated there multiple times. Watching the Wings play inspired me to be the player I am today. I fell in love with the game of hockey partly by watching the winged-wheels on the Red Wings. I skated in the Red Wings’ youth hockey camp when I was younger. I had the chance to skate with some of the Wings’ coaching staff and gain some valuable lessons. The first game I played at Joe Louis was with the Jackson Generals. This was a youth team out of my hometown. I remember being super excited that I was going to play on the same ice as Steve Yzerman, Brett Hull, Sergei Federov, and Nicklas Lidstrom played on. I honestly can’t remember if we won or lost the game, or even who we played for that matter. But I remember skating on the ice and being in awe while looking at the legends who had their jerseys hanging in the rafters.

The next game I played at the Joe was during my last year of youth hockey for Victory Honda. I was much older this time around but that still doesn’t change the way I felt about playing there. Sure, I had matured a lot since the last time I skated there, but I still felt like a little kid stepping onto that ice. I remember that I played with a vicious cough that should have kept me out of the lineup, but there was no way in hell that I was going to miss that game. Luckily, I played through it because it would be the last time I ever play in the arena.

It should be obvious that the arena played like a professional arena. The glass and boards are extremely forgiving. They’re so forgiving that it almost makes you want to get hit into them…okay, maybe not that much. But still, you get the point. The boards are very lively, and fans would always hear Mickey Redmond and Ken Daniels mention that in their commentary. They would always explain why players intentionally miss the net to make an indirect pass to their teammates. The ice surface, however, was probably the best ice that I have ever skated on. The Joe was famous for having the best sheet of ice in the NHL. The staff took tremendous pride in the condition of the ice.

The Joe is considered one of the most historic arenas in the entire NHL and I’m just thankful that I was fortunate enough to not only grow up watching games there, but to also play in a few myself. The concourse is similar to that of a junior hockey arena. It was simplistic and small compared to modern arenas in the NHL; however, it had as much character as the best of them. There were murals painted of legends who wore the Red Wings jersey, pictures of Stanley Cup winning teams, and a sea of red walls and writing. Joe Louis Arena will always be home to the eight-legged octopus that represented the number of playoff wins it used to take to win the Stanley Cup. I was a huge supporter of the arena, and I am sad to see it go, but hopefully Little Caesars Arena lives up to its hype. Also, let’s hope that the Wings can get back to their winning ways in their first season at the new arena because its Hockeytown after all, right?

Let’s Go Red Wings!

Thank you for your continued support of my blog. Please feel free to share with your friends and family!

-  Joshua Lammon