The Toronto Marlies made a run to the Calder Cup Finals that not many people expected. With clutch scoring from Alexander Nylander, amazing tending of the goal from Artur Akhtyamov, and support from everyone on the roster, the Marlies made it to their third Calder Cup series, second time as the Eastern Conference champions, and were heading into game one to set the tone and hopefully come out of Chicago with two wins and the chance to win it all on home ice.

I've been shifting my duties at work and am now being sent to more conferences and meetings out of town. I didn't think I would end up going international, but months ago it was set up that I would be attending the Labor Notes international conference in Chicago from June 11-14. I was excited to go, and when the Marlies made it to the final I finally had some sports luck on this trip, as Allstate Arena is right next door to my hotel in the Windy Suburbs.

Who are you watching?

The Chicago Wolves are the host team in this 2-3-2 series and the AHL Western Conference Champions. They're the AHL affiliate of the Carolina Hurricanes and are looking to be part of the extremely rare scenario of an NHL team and their affiliates winning championships in the same year.

The Wolves were second in the Central Division, so unlike the Marlies they didn't have a play in series to bother with. They defeated the Texas Stars, Grand Rapids Griffins, and Colorado Eagles on their way to the finals.

The Wolves are a strong minor league franchise and benefitted from the Wirtz family refusing to broadcast Chicago Blackhawks games on television. They've operated independent of NHL affiliation at times, and have won five league championships since their founding in 1994: 2 Turner Cups in the IHL and 3 Calder Cups in the AHL in addition to two regular season championships, 14 division championships, and nine conference titles.

They have seen great players come through the system while affiliated teams such as the Atlanta Thrashers, St. Louis Blues, Vegas Golden Knights, and notable alumni include Chris Chelios, Jordan Binnington, Dallas Eakins, Garnet Exelby, Jani Hakanpaa, and Joey Crabb.

Where Are You?

The Wolves play at the Allstate Arena in the suburb of Rosemont, IL, though many people may remember it as the Rosemont Horizon. The arena was supposed to be home to the World Hockey Association Chicago Cougars, to rival the Blackhawks, but the team would fold before the arena construction began.

The arena opened in 1980 with a Fleetwood Mac concert, and was designed to hide as much outside noise as possible as it sits under approach / landing paths out of O'Hare airport. This design included a timber roof and support system, as the wood helps muffle outside noise better than typical metal coverings.

It's your typical bowl design arena, with the majority of the seating in the lower bowl, and a smaller upper bowl surround it, with suites crammed in after construction.

It's hosted minor league teams and college sports, but to me it will always be the host of WrestleMania 13 where Bret Hart made Stone Cold Steve Austin a superstar.

Why are you here?

The Toronto Marlies are in the Calder Cup Final! I was only at the game since it coincided with attending the amazing Labor Notes conference, where 4,499 other like minded unionists gathered to plot against our oppressors.

It was also fun to run into our own Species, who was in town covering the game as well.

How was it?

Before heading into the arena, I was warned by arena enthusiast and travel documenter Kevin Jordan that it was probably the worst arena to watch hockey in. I wasn't sure about this, as I grew up in a depression era barn with no leg room and a real lax attitude towards fire safety.

Getting to the arena was easy enough, I cabbed it and got dropped off outside what was a warehouse looking site next door to a big box store shopping plaza. It wasn't as big as I thought it would be for a 17,000 seat space but it's built low into the ground, as mentioned above. I got in midway through the first period (thanks for the delays to my flight, wind) so my first impressions were "Wow it's spacious in here". Lots of food choices, including deep dish pizza of course, and a fair sized but could have been bigger merchandise space.

Banners for alumni hang in the concourse, murals are painted on the walls, and there's a giant goalie helmet to pose with / in for photos.

No banner for our beloved Joey Crabb

Walking into the arena bowl from the concourse, you see the age of the place right away, but in a little nice way. The wooden roof stands out, the boxes are at ground level with the main concourse and have what you could call patios outside them to watch from, where the final row of seats of the lower bowl rest up against the dividing wall.

Smoke from the pre-game pyrotechnics hung in the air for most of the first period, giving the place a real 1970s smoking in the arena vibe,

Sitting for a bit, and seeing the Wolves fans jump up as the home team almost scores, it became apparent what the issue is for viewing: the shallowness of the bowl. If you're not the tallest person, and are in the middle of the bowl, you won't see anything if everyone around stands up.

The boxes were right in the bowl with the non-box people.

On first intermission, I for sure learned how wrong I was about calling the concourses spacious. It crowded hard, but not in an unusual way. Just crowds mixing through lines for food, drinks, and bathrooms.

Try to get to your seat during play? That's a paddlin'

The crowd was small for a finals game, didn't feel like the 9,900 average attendance they had this past season but a Monday start and the big players for the team being called away to the Hurricanes may have hurt things.

The upper bowl wasn't opened for seating, and there's no curtain in this rink to hide it, so it was empty seats up there with a few scratched players, team staff, and media members scattered about.

Keep the blimp low, no need to drop burgers in those empty seats.

The crowd was great, all the hardcore Wolves fans showed up, college aged dudes were plentiful chanting, yelling, and having a great time. Lots of Marlies fans were also in attendance making for a good back and forth atmosphere, that was capped off with a great late game Marlies victory.

Would you go back?

I wouldn't purposefully make the trip back to see a game again, and probably wouldn't go to a game if I came back to Chicago unless it was the Marlies playing. It was an average older arena, with an average minor league crowd. If you're in Chicago and have the urge to head out to the airport and watch a minor league hockey game, sure. Otherwise? You won't miss much.

Toronto Marlies