An NHL game and all I can eat; how can I go wrong?

Happy New Year!

My friend Damian and I have wanted to go to a hockey game but could never find a good time. It's hard since I work nights and he travels a lot for his job. But we finally went to a Kings game on Thursday night.

We found more than we bargained for, however. While looking for tickets, I discovered they have an all you can eat section at the 300 level – basically in the rafters. A hockey game and all you can eat for $45 dollars.

At first, I thought, that's absurd. I passed the information on to my friend and he felt it more of a bargain. His thought was, the all you can eat was only an extra $9 so why not with concession prices they way they are.

So we got to the Staples Center and neither of us had much to eat all day. We made the trip to the all you can eat area. As we were going there, we read the rules. It's a four-item minimum and the items include soda, hot dog, popcorn, nachos and peanuts. He began with two hot dogs, Dr. Pepper and nachos. I countered with a hot dog, nachos, popcorn and Dr. Pepper.

After powering that down, we collected another hot dog, nachos and soda on our way to the seats. Now, the Los Angeles Kings vs. the Toronto Maple Leafs would have been a great game 15 years ago. Currently, both teams are two of the worse teams in the NHL and are coming off blow out losses.

We got another bonus, the Canadian National Anthem along with the U.S.

While we didn't expect much, the Kings made their home fans happy by scoring four goals in the first period, that's rare for any team. Sitting at the 300 level wasn't bad either. You get to see the entire ice and how the players position themselves.

During the period, we were almost trying to hurry with our food to make another run during first intermission. We realized it wasn't going to happen.

So we sat out getting more food and waited until the second intermission and got one more soda and nachos. The person working concessions kind of laughed when she saw us again.

We figured that the hot dogs would have cost $4 and sodas, nachos and popcorn $3. It's safe to say we got our money's worth.

I would definitely go to another hockey game (BTW the Kings won 5-2) and as for the all you can eat, I'd see it more as a dare.