Hartford Wolf Pack

I go to one game a year through a group outing, and we were among the 4,004 in attendance last night to see the Wolfpack defeat the Portland Pirates 4 – 2.
I’ve always had a fun time here. The hockey action is great, the between period entertainment of watching the little kids play is a hoot, the antics of Sonar the mascot and the T-​Shirt toss is fun.
The group sales department I’ve worked with for over ten years really makes the group sales experience a painless pleasure. My calls and e-​mails were promptly returned, and everything went smooth as glass.
A few years ago, we went to a Wolfpack game and somehow the name of one of their players stood out. His name was Ryan Callahan. A few days later he was called up by the New York Rangers and has been there ever since. He became the Rangers captain and just played for Team USA in the Sochi Olympics!

The whole family experience wasn’t bad.
You still have the fans that are going to yell words that your children don’t understand, or they look at you with an expression that says did you just hear what that person said? What are you going to do about it.
Parking is very easy o find and a short walk with well lit streets
The food price is like any other arena, costly, but they do often have some specials like $ 1.00 dog night, $ 4 beers.
There didn’t seem to be a bad seat in the XL center, they keep the fans close to the ice. Which makes for a better experience if the game is going the wolfpack way.
The reason it gets 3 stars is… Pricing seems to be high, over $ 80.00 for a family of 5 (3 are children) sit at the far end. My children wanted some sort of hat or shirt but that was way over priced as well.

They’re not the Whalers. You can’t replace an NHL team with an AHL team, even if the NHL team you had was full of minor league talent (with some exceptions…).
It’s sort of depressing to see the curtains covering up the upper levels, because that’s where I used to buy tickets for $ 18 as a teenager when I’d go watch the Whalers get their butts kicked.
That being said, Wolf Pack games are still fun to go to. They draw a decent crowd, and because it’s a much bigger arena than a lot of AHL teams have, the seating is a little steeper than in, say, Bridgeport. This results in being able to see a little bit more of the action, and give you the feel that you’re almost, ALMOST, watching a game that matters.
I just wish the city of Hartford would stop messing around and build a brand new arena already.