When I went to the season opener of the Dayton Demonz, their opponent was the Danville Dashers.  It was a given I was going to stop in for a Dashers game if one was reachable.  It turned out I could get to one when I was on vacation in Chicago.  2 1/2 hours of driving later, it was game time.

Welcome to the David S. Palmer Arena.

(As ever, clicking on the picture makes it bigger. You want bigger, don’t you?)

Come through the front doors, take a left…

Walk a little further…

And you are ready for some hockey.

Pucks chilling in the ice water.

There is a certain level of grunge to the arena.  Like the dehumidifiers bolted to the beams over the ice.

Keep in mind where we are.  We are at a game between the Danville Dashers and the Steel City Warriors of the Federal Hockey League.  This is A level hockey.  It’s three steps below the NHL.  A shiny coat of paint isn’t on tap, and maybe the David S. Palmer could use one, it isn’t coming any time soon.  This is what gives a rink character.  There is an industrial feel to the place.  It isn’t perfect, but it has its charms.  But like Pig Pen from the Peanuts, the charm lies under a layer of grime.  And maybe some of the charm is from that grime.

Coming into this game, the Steel City Warriors were not doing well.  The FHL season started with six teams, including the Southwest PA Magic.  The Magic played one game and promptly folded, not even making it to their home opener.  New ownership has came along and rescued the team, but it hasn’t been an easy ride for the Warriors.  They had yet to win a game.  We will get to the reasons why in a moment.

At one end of the Palmer, they store their ice bumper cars. Yes, ice bumper cars.  I really want to try this.

The players take the ice, we hear the starting lineups, and then the announcer asks us to rise for the singing of our national anthem.

Then he sings the national anthem.

And he messes up the words.

Just a few, but he got it wrong.  I don’t know, maybe the regular singer wasn’t available on a Wednesday night.  Maybe this is just how they do things in Danville, but if you are going to sing the anthem, get it right.

Action!  Oh, and since neither the home nor away teams are wearing white, the Dashers are wearing orange.

This went in.

Merch

 

Yes, the Zamboni has antlers.  Fairly awesome.

Back to the game.

The fight.

The single fight of the night felt staged and gratuitous, and pointed to what was wrong with the Warriors.  After a few punches were traded, the Warriors’ Nicola Levesque (listed as normally wearing number 25 but in this game wearing 13) shook Danville’s Clinton Atkinson off-balance, and that was the end of the fight.  Levesque signed to a contract with the Dashers earlier in the season, he was cut and wound up with the Warriors.  Maybe that was what prompted the fight.

Still, the fight was characteristic of the play for the Warriors.  After taking a few shots, Levesque seemed to have enough.  He didn’t want to get hit.  Throughout the game, none of the Warriors were willing to take a hit to make a play.  I’m not a fan of being hit either, but I don’t play professional hockey (and at this level, yes, it’s professional hockey).  The Dashers were more than willing to do some hitting.  The Warriors looked shy and weak.  They looked like they had something better to do tomorrow, something they wanted to look good for.  The Dashers were happy to take advantage.

The goalie keeps his eye on the puck.

That’s a goal.

What the heck happened here?

Want a drink?  I’ve seen better bars in the basement of my Aunt’s house.

When was the last time you saw a goal like that?  Old school.

I like the older logo for the Dashers more than the new one.  The new one is nice, but there is something about the old one that speaks to me.  It’s perfectly of its time, but would look great on a jersey today. I don’t know why they have Blackhawks Stanley Cup banners hanging in the rafters.

These guys stood most of the game.  No one minded.  They had a great time.

One of the Dashers got injured in the third period.  When he got up off the ice, the trainer simply grabbed him by the waist of his hockey pants and pulled him up off the ice.  Then he went to get bandaged up, but not in the locker room.  Just… you know… over there.

Nice save.

Something at the end of the game pissed off the ref.  I have no idea what, but he has some words for the Warriors players.  He even barked at them as they skated off the ice.

Whatever the issue, the Warriors just got smacked around with a 7-2 loss.  Taking that into consideration, maybe the Warriors don’t need a lot of guff.  He called a decent game, but I don’t think I’ve seen a more flamboyant ref.

So yeah, your final, Danville 7, Steel City 2.  The game sheet is here.

So what did I think of the Dashers experience?  It was fun, but the crowd was oddly quiet.  It was the quietest game I’ve been to in a long time.  It was less animated than the first period of a Colorado Avalanche home game, and that’s saying something.  I felt the in-game entertainment (music, announcements, etc) could have done a better job of keeping the crowd in it.  I appreciated that the music wasn’t blaring and the announcer wasn’t blasting our ears off (like the Demonz), but the volume was inconsistent, the choices were off, and it made the experience a little flat (they also forgot to mention a misconduct penalty given at the very end of the second period).  We don’t need a call to MAKES SOME NOISE!!! every break, but the crowd didn’t seem engaged in the action.  Or if they were, they didn’t show it.  The Dashers could do a better job of entertaining the fans.  The on-ice product did a fine job.  They could work on the other stuff.

There is a part of me that feels like I should apologize for my criticisms.  Other than screwing up the words for the national anthem, they are doing the best they can.  It is a good very low-budget operation.  There might be a lack of experience, there could simply be not enough in the kitty to pay for everything you want in an organization.  If I felt they didn’t care, I would flat-out say so, but that obviously isn’t the case.  They are trying very hard with limited resources, and it shows.

What they do have is a sense of community.  The crowd knew each other, and they were spending time at the rink together.  I saw many examples of families and friends meeting up to chat, then move on to their seats.  It’s something you don’t experience at a sold-out NHL game.  I mean, come on, there was a table set up with cupcakes on it for a birthday party.  It’s more like a junior high school game on a Saturday afternoon, in a good way.  You only get that when there is space to spread out a bit, when you can have a conversation with the people around you.  You get it when you don’t have to fight the loud music, or battle the announcer for someone’s attention.  So yes, I just said they needed to work on the entertainment, but it’s a balance.

The Dashers could use some support.  They need more sponsorships and advertisers (as far as I can tell, they have one major sponsor, and that’s a real estate person).  They need to clean a few things up about their operation.  I’m sure they are aching for some press, to get the word out about the team.  But they have something else as well.  They have people showing up on a Wednesday night to cheer the boys on, maybe in a reserved way, but they are there.  They have some love for the team.

That’s something to build on.