The 5 Best Road Trips for Penguins Followers This Season, and Journey Suggestions

The new 84-game NHL schedule will, in some methods, profit the Pittsburgh Penguins, particularly because the staff will journey about half as many miles as final season. There can be no abroad journeys or frantic weeks spent making up misplaced time. Even by way of some awkward back-to-backs and mismatched highway journeys like Raleigh to Montreal, there may be loads of enjoyable available for Penguins followers keen to courageous the present sticker shock of airline costs.

Oh, these costs are going to take a bit out of PHN, for positive.

Unfortunately, the NHL packed a few of the greatest roadies into simply two journeys this 12 months. There are some bizarre one-offs like St. Louis, with no corresponding second within the Central Division, and one of many Montreal journeys is buffered by a previous sport in Raleigh, which just about negates the potential of simple journey for anybody however the staff.

Of course, there may be the standard California journey, however LA’s present downtown scene makes it one we will’t suggest to the common hockey traveler. If you like Anaheim and Disneyland, go for it, however LA…no less than the sunshine is sweet.

Yet by way of the very completely different schedule for the 2026-27 season, the NHL did present the Penguins some further time in our favourite cities. Viva Las Vegas. For the needs of the perfect highway journeys, we’ll skip previous the essential journeys like Columbus, Buffalo, Philly, and Washington, D.C. Actually, PHN has misplaced a number of of our favourite motels in these cities and has needed to make do with budget-conscious choices that we’ll not suggest for followers on a pleasure journey … except you want seeing individuals lounging barefoot within the foyer, or drawing the shades and staying within the room ready for Door Dash (I’m you, New York Islanders).

Nope, we’ll make some robust suggestions for journeys, together with one that each hockey fan ought to take no less than as soon as.

Best Penguins Road Trips

5-4-3. Chicago-Denver-Vegas-Utah

Right out of the gate, October 13-19 is the perfect journey of the season. Chicago? Yes, please. You can drive out as a result of it’s a lot shorter than you suppose. There’s even an in a single day Amtrak from Pittsburgh to Chicago.

Now, the United Center isn’t within the best location. It was simply two seasons in the past that the safety guard stopped me from taking the L round midnight with a agency suggestion: “No, bud, you want an Uber.” So, put aside a couple of bucks for the in-city journey.

When in Chicago, skip the vacationer pizza as a result of, properly, it’s terrible. Chicago pizza is sauce cake. I don’t get it, don’t prefer it, transferring on. Instead, go straight for Italian beef, and, once more, blow off the touristy suggestions on Yelp. Find Luke’s Italian Beef. It’s a bit of store simply a few doorways up from the unique Giordano’s. Get the new peppers in your sammich. It’s spectacular.

And go discover the unique Billy Goat’s Tavern. It’s downtown however not simple to search out as a result of it’s really beneath N. Michigan Ave. I wandered round for half an hour looking for it earlier than seeing the steps and exclaiming, “Cheezborger, Cheezborger. No Coke. Pepsi!”

There’s one location close to the sector, which I believed was the unique, however the precise OG, the place Akroyd, Belushi, Murray, and the crew frolicked, is downtown. They haven’t up to date something since they entered popular culture lore:

Denver: It’s a troublesome name to suggest Denver as a result of it’s change into fairly costly to remain within the metropolis, however it’s a nice cease and the most effective nights out on the circuit. Usually, I wrestle with budget-acceptable motels within the metropolis, but when price isn’t a problem, Union Station is the realm with the simplest stroll to the barn, and downtown Denver is actually an enormous mall with trolley and bus service. It’s fairly handy.

Now, the Denver airport is so extraordinarily remoted from town (isn’t that proper, Illuminati?) that there’s a practice operating forwards and backwards to downtown. It’s a couple of 40-minute experience, so plan accordingly, but it surely’s handy.

There are two must-stops in Denver, no less than for this greasy spoon aficionado. First, Sam’s No. 3 Diner. The parts are plate-filling, old-school, hearty handshake-type Americana, and the inexperienced sauce is what it is advisable to slather on all the pieces. Then, a block away is the Tarantula Pool Hall, which takes me again to my carny roots. It has good beer specials and has held this author hostage on a couple of nights. There are loads of spots in Denver, together with some rooftop bars with champagne merchandising machines, however these two are those that preserve me coming again.

