Nick Cotsonika recently returned to the US after spending 2 weeks in Europe, looking for hockey...

It was romantic, like stepping back in time – old arenas, low prices, few frills, less distance between the players and the people. When you're starved for hockey, any hockey seems great, and when rich men are fighting over money, it's refreshing to go back to basics. That's what made this so fun.

But that's also what made this so fleeting. At one game, I tweeted that you could see Chara, Jakub Voracek, Lubomir Visnovsky and other NHLers, paying only $16 for a VIP seat on the blue line and $1.75 for a beer.

"If only we all lived in Prague," I wrote.

Michael Gould, a Blues fan from St. Louis responded: "If we all lived there, it'd be $1,000 [for a VIP seat] and $9 for a beer. Enjoy it, man!"

He was right, and so I did.

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