Hit Someone

Hockey is back in Toledo. After a two-year absence while hockey fans in the region awaited the building of the new Lucas Country Arena, hockey fans had to settle for the Red Wings. Some concession. Although a painful one last year when they loss the cup to the Pittsburgh Penguins in game seven at the Joe. Tonight was the long awaited night for hockey fans in Toledo - return of hockey. This version is called the Toledo Walleye who compete at the ECHL level. This team is associated with both the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Black Hawks. So why does someone like me care? I'm certainly a baseball and football fan, but this is a first. A blog entry on hockey. Tonight was less about hockey for me and more about hope. Hope for a city trying to revitalize during a poor economic time. Could an arena such as this spark revitalization? I guess the answer to that questions lies in the future. A future I look forward to watching unfold. In the meantime, I went to the first hockey game at the new arena to support Toledo and what I hope to be a "tipping point" toward the revitalization of the down town area. So, I went. I enjoyed an action packed game and didn't even mind seeing the Walleye drop their first game in the area to the Florida Everglades 2 to 1. I was there with over 7000 people cheering on the Walleye, but more importantly cheering on the city of Toledo.