[Closed] 2022 Frozen Four - Boston (April 7 & 9)

It's all about match-ups. The Gophers would have beat Denver, but never got the chance.

lol..,no they wouldn’t have…woda, , coda, shoulda…lol

:biggrin2:

It’s way too early to be at the airport. Mostly MN peeps at the gate. No real MSU presence this AM.

I had to look on the Google this morning to see what the definition of the neutral zone trap style of hockey was and it looked exactly what the Mavs did for five periods this weekend. So in the immortal words of Admiral Ackbar….”It’s a trap!”

Correct. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck.

They certainly could have. Just like they could have lost 5-1. Denver is a better matchup for them

than MSU but nothing guaranteed. But have the skill to.

Well. We’re home. Flight was 15 minutes early and bags only took about 12 minutes. Crazy.

Anyway, guess we can lock the thread now. ??

Put the puck in the net more than once? :conf2:

OMG Bova was good!

Agreed.

Am I the only one that doesn't know who this Todd George guy is?

I think they caught an early flight after the second period since they had it in the bag.

Nope.

I have no idea and from the looks of it I think I’m fine with that.

Just arrived home, and here are my 2 cents from Boston--

The Good--

-- The food/beer ( non arena )wasn't as expensive as I thought it would be. Beers, the brands I consume, were around $7 (non arena) and the food prices didn't seem too far above what I would pay in the Cities. Granted, we did not go to any high brow places.

-- Found some great local bars/pubs in the Beacon Hill area

-- Did less touristy stuff this time since we did that stuff in 2015, which gave us time to explore the city.

-- Weds night pep rally was the best Frozen Four fan event that I have ever attended in my almost 20 years of going.

-- Met a few GPLers and put faces to the names.

-- Nice to see a few on the 2002 Gopher alums make the trip.

-- It seemed everywhere we walked, someone would comment about our Gopher gear, including a couple of players parents.

-- Felt like a "normal" Frozen Four with the crowds.

-- Boston ranks 2nd as my favorite FF city behind Tampa

-- City was pretty clean and very walkable to lots of things.

-- Looking forward to Tampa and its weather

The Bad and Sad.

-- The result of the Gopher game

-- The drivers in Boston love to lay on their horns.

-- Traffic was tough, and glad we didn't rent a car.

-- On the flight home someone in our row had a "medical emergency". Luckily we were within an hour of MSP, so we made it. He was taken off the plane by EMT's and it appears he will be ok.

-- TSA line at the airport in Boston was massive. Only had 2 or 3 scanners open.

-- The bars down by the arena need to realize that Frozen Four fans are not like the fans who go to Bruins games. FF fans show up all day long. A few of the bars on Thursday advertised they would be open at 11am, and did not open until 1230 or 1pm. They also were not prepared for the influx of Gopher fans and the service was slow and sometimes rude. One bartender even said " Doesn't Mn have bars' as she was overwhelmed.

Bummer about the airport.

2:30 flight. Time from kiosk (Delta) for bag tags to get through security (Global Entry/Pre-Check) was ten minutes.

Hopefully Bob and the team watched the Mankato Denver game to see how to beat these guys next year!

I posted my ranking on Reddit last week in the college hockey sub but this is my ranking.

My List:

1) Tampa

2) Boston

3) St. Paul

GAP

4) Denver

5) Detroit

6) Pittsburgh

GAP

7) Chicago

Philadelphia

9) St. Louis

10) Buffalo

I can’t believe DC is not on your list?

Talked with my boss this morning about the games and the Mavs welcome home celebration last night here in Mankato. Breaking news...Mav fans are drinking the kool-aid and are booking rooms for Tampa already believing that next year will be their year. Even my boss says it will be a tougher road for them next year.

History....fairly compact and walkable core city.....great public transportation....I really liked it!

Except for the arena announcer....her was brutal.

Not sure if the original poster forgot DC or didn't attend. I would put DC in the top 4 or 5 as well.

DC was a great town to be in, but they were abysmal hosts for the Frozen Four. I get that 15,000 tourists coming in to town isn't a big deal for a city like DC, but when a sports bar a block and a half away from the arena has no idea on Thursday afternoon that there's an event at the arena that they need to staff up for that's inexcusable.

I don't think that the bars around TD Garden this weekend quite realized the degree to which college hockey fans were going to invade them, but they were aware of the event and had staffed up (if not quite enough in some cases)

In this day and age, it may have been less about not realizing the need and just not having the ability to meet the need. Boston is a perennial FF host, those establishments know what's up. But they may not have the staff.

