We have reached the run-in, that point in the season where fans across the country are beginning to pore over the remaining fixtures to try and work out their team’s chances of winning the league or reaching the playoffs.

I’m no different to any other fan and when I look through the games the Panthers have left I get a feeling of despondency that has nothing to do with watching our thin hopes in the league evaporate or the potential effect we could still have on the title race. That doesn’t really bother me, I’m used to it. I’ve got that feeling of crushing gloom because of the nine home games Panthers have left only three of them are on a Saturday night.

For me Saturday night is hockey night and for many reasons hockey on a Saturday is better than on any other night of the week. This feeling that Saturday games are just better goes all the way back to when I started watching in the early 1980s. I might be reminiscing through rose (or maybe black and gold) tinted glasses but it feels like every home game was on a Saturday. I know I must be wrong about that, I definitely remember some games that weren’t. There was the odd midweek game or a Sunday but they were very rare.

As a boy I lived for those Saturday games. I’d think of them all week long. I’d be counting the hours until face-off and the fact that they were on a Saturday night was a big part of that. I didn’t need a tweet to tell me that Saturday was game day (which was handy really as Twitter was years away). I knew almost as soon as I woke up that there was a game. The excitement would build through the day until it was time to leave the house and head to the Ice Stadium.

Not much has changed since I was that 11-year-old boy. The excitement levels might not be what they were but they are still there. I still spend fair more time than I should thinking about the games, the players and the memories. I still want to spend my Saturdays thinking about the game that coming evening. When I wake up in the morning I know that I have got the whole day before me to build up to the game and I just don’t get that at any other time. If the game is on a week night work gets in the way of that anticipation. A full Saturday’s build up has to be squeezed into the couple of hours between leaving work and face-off. Sundays? Well Sundays just feel a bit wrong. The game just starts way too early to me.

I think that anticipation and being able to focus and indulge in it are part of what still makes Saturday games feel more special. Because they are. The atmosphere is so better, the crowd more raucous and loud. It probably just be that there are more of them but there’s also a magic around Saturday games that’s missing from other nights that draws them in more. How can a game against Cardiff Devils on a Saturday night not feel more exciting than Guildford or Glasgow on a Wednesday? It just doesn’t. There is just something different about going to a game on a Saturday.

It can’t just be the hockey that makes Saturday games better. Let’s face it if I’ve watched more games on a Saturday then it stands to reason I’ve seen more poor games on a Saturday or more defeats on a Saturday than any other day. It has to be the whole experience that makes it better. I’ve talked about the build-up and anticipation before the game but what about after? Saturday games give you the chance to go to the pub afterwards to sit with friends and dissect what you’ve just witnessed. You get to bemoan the missed chances, stupid penalties or woeful defending or re-live the good stuff. Those hours spent in the pub are as much a part of the match experience for me as anything that happens on the ice or in the arena. You can’t do that in the week. You’ve always got one eye on the clock so you don’t miss your last bus or your thoughts are clouded by what you’ll have to do at work tomorrow. It’s just not the same.

Sadly, I don’t think we’re ever likely to see a return to mainly having games on a Saturday night. The Nottingham Panthers might play ice hockey at the National Ice Centre but I get the feeling they’re a fair way down the pecking order and that is, to be honest, understandable. It’s simply a question of economics. Panthers won’t be able to play their play-off quarter final on Saturday as Rick Astley is playing the arena. Tickets to hear him belt out “Never Going to Give You Up” and more start at £32 and range all the way up to £143. Compare that to the £17 to £20 charged for adult tickets for a Panthers’ game and you can see why the ice hockey team are always going to be the poor relation. The arena is trying to make a profit so they’re always going to look at what will make them the most money.

There have been exceptions to this and there have been some great midweek games. We can’t forget we won the league in 2013 on a Friday night or that we won the treble on a Sunday a few weeks later. That first victory in the Champions Hockey League came on a weekday night but those games are the few against the many. I wouldn’t swap any of those memories for anything but I still prefer a Saturday night game. Those are the games, amidst all the trials, worries and pressures of adulthood, that remind me that I’ve still got the same love for this sport as that 11-year-old boy and that can’t be bad can it?

*Article provided by Paul Balm (Nottingham Panthers Correspondent).

*Main image @PanthersIHC no better feeling than a Saturday Night at the National Ice Arena.