Ducks 5 - Kings 4

I got some free pre-season Ducks tickets from work for tonight's game versus the LA Kings. Since it's pre-season, the tickets are together; usually free Ducks tickets from work are singles. Leon was supposed to bring two kids along but the 6-year old decided not to come at the last minute so it was only the three of us.

We got there pretty early at around 4pm, an hour before the game. Parking was an expensive $15 but I was too lazy to park off-site... more money for Henry I guess. It turned out that there was a kids thing at the back so we went there for about 30 minutes. The turnout was pretty good for a pre-season game... I'd estimate that the arena was about 2/3 full. Since it was dinner time, we got some food at the concession stands. It wasn't cheap but not as bad as I thought after the expensive parking.

There were a couple of huge inflatable balloon things, a bounce house, and some other events. It was pretty hot out and bottled water was selling for $4, though the guy selling it was kind of apologetic about the price.


Ducks girls up close. I sneaked in a picture while they were posing for someone else. :)


Darci getting a Ducks temporary tattoo from a nice lady.


They also let kids wear some pads and shoot hockey pucks at them. For Darci, they slowed down the puck but for some of the older kids, the pucks were flying in pretty fast. I think they should have also provided cups for boys.


I think this was the final pre-season game. There were 3 goals (Ducks 2 - Kings 1) scored withing the first 5 minutes of the first period.


Testing out the 10x zoom on my Panasonic DMC-TZ3. These weren't the same girls outside earlier. Our seats were in row R of section 404, pretty close to the back wall. I've sat here for all the "free" games so far.


At one point, Ducks were down two skaters but they managed to kill off this 5-on-3 penalty.


There were some pretty good hits... one of the panels was knocked crooked so they had to fix it.


During the first intermission(?), the had two people inside plastic balls race around the center circle. I think the winner (and their section) got free ticket to the OC Auto Show. I didn't even know there was an auto show in Orange County.

Since Darci had a short attention span, we left the game after the first period. There was nobody in the parking lot and I got out immediately. Very different from the Angels game (across the 55 freeway) on Wednesday. I saw someone from my building (at work) inside the Honda Center. She also brought her toddler and I saw them leaving after the first period as well. I had to check the score when I got home since it was still 2-1 when we left.