That said, there have been a number of cities over the years who absolutely didn't realize what the event was bringing to town (which is odd since they're all NHL cities and know what an event at the arena means for flow).

This is why I don't ever want it played in NYC or back in California. Vegas will be interesting on how much of an event it will be around the city. There is so much other stuff in Vegas that the FF may get lost in the shuffle, but the weather should be nice

There's any number of possibilities this past weekend. Whether the bars were aware of the true scope and couldn't get the staffing, or just didn't understand HOW busy they would be for several hours (not just a couple before the game like most NHL games), they were all aware of the event and had staffed up to some degree, and many people all around town were very aware of the event happening and chatting with assorted fans. That's an example of a good hosting group. Get the facilities closest to the arena really up to speed, the team bars set up, etc, then make sure the area at large is aware of the event.

Seattle's AHL affiliate will be in the Palm Springs area but unfortunately the new arena will be 11.5K for hockey.

Maybe a good regional site someday but that would be a great weekend!

So one bar was understaffed and that means the city was an abysmal host? We went to plenty of bars and restaurants in DC and didn’t have an issue.

And I took the original post as ranking the activities and general city options, not just the FF. Boston had tons to do, great neighborhoods to explore, so many restaurants and bars that it was easy to find a place that fit. Maybe branch out beyond the sports bar closest to the arena. You couldn’t have paid us to walk into The Greatest Bar.

Our U-turn to get out there was so fast it made me dizzy.

Walked 1.5 blocks to Johnny's and had a great time - ended up chatting with Matty Benier's uncle, aunt, & cousin.

The Union Oyster House Saturday was awesome and great to meet you, thanks for stopping by!

I loved DC. We went all over the place. Granted, us being able to stay at my aunt's place in Silver Spring helped a lot with that. Opened up finances for a rental car, which we took to Annapolis and Gettysburg. When we went into DC itself we just hopped on the red line. We didn't hit up many bars near the arena, but instead further out along whichever metro line we were on at the time, so we missed the understaffing issues.

Right back at you! And tell Ruth I’m making my Bachmans list!

We did something similar but stayed in Alexandria. Went to an Orioles game in Camden if I recall correctly. No issues with long lines there. ?. DC was a really cool place to host the Frozen Four. The Caps arena is good, but not nearly as nice as the Garden or the Xcel. The area around there is fantastic and very easy to find small hole in the wall restaurants that serve food from all over the world.

Boston Highlights:

-Can't think of a better walkable city for a somewhat history buff

-I'd take Boston over Chicago

-Regina and Florina both solid 8.0+ pizza

-Hourly Oyster House at Harvard great lobster roll and clam chowder

-Carmelina's was good but not mind blowing. Carbonara much better than the "Sunday Macaroni" as the red sauce was a bit watery which is completely unacceptable.

-Acorn Street one of the coolest streets I've seen. As far as I know the only truly original and full cobble street in Boston.

Your memory is correct, the O's played TB. Plus the MD Sports Hall of Fame, which is adjacent to Camden Yards.

Since YE was still in HS we didn't hit bars around the arena but I don't remember any place being overwhelmed. The two places I remember were Martin's Tavern in Georgetown and The Old Ebbitt Grill (both DC mainstays) near the White House/Treasury Building. Both are DC mainstays and both were tremendous.

Another fun thing about where we stayed (Silver Spring) is that it was right across the street from the Discovery Channel HQ and they got an early start on promoting Shark Week. Right outside our window was a huge great white shark that was seemingly swimming through the top of the Discovery Channel building. It was alarming the first couple times you opened the shades.

The opinions on the Frozen Four host cities will vary depending on what your expectations are. We are not foodies and our drinks of choice are beer, so we set a low bar for our dining experience. For my wife and I, we love to on Thursday get to a bar near the arena at 11 am or so, and hunker down. Have a few beers, eat some bar food and mingle with fans from across the hockey universe. We know that the food won't be great, and because it most likely is a "team" bar, it will be really busy. But, we are ok with that. Fridays consist of exploring the town, and up grading our food experience. So, if you don't like a packed bar and bar food, The Greatest probably isn't a place to go. That said, the Weds night Gopher pep rally was an absolute blast. Yes, it was busy and loud, but it was so much fun and the anticipation was through the roof for Thursdays game. The bottom line is, when you get home after the Frozen Four, was it a great experience and did you have a great time? For us it was a HUGE YES and it looks like it was the same for you and that is all that matters, even though we took different paths.

