Looking for high-quality, fast-paced and affordable hockey in metro Detroit? You'll want to check out the Plymouth Whalers as they drop the puck on their home hockey season on Saturday, September 24 against the Erie (Pennsylvania) Otters at Plymouth's Compuware Arena.
We've long had season tickets to Whalers' games, where we've seen many soon-to-be great NHL players develop during their formative years before going on to play in the Big League.
Tyler Seguin, who raised the Cup as a rookie member of the 2011 Stanley Cup Champions' team, the Boston Bruins, was one of my favorite Whaler players in recent years. I always marveled at his swiftly elegant skating and will miss seeing him play in Plymouth, but it always gives me a unique sense of pride as I follow the careers of players like Seguin who I first watched as Whalers.
The Whalers are part of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), a Junior Major-level team where 16- to 20-year-old athletes often start their professional hockey careers.
Whaler games are particularly family- and wallet-friendly. There are plenty of deals and special packages for groups and families that include the popular $5 Fridays where you can score seats in an end zone during all Friday night home games (the team recommends purchasing these tickets in advance as there are a limited number of $5 seats).
Regular prices for individual tickets range from $12 to $16, and parking is $5. I figure my center-ice season tickets (a 34-game package that includes parking) are a great deal at $425 apiece.
We got a sneak peek at this year's team during pre-season play at Farmington Hills Ice Arena early this month where the Whalers beat cross-river rival, the Windsor (Ontario) Spitfires, 2-1. Both teams let their rookies play, with the Whalers scratching many of their NHL-draft players for the game, so it was a good chance to see some new talent.
The game seemed fast-paced throughout with fewer flubbed passes and missed opportunities due to late-in-the-game-fatigue as I've seen in seasons past. I'm hoping this is a good omen for the Whalers as they head into this season, opening in an away game tonight against the 2011 OHL Champions, the Owen Sound (Ontario) Attack.
Check out the Plymouth Whalers on Facebook, or follow the team on Twitter, where Plymouth's Pete Krupsky (Whalers' Director of Communications and radio broadcaster for Whaler games) often tweets about the on-ice action during games.
Check out The Memorial Cup: Canada's National Junior Hockey Championship by Richard M. Lapp and Alec Macaulay to read about the history of Major Junior hockey and the coveted Memorial Cup awarded in a tournament each year among teams from the Canadian Hockey League. The book is a year-by-year history of the cup contests from the first one in 1919 through 1997, including the story of the 1995 Memorial Cup final between the then-Detroit Junior Red Wings (which became the Whalers soon thereafter) and the Kamloops Blazers. The book, which I bought a while ago for myself, doesn't include more recent years. However, real fans of junior hockey should still find it a fun read with plenty of stats and vintage photos.
© Dominique King 2011 All rights reserved
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