Vegas: I may write a e book. The T-Mobile Arena is located close to the airport and about 20 motels, so keep at whichever infantile or fake luxurious theme strikes your fancy. Unfortunately, two main firms have taken over the Vegas Strip, they usually don’t care for those who keep to eat or the place you gamble as a result of they’ve received you, irrespective of the place you go. Those dastardly thieves have scrubbed the times of Prime Rib and $1.99 midnight specials.

There are some hidden treasures nonetheless remaining on the Las Vegas Strip, and I hate to offer them up, however I’ll bequeath my locals’ information and share with you the spots that don’t make your bank card hurl a string of unprintable epithets and your style buds merely shrug.

Bautista’s Hole within the Wall is classic Vegas awesomeness. Nestled behind the Flamingo, it delivers free desk wine and incredible rooster parm. The similar goes for Ellis Island, which nonetheless has the off-menu sirloin particular, additionally superb Italian dishes, and a quaint little on line casino that also provides low minimums and single-deck blackjack. They reworked it a couple of years in the past, but it surely nonetheless has a few of that sorely missed outdated Vegas attraction.

Sadly, these two bloodlusting sportsbook firms have largely received you trapped on the Strip (even my slice at NY NY is now $7?!), so low-cost and enjoyable Vegas is downtown on Fremont, seven miles away (however even they only closed my absolute favourite Italian spot on the El Cortez Hotel—which was began by Bugsy Siegel—in favor of a high-priced steakhouse).

If you possibly can, get an area (or me) to take you to Herb & Rye Steakhouse, too. Go after 9 p.m., and it’s about $35 for the steak of your desires in an outdated Vegas hang-out.

Utah: It’s stunning. You’re surrounded by snow-capped mountains and disarmingly pleasant of us. Get a grimy soda someplace, however don’t be disillusioned as a result of “dirty soda” doesn’t imply what you suppose it means. There’s no alcohol in it.

Salt Lake City is just not a celebration metropolis, as evidenced by the surprising variety of kids who participated in final 12 months’s St. Patrick’s Day festivities as I arrived on sport day. Usually, individuals falling over their very own ft and throwing up on St. Paddy’s aren’t toddlers, eh? The restaurant scene in SLC is kind of muted, so spend the additional day in Vegas or go snowboarding, and sleep on the flight house.

Adventurists, right here’s one detour for you and my fellow conspiracy nuts: Take the marginally longer drive from Las Vegas by way of the desert on the Alien Highway and detour previous Area 51 as much as Salt Lake City. Stop and get the meatloaf on the Little A’Le’Inn in Rachel, NV—principally a trailer park in the midst of the desert—and preserve trucking.

Have I informed you the story of after I rode a bike the a number of hours as much as the entrance gate of Area 51 in 125-degree warmth, was adopted by unmarked SUVs, made it to the highest of the mountains the place I used to be buzzed by fighter jets flying so low that the rumble virtually knocked me over, however I couldn’t see them, later virtually having (or perhaps having) a warmth stroke on the way in which again whereas trying so bloody horrible that the comfort retailer clerk on the sting of the desert simply handed me Gatorades and let me crash out for an hour? No? Moving on…

2-1: The Big One

This season, the schedule makers crammed two roadies into one. Annually, there’s the same old snowbelt journey with Winnipeg and Minnesota, and there’s the western Canada swing with Calgary, Edmonton, and Vancouver, with a dip into the shockingly unsafe Seattle downtown wedged someplace in between the Canadian cities.

Over the final two years, Seattle unnerved even me, and we’ll go away it at that. However, this season, they’re all one gargantuan highway journey.

From Feb. 13 to the twenty third, the Penguins trek north, over the mountains, south, again over the mountains to the blistering chilly prairie, to Minnesota, and residential.

Simply, each hockey fan ought to make the Calgary-Edmonton journey no less than as soon as. Unfortunately, they’re break up by six days this season, so our recommendation to followers is to fly into Calgary and take the bus as much as Edmonton (or take a connecting flight) for the sport on the thirteenth. Blow off the journey to Seattle and head straight to Vancouver for a few days of whale watching, purchasing, and eating.

But for those who actually wish to hit ’em all, fly from Edmonton or Calgary to Vancouver on Flair or WestJet, lease a automobile, and make the straightforward drive from Vancouver to Seattle and again, then zip again to Calgary.

