It’s Sunday, and we’re sitting in John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York awaiting our flight back to Calgary following six days in the New York metropolitan area covering the Calgary Flames’ three road games.

We thought it would be fun to take a quick look back on the trip and give you a bit of a glimpse of how things went behind the scenes.

Thanks to a direct flight (yay!) we landed at JFK just before 4:30 p.m. ET. The AirTrain and Long Island Rail Road brought us to Penn Station in midtown Manhattan, where we checked into our hotel near Madison Square Garden.

Afterwards, we grabbed a quick dinner before watching the Flames/Maple Leafs game on Prime.

Because the Flames had played the night before, there was no traditional morning skate and instead the Flames held a media availability at their hotel. Prior to heading to that availability, we checked out the 9/11 Memorial and museum in lower Manhattan.

After that, it was our first-ever trip to Madison Square Garden, and it lives up to the hype. It’s the NHL’s oldest continually operating arena, but it’s been extensively renovated since opening in 1968 and it feels like a brand-new building. The thing we would say about MSG is that it understands the assignment: the fan-facing amenities are gorgeous and there are tons of little nods to its illustrious history throughout the concourses.

The Flames beat the Rangers by a 2-1 score.

The Flames had the day off on Wednesday – a typical occurrence after a back-to-back set – so it was a tourist day. We took the ferry to the Statue of Liberty, then headed uptown to the American Museum of Natural History, then closed out the day with a trip to the rooftop at Rockefeller Center and a showing of Moulin Rouge on Broadway.

Thursday was another game day for the Flames, this time in Newark, New Jersey. Between morning skate and the game, that meant two trips to Newark from Manhattan for us. The good news is that New Jersey Transit has frequent trains, so between that and Uber, the trek back and forth to Prudential Center won’t be too bad if you decide to take the plunge yourself. Prudential Center itself is a really nice building. It’s coming up on its 20th birthday in a few years, but it holds up really nicely against arenas that opened after it.

The Flames beat the Devils by a 5-3 score, with a big third period comeback.

(I had thrown a rain jacket in my backpack before leaving on the trip, and it came in handy on the walk from Penn Station back to the hotel.)

Friday featured a Flames practice at UBS Arena on Long Island, home of the Islanders. UBS Arena is in a pretty unique spot – it’s located at the Belmont Park race track – and train service on Saturday for the game was excellent, but on Friday that train line ran once an hour during the day. (Most fans will only visit on game days, so it’s probably not a big hassle overall.)

Aside from the trip to practice, we checked out Central Park and the Museum of Modern Art, then saw Book of Mormon on Broadway.

The week closed out with a bus tour of Manhattan before heading to Long Island for the final game of the trip. UBS Arena is only a few years old – it’s the newest NHL building, opening in 2021 – and it’s really nice. (They have wide concourses and windows that bring in some natural light, which adds to the atmosphere.)

The Flames beat the Islanders in overtime by a 4-3 score.

Afterwards, it was back to Manhattan for some wandering around to close out the week.

We saw tons of Flames fans at all three stops in New York and were able to have great visits with them along the way.

The Flames have had a trip to New York – featuring visits to the Rangers, Islanders and Devils – the past two seasons. The NHL schedule can be weird so there’s no guarantee they’ll have one next season, but aside from the Southern California trip (with Anaheim and Los Angeles) there’s no better time to get in a few road games without having to spend too much time in airports. (We’ve done the California set, too, and New York features far less time on the freeway.)

If you’re planning on going, despite the amount of time spent on trains (especially on the Long Island side of things), we would recommend staying in Manhattan if you can. There’s tons of hotel options, and if you stay near either Penn Station or Grand Central Station, you can still connect to most places you want to go visit while in town. Whether you’re travelling with your friends or your spouse, there’s tons to do in New York from a sporting and non-sporting perspective.

We’ll have more from this trip later this week, including an interview with Flames leading scorer Jonathan Huberdeau. Big thanks to our pals at Platinum Mitsubishi for their support, and to all of you for reading along with us!

This article is a presentation of Platinum Mitsubishi, family owned and operated by lifelong Calgarians. Home of the industry-leading 10-year, 160,000-kilometre powertrain warranty. Check out their showroom at 2720 Barlow Trail NE or online at www.mitsu.ca.