Last Saturday Nikki and I sat in the fourth row on the lower level at the Columbus vs. Wild game.  Every year we treat ourselves and try and get some pretty-people up-close seats.  It was fun, but I wouldn't like to sit in those seats more than once a year. 

The good thing about those seats is that you get to see the players up close.  First, you get a feel for how athletic they are and how fast and hard they play.  When they skate, it's always a full-out sprint.  From up in our regular seats, it just looks like they're skating along without too much effort.  Seeing the expressions on players faces is fun too.  Watching Zyuzin stick out his tongue while winding up for a slapshot, and watching Walz with his endless supply of facial contortions while skating...  you don't see those things from the 200 level.  You also get a better idea of how fast and hard the hits are against the boards.  The face-plants up against the glass are always great.

But what's bad about the fourth row is that you can't see the entire game and you can't see plays develop.  There were four goals scored in the game, and we didn't really see any of them happen because of our vantage point.  Being up on the 200 level gives a much better perspective on what's going on and you can see the goals scored on both ends of the ice.  Down low, you can't really see what's going on other than the physical play of some individual players. 

I guess it's all about what you like.  Some people would rather see the up close action and not care about watching how well the team is playing overall.  In a few weeks we have another game to go to, and I'm eager to get back up to good old section 216.