I was back at the United Center last night for the Chicago Blackhawks game versus the Minnesota Wild to see Martin Havlat’s return. The Blackhawks defeated the Wild 3-1 as Patrick Kane scored the 50th goal of his career in spectacular fashion. Minnesota became the first team since Pittsburgh in 1996 to earn zero points in their first eight road games.

I had planned to attend this game for awhile since Hospitality Jim of the Arsenal boys was in town with his family.

Pre Game Dining
Since Hospitality Jim has a 5-year old daughter I tried to think of a restaurant that was kid friendly, a tourist attraction, sold beer and downtown. I came up with either Ed Debevic’s (located at 640 N. Wells St.) or Gino’s East (located at 633 N. Wells St.). Since the restaurants are across the street from each other we met and then decided on Ed Debevic’s.

Obtaining Tickets
Since Hospitality Jim was with his family I chose to buy tickets through StubHub rather than buy tickets from scalpers on the street. As I wrote last week, the Blackhawks have a confusing pricing strategy this season. There are three different prices per seating category. I’ll use the tickets I bought last night as my example – Section 302 Row 12.

1) $50 – cost of the ticket purchased from the box office on the day of the game.
2) $45 – cost of the ticket if purchased in advance (before the day of the game).
3) $27 – cost of the ticket if purchased as a season ticket holder of four or more years.

We ended up paying $31.25 per ticket which was in total $55 cheaper than buying the tickets from the Blackhawks ahead of time. Based on this gap in ticket prices I would recommend buying tickets from StubHub or the secondary ticket market for most games this season since season ticket holders are able to sell their tickets (without losing money) for a lot cheaper than the Blackhawks.

Post Game
After the game Hospitality Jim and I went back to the Omni Hotel (located at 676 N. Michigan Ave.) for some post game drinks. If driving downtown after the game, street parking is available and the meters are not checked after 9 pm.