The Worst Seats in the Rink Belong to the Parents?!

There’s a universal truth in college hockey that no one warns you about when your kid commits:

You will have the worst seats in the building.

Not the casual fan.
Not the student section.
Not even the guy who bought his ticket five minutes before puck drop.

Not “bad” in the sense of uncomfortable bleachers - though sometimes that’s part of it - but bad in the why-are-we-even-here kind of way.

You drive hours. You book hotels. You freeze waiting for the doors to open. You wear the gear. You show up early. And then ... you’re seated somewhere that makes you question whether watching the actual game was ever part of the plan.

Behind the Bench

Parents sit directly behind the player’s bench.

On paper, that sounds incredible. Close to the action! Right in the mix! Front-row access!?

In reality?
You spend the entire game staring at:

• Extra players’ sticks
• Helmets lined up one after the other
• Shoulder pads, backs, elbows, and tape
• The occasional water bottle squeeze straight into your line of sight

The puck? Rarely seen.

Goals are celebrated based on sound alone, while sitting ten feet from the ice.
You know something happened because the bench jumps - not because you were actually able to see it.

Welcome to the Upper Bowl

Then there’s the rinks where parents are lovingly escorted to the upper bowl.

Way up.

The kind of seats where:

• The players look like chess pieces
• Line changes require binoculars
• You start appreciating “systems hockey” because individual numbers are no longer able to be read

Of course those rinks are electric. And the atmosphere is incredible. 

But all you want is to actually see the game!

The Irony of It All

Here’s the part that makes parents laugh - and occasionally sigh.

Parents are the reason these players are on the ice.

We’re the early mornings.
The late nights.
The carpools.
The hotel rooms.
The tournaments.
The off-season training.
The emotional support after tough losses.
The cheering ... even when they don’t see us in the stands.

And yet ... we’re watching the game through gaps between gloves and twigs.

And - perhaps most importantly - we actually want to watch the game.

Not socialize.
Not grab drinks.
Not show up late and leave early.

We want to see:

• Shifts
• Matchups
• Face-offs
• How the play develops
• That exact moment when our kid does the thing they’ve worked their entire life to do

Instead, we’re analyzing stick tape patterns from behind the bench or squinting from the rafters.

A Shared Experience, At Least

But here’s the thing: no matter the rink, the seat assignments create something oddly special.

Parents find each other.
We laugh about it.
We trade stories.
We bond over obstructed views and missed goals.
We become experts at replaying moments we never actually saw.

There’s a strange comfort in knowing:

• It’s not personal
• It’s not just your school
• And you’re not the only one craning your neck

College hockey parents are everywhere - quietly cheering, wildly invested, and always seated somewhere questionable.

In the End, It’s Still Worth It

Bad seats or not, we wouldn’t trade it.

Because every now and then:

• The bench clears just long enough
• The puck stays on your side of the ice
• Your kid hops over the boards right in front of you

And for a moment, the view is perfect.

We see less of the ice during the games ... but we see everything that got them there.