One of the reasons for creating this hockey blog was to document my ongoing "quest" to see a game in each NHL city, and at the time of the launch, I had been to SIX of them:  these consisted of markets in which I had either lived (St. Louis, Los Angeles, Anaheim), attended college (Chicago), or had family (Columbus), as well as Phoenix, where I had visited a few times for Spring Training.

While planning my future "hockey road trips", I didn't simply want to drop in to the city, see a game, and then leave.  If possible, I'd like to soak in a little bit of the local culture, and experience as much of the unique aspects of the city as I could.  Also, if time allowed, I'd be interested in seeing an additional sporting event before I left the town in question.

My "travel companion" for these trips would be Chad, a longtime friend that I met in college, who had moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the entertainment industry like myself.  He wasn't too familiar with hockey, but he was always down for adventure and discovering something new.  My hope was that he would soon fall in love with the sport that I've been enamored with for so long.

When it came time to choose my first location late last year, I settled on Denver, Colorado - the fall trip allowed me the opportunity to leave the warm confines of Los Angeles and experience the crisp weather, a highly-anticipated NFL game, and an incredibly random "pop culture event" that happened to occur the same weekend I was in town.