Oh, Edmonton. The nice forgotten and put-down metropolis close to the Arctic Circle with park bench statues of Bob and Doug McKenzie, pierogies and donair pizza, and salt-of-the-earth individuals who completely love…LOVE…hockey. The meals is blue-collar with loads of Asian decisions. If not for the subzero climate, it’s the most much like Pittsburgh, together with being constructed on a river. Without query, get the goulash at a bit of Czech spot, Bistro Praha.

And Calgary has some eating. Steak! Alberta beef is the mouth-watering, buttery, almost-melts-on-your-fork greatest sirloins and filets you will get in North America, if not the world. The Rocky Mountain views are spectacular, and the individuals are stand-up. One little eating spot that I’ve taken fellow writers to is the Derrick Gin Mill. The steaks are perfection with out paying excessive costs. I’ve walked and brought the practice throughout Calgary, and it’s an A+ metropolis, even for journey newbs who wish to cease everybody and annoyingly ask for instructions. The Derrick was the perfect meal I had all season, and I believe it price about $25 American.

As for the central a part of the journey, it’s about hockey solely. I like the individuals in Winnipeg, but it surely’s tough sledding within the useless wintry chilly of February. Perhaps it’s a must to expertise it as soon as simply to say you probably did it, however the frigid, dense air will suck the breath out of your chest because the wind rattles your bones. But sadly, it’s a city that’s combating for its life towards an onslaught of imported narcotics and an economic system with no bedrock business. The purpose to go is that the followers adore their staff, and the sport itself is among the best possible experiences within the league.

Fortunately, St. Paul has improved during the last three years. My private suggestion is Gambit Brewing. It’s a chill little bar beneath avenue stage with a fairly darn good golden lager.

If you go to Minnesota, there’s a little lodge that was as soon as a convent and seminary faculty. Now, it’s a bit of marble palace, the Celeste Hotel. Easily THE most snug beds on the NHL schedule.

Honorable Mentions

Montreal: You have to expertise a sport at Centre Bell. The crowd is unbelievable. St. Catherine’s St. isn’t as superb because the outdated sportswriters inform the tales, however you possibly can nonetheless discover some good-natured hassle if you want. The 300-year-old structure and church buildings are fairly a sight, too.

Tampa Bay: It’s laborious to suggest Tampa as a result of, like Las Vegas, a few builders purchased the entire motels in downtown and determined they’d moderately have 25% occupancy at silly costs as a substitute of 80% occupancy at inexpensive costs. So, PHN’s favourite little off-brand Riverwalk lodge instantly went from $100-$150 to $300+ per evening. Yeah, booo!

Still, Tampa has Eddie & Sam’s Pizza, which imports the water from New York City. And it’s good to have the ability to stroll round downtown through the winter months, feeling heat sunshine with no big wool coat. There are loads of espresso retailers, and even a bar close to the sector that’s full-on Eighties, with Pong and all the pieces a Gen X child would gather. Unironically, it’s known as 1983. The lodge downside is simply an excessive amount of to place Tampa on the record.

Florida: The climate is nice. Tickets are attainable. Stay on the seashore, lease a automobile, drive to the sport the place there may be free parking, after which return to Ft. Lauderdale or Miami. Sunrise, the realm the place the Florida Panthers’ area is positioned, is unquestionably not a vacation spot, nor are there high quality motels—a lot to the chagrin of gamers league-wide.

Detroit: Yes, previously beleaguered, harmful, crime-ridden Detroit has been cleaned up courtesy of some hometown billionaires, akin to Roger Penske. Detroit is definitely fairly good. There are some beautiful bars and eating places round Grand Circus Park, which is a couple of blocks from Little Caesars Arena, together with Le Suprême, a warmly designed, quaint little eatery and bar with stained glass and wealthy woods. At evening, it’s a dimly lit French restaurant and cocktail bar. Guys, for those who take a particular different, go there. You’re welcome.

And for us greasy spoon varieties, there are two competing Coney Island diners. Go to American Coney Island as a result of the opposite one has had some current troubles with the well being division.

For the squeamish, I’ve walked throughout Detroit with out challenge or concern. That wasn’t the case in 2008. But Penske, particularly, has opened his pockets to revive the city, and it’s ready for individuals to note. ‘

Just maintain tight on I-75 between Toledo and Detroit. Between the craters on the roadway and drivers with nothing left to lose, it’s a demolition derby befitting the Fayette County Fair.

I’ll see you on the highway.

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