Philly Front Office

The Flyers are in Miami on Tuesday (not really, but close enough) to play the two-time defending Stanley Cup Champion Panthers. If you want to drive there from the XFinity Mobile Arena, you would need to leave by around midnight, get on 95, then make a right. That’s it. It’s kind of shocking just how much I-95 shapes the east coast sports scene. By my count, 29 professional sports teams are just a turn or two off “The I.” First of all, that’s a terrible nickname. Second, it makes for a spectacular road trip one day.

Wednesday, November 26, 2025 at 7p – Flyers at Florida Panthers
Friday, November 28, 2025 at 4p – Flyers at New York Islanders
Saturday, November 29, 2025 at 7p – Flyers at New Jersey Devils

Of the 29 teams, 8 are NHL franchises. Yes, 1/4 of the NHL plays basically on the same road. Starting in Miami, the Florida Panthers are the furthest south the NHL goes. It is technically in a shopping mall area named Sunrise that isn’t quite Miami and isn’t really Fort Lauderdale either, but Amerant Bank Arena is a pretty nice place to call home even if it is impossible to get there easily from either city.

Heading north, I’m sorry to tell the geographically impaired that Tampa is too far west to make the list, so no Lightning. Hockey failed in Atlanta, but that’s too far west too. Until the Savannah Bananas take their show on ice, Georgia is right out. Instead, we have to go waaayyy too far to get to Raleigh, North Carolina to see the Hurricanes. Yes, the Lenovo Center is a little off of 95, but it is still basically just one road, so we are counting them. Now things get dense.

Keep heading north until you get to the nation’s capital to see, well, the Capitals at, get this, Capital One Arena. Great names guys. Baltimore not only doesn’t have a team, but they never have for some reason. They were close in the 60s when the NHL was all about expansion and Baltimore was the 6th biggest city in the country, but the NHL came to Pennsylvania and went west instead. Despite being the runner up at the time and the NHL adding 20 more teams since then, Baltimore never again got close. No idea why I am on this tangent.

Anyway, next up is our Flyers. Yes, I realize that would have been around 3000 miles for 3 hockey games and a very unimportant expansion history lesson, but that’s what road trips are about! You went to Pedro’s South of the Border twice on this trip, so YOU’RE WELCOME. From Philly, it’s not too far to Newark to see Josh Harris’s least favorite team, the Devils, at the Prudential Center. I’ve never been to a Devils game up there, but police did escort me directly to the arena to see Tom Petty once. I’m not sure if they have the same concern for hockey fans. From there, you are only a right turn away from Madison Square Garden and the Rangers.

Until literally right now, I was under the impression that the Islanders were still playing in Barclays Center. Nope! A few years back they moved to UBS Arena at Belmont Park. Thankfully for this already trite narrative, 95 makes itself a right turn around NY and allows us to keep our one turn mantra to include the Islanders. Why do they have their own arena? No idea, but at least it isn’t out on Long Island anymore.

Flyers Week 1: Hockey Town?

Now, let us stop at a liquor store real quick to mourn one of our fallen brothers. Hartford, CT isn’t quite off I-95, but I am padding my word count right now. A quick left turn around New Haven takes you north to the Hartford Civic Center (PeoplesBank Arena), the former home of the Hartford Whalers. Hide the souvenirs you got from Raliegh under a blanket in the back of your car because it is still a sore subject with the locals. The city is a lot like Knoxville, TN after the World’s Fair. The Civic Center is now filled with wigs, just waiting for some adolescent to come knock it over with a well tossed rock.

Our final stop on the great road is the vile TD Banknorth Garden. Nothing says “garden” like TD Bank obviously. Why couldn’t they sponsor the football stadium? TD Bank would make a whole lot more sense that way. Does the random Stanley Cup lifted by the Bruins still make anyone else mad? As if the Patriots winning so much, the Red Sox breaking through in the 2000s, and the Celtics perpetual contention wasn’t enough, the Bruins just had to get one random Stanley Cup in there too. That one bothers me more than it should.

Anyway, that’s 8 active hockey teams within a long drive and a turn or two of each other. If you are wondering at home, there are also 7 MLB teams, 8 NFL teams, and 6 NBA teams. I have no idea why I wrote this.