Farming was Ken Krahn’s lifelong passion. From the time he was a young child, though, hockey took a close second.

When he and his wife Emily sold the family farm and retired in 2020, their newfound freedom paved the way for a variety of adventures. The first was the purchase of an RV in which to travel North America.

Another goal they made together was to visit to every NHL arena at least once to cheer for the home team. Of the 32 arenas, Krahn had already visited a few, such as the ones in Vancouver and Calgary. That still left a lot of ground to cover.

It all started on a 2021 trip to B.C. in their new RV. From there, they decided to head south of the border for a tour of the American west coast.

“We crossed the line into Washington and I casually told Emily, ‘This is Seattle’s inaugural season in the NHL,’ and she said, ‘We should go to a game.’”

They did.

Continuing down into California they made another impromptu decision, this time to see a San Jose game. Krahn looked forward to seeing one of his favourite players, Erik Karlsson.

“That fall and spring, we went to 13 different cities,” Krahn says.

Stops included games in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Tampa Bay, Miami, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Washington DC, New York, New Jersey, Columbus, and Dallas.

In Dallas, the Jets happened to be the visiting team.

It was an interesting time, Krahn admits, navigating major cities and congested arena parking lots in an RV. In some cities this was impossible.

In New York, for example, they had to figure out how to navigate the subway system. At Madison Square Garden, Krahn says, the subway stops five stories below the building.

“The next year we travelled to Denver and Utah. It was Utah’s first year in the league.”

This past October, over the course of eight days, the couple travelled to the five remaining cities on their list: Montreal, Boston, Buffalo, Detroit, and Toronto.

“I wanted to finish it in Toronto, because they were my growing up team,” Krahn says. “That was a highlight because we also went to the Hockey Hall of Fame and I took a personalized tour of the Scotia Bank arena. There was only two of us on the tour and we got to sit where the announcers sit.”

Childhood Memories

Krahn can pinpoint the integral moments from his childhood which laid the foundation for his love of hockey, his father being the influencing factor.

“It was in 1967 when the Toronto Maple Leafs were playing in the finals against Montreal and we did not have a TV,” says Krahn, who was nine years old at the time.

He remembers his father rounding up his sons and heading to the neighbouring farm, where the farmer owned a small black and white.

It was the Stanley Cup final and the Leafs defeated the Canadiens 3–1 in the last game of a seven-game series. It was such a pivotal moment that Krahn claimed the Leafs as his team for years to come.

 At the time, there was no NHL team in Winnipeg. In fact, there were only six teams in the entire league: the Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings, and New York Rangers.

When Krahn turned 14, he witnessed another legendary piece of hockey history. Few older Canadians are likely to forget the Summit Series of 1972 between Canada and the Soviet Union.

“There were four games in Canada and four games in the USSR,” Krahn recalls. “That was very impressionable on me. They actually shut down school so everybody could go into the gym to watch the games when they were in Canada.”

Canada came out victorious, winning the final three games in Moscow. In that final game, fans screamed as Team Canada recovered from a two-point Soviet lead and got the winning goal with only 34 seconds to spare.

Emily, too, has childhood memories of NHL hockey. Most vividly, she recalls falling in love with Gordie Howe and announcing to her sisters that she would someday be his bride. Howe’s face was emblazoned on the back of countless cereal boxes.

In 2011, when the Winnipeg Jets came back to town, Ken and Emily bought season tickets.

“Those were amazing times for us because there was so much excitement in the city and in the building during those early stages. It didn’t matter if we won or lost, we were just happy that we had a team. Winnipeg is probably one of the loudest arenas that we’ve been at.”

Favourite Arenas

Of all the professional arenas Krahn and his wife have warmed a seat in, Krahn says that Detroit’s was among their favourites, at least as far as the building is concerned. And in terms of the fans, Montreal has some of the liveliest.

But Madison Square Garden holds a special place for Krahn.

“I often like to talk to an usher who looks like he’s been there a few years,” he says. “They know the history and have a feel for the team. So when I was in New York, I approached this guy and it looked like his arena suit had been worn for 20 or 30 years.”

Indeed, the man had been employed there for decades. In more recent years, his job had shifted to providing security for VIP patrons. He explained to Krahn the process of assigning guests a seat where a quick getaway would be possible should the need arise.

The excitement in the arena that night was palpable, Krahn says. The New York Rangers took on the Pittsburgh Penguins in a crucial game just prior to the playoffs.

“The Rangers scored three early goals and the crowd was raucous and singing a chant after every goal. I thought, ‘Hey, this is cool!’”

Now that the bucket list is complete, Krahn says he’d be lying if he didn’t admit that their years at Winnipeg’s arena, Canada Life Centre, hadn’t made the deepest impression of all. Although it’s the smallest building in the NHL, holding only 15,000 fans, it is also home to some of the liveliest fans out there.

The couple now have photos taken everywhere, including beside statues of all the greats from Gordie Howe to Bobby Orr.

At this point, they’ve never met anyone else who has followed the same dream—that is, with the exception of one couple wearing St. Louis jerseys that said “NHL tour.” That couple’s journey was taking them around the league, following their own home team to all the out-of-town venues where they played.