I loved being in DC, but nobody other than other fans that I talked to at anywhere other than the arena had a clue that the Frozen Four was even a thing, much less happening in town. The most egregious example was the sports bar right next to the arena. Bars and restaurants away from the arena were fine, because that much of a crowd disappears into the background in a city with that many visitors. It was the before-game experience right around the arena that was the abysmal failure.

Please note, it's the fact that the bars around the arena didn't seem aware it was even happening is my real objection here. If they knew it was happening and didn't do anything, ok, that's on them, but if they don't even know about it, that's the organizing group's failure in getting the word out.

If the criteria is a good city to be visiting in general? Then DC absolutely belongs on the list.

And thus began our JFK restaurant pursuit.

True. My problem is I have a real crowd issue. I hate being packed in, loud noise and places like the Greatest just set me off. I’ve heard plenty of folks loved the GB or something similar. For me, my claustrophobic anxiety rockets through the roof and I would barely last 5 minutes. We did the Black Rose, Mr Dooleys, Ned Devines…which were busy but not shoulder to shoulder. La Familia for Italian, Union Oyster House for seafood, Frenchies for brunch, both Mikes and Bova the 2 other mornings. We loved Boston. The aquarium was terrific, they had a ray touch tank. I practically had to be dragged away :dup:

We landed about the time the Wednesday pep rally started. Really wish we could have been there for that experience.

Off topic: when I was in South Arica 3 years ago we went shark cage diving near Seal Island and the group on our boat after us were filming a Shark Week Air Jaws special. If we didn't need to drive 5 hours back to Capetown the GF and I were going to pay to join them. (it was an open tour so they said we could) She guaranteed next time it would happen.

As for Frozen Fours...Buffalo did a very nice job hosting and we Gopher fans really took over the town especially the day of the championship. Great fan fest, fun marches down the street to the game and very nice people. Plus, after we beat Michigan you could find tickets for like $10. [mention]Keith[/mention] was like a ticket broker that weekend. Grantzky and LW drove 15 hours to get to the title game because of it! Plus Buffalo Wings at the Anchor Bar :dup:

Tampa was fun...Columbus was b-r-u-t-a-l!

I think the hard part with these NHL cities is the local bars expect a buzz before and after a game. But for the FF there an extra 17,000 people in town for several days.

We made it to the Gopher bar for the Wed pep rally but same as some others on Thursday - walked in and right back out. Zero room. Everything around the arena was so full we just went into the arena.

Once in the arena, half the vendors weren’t even open yet which I thought was weird

We stayed til Monday and our hotel was across the street from the arena. Very few bars were even open on Sunday at all near the arena. North end was still insane.

After the game Saturday it was a little challenging as we had a group of 15 but we ended up at Ward 8 just a few blocks away from the arena on recommendation of some local girls who told us where it wouldn’t be a 22yo dance party. Great cocktails and had room for all of us.

I thought Boston was a ton of fun and will look forward to it being in the rotation again!

My ranking was based on all the following:

- nice host arena (ie modern nhl arena)

- easy access flights wise

- available hotels and bars around arena

- ability to put on a show as a city (activities around frozen four)

- things to do in city other than event

- nice weather is a plus

- tradition of hockey in the state / ability to get non-attending teams fans to show up

I never went to DC so not sure. I am adamant that being a good frozen four site is a combination of factors. For instance chicago is an awful FF site even though it is a great city. No bars around arena, city didn’t care. Sketchy part of town.

On our walk back to the hotel after Saturdays game, we walked past The Harp and the line was as long as it would have been at First Avenue circa 1985. The line was almost a half a block long to get in.

Oh I remember the Chicago arena area! Yikes. I was glad that thousands of people were heading to and from the same place as I would NOT have been anywhere near there alone.

Good duck wings. SUPER loud at dinner time

If the Bears leave Soldier Field, it would be cool to see the Blackhawks put an arena downtown in the old soldier field site. I can’t believe how sketchy UC is.

Same, didn't get to our hotel until 20 to 7 and wouldn't have made it to the event until after 7pm. Would have missed the band and such.

Oh I remember the Chicago arena area! Yikes. I was glad that thousands of people were heading to and from the same place as I would NOT have been anywhere near there alone. If the Bears leave Soldier Field, it would be cool to see the Blackhawks put an arena downtown in the old soldier field site. I can’t believe how sketchy UC is.