When this year’s National Hockey League schedule came out for the Ducks, three games stood out to me.

As a season-ticket holder dating to the team’s first year, planning is always required – especially if you don’t want to see all 41 homes games. But this season, a rare opportunity for fans was presented away from Honda Center.

The Ducks were scheduled to consecutively play the three teams from my hometown, New York, over four nights. This was only the fourth time in team history that the NHL scheduler treated the Ducks to this Big Apple experience – and the first time in eight years.

Even more magical for my two kids and myself: The games were being played during Winter Break from school. Holiday travel plans were in order!

But this wasn’t just another vacation or fan-friendly trip to root for our team in enemy territory. It was an excuse for me to deeply explain to my kids how a New York kid who can’t skate grew up to be a hockey lover.

GAME 1: JERSEY WHITE

I’d left New York by the time the Devils arrived in New Jersey from Denver in 1982, so I had no hockey heritage with this team – other than they wrestled the Stanley Cup from the Ducks in a classic 2003 final.

After a short walk from the Newark train station, we entered the Devils’ latest home, Prudential Center, with a curious greeting: fake snow falling from the ceiling. We made jokes about how it reminded us of the Disneyland fireworks scene on Main Street. But it was also the only snow we saw on our trip amid weirdly mild weather around New York.

The Devils moved to Newark eight years ago, lured with a made-for-hockey arena from another facility just up the turnpike. Prudential Center’s concourses have a clean, white look with numerous hometown touches – from a wall of local team hockey jerseys to a fast-food area designed to look like a Jersey Shore boardwalk eatery.

Shortly after arrival, a cameraman shooting video for the Ducks broadcast approached us. He needed footage of crazed fans. We gladly accepted his challenge and our efforts made the Ducks TV pregame show.

Next, we entered the seating area for warmups. Down to the glass we went. Pro athletes might seem aloof at times, but they seem to get a kick out of seeing fans wearing their team’s gear on the road.

Curiously, we were soon greeted by a Ducks representative who wanted to snap a photo of the three of us for the Ducks’ Instagram account. Who could say no? Moments later, we were “famous” again with the Duck audience.

OK, a game had to be played. So we got to our seats and we discover there’s a railing in front of our sight line. Maybe that’s why they were just $30 each on StubHub. Fortunately, some empty seats were nearby – right next to other Ducks fans.

Before the puck was dropped, the visual highlight of the trip was revealed. The Devils recently spent big bucks on a state-of-the-art video system that turns the ice into a gigantic projection screen. Jaw-dropping graphics followed. (Note to the Samueli family: The new Honda Center scoreboard is great, but this is insane!)

OK. Finally, hockey. It seems that Devils fans have the loyalty thing down pretty good. Everybody wears red – unlike my family that was wearing a white Ducks jersey (me); black (daughter Rachel); and orange (son Jake.)

We smiled seeing many Devils fans wearing jerseys adorned with the number 27 and “Niedermayer” – not to mention a similar giant jersey hanging from the rafters – paying homage to Scott Niedermayer, whose Hall of Fame status was cemented with the Devils before the fan favorite finished his stellar career with the Ducks.

Outside of the bold fashion statements, though, Devils fans this night were silent. No cheering for good play. No noise in response to silly gimmicks from the public-address announcer. Like my razzing of former Duck Kyle Palmeri from the upper deck might have been heard on the ice.

Sure, the Ducks grabbed an early 2-0 lead and played stifling (i.e. boring) defense. Half-jokingly, we enjoyed the Devils’ late goal to make the last minutes interesting. One, the horn sounded to celebrate a goal is ridiculously loud. Two, we saw Devils fans could get off their seats. The Ducks survived a late Devils push – and some fan noise – to win, 2-1.

The Lansners learned an important lesson: Honda Center fans get a bad rap for their supposed lack of intensity.

GAME 2: BROOKLYN DARK

I wasn’t much of hockey fan before 1972, when the Islanders were invented.

The suburban expansion team offered an alternative to the big-city Rangers and their cult-like popularity. The new team was seen as fun and approachable and was closer to my home in Queens. Plus, tickets were actually obtainable.

Sounds much like 1993, when the Ducks began play in Southern California, cracking the Kings regional dominance, no?

Let’s not forget that within their first dozen years, the Islanders won four Stanley Cups. Who couldn’t love them?

But three decades and 3,000 miles removed, I’ve moved on with hockey-rooting loyalties. Yet the Isles will always have a soft spot in my sports-fan heart.

It would have been nice to take my kids to the place where dad’s hockey love was nurtured, the Nassau Coliseum. Sadly, this year the Islanders relocated 25 miles west – closer to the Devils and the Rangers – to play at the three-year-old Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Apparently, taxpayers of Nassau County were unwilling to underwrite the cost of a new arena to replace the Islanders’ original home.

Barclays is an eerie, inner-city antithesis to the bright Prudential Center. It’s dungeon-like dark, with gray tones layered on black. It’s oddly shaped, inside and out. (They call it “intimate.”)

Plus, it’s clearly not a hockey joint, physically speaking. For example, thanks to its basketball-friendly design, the scoreboard does not hang directly above center ice. And to date, ticket sales are sluggish enough for my wallet: Just $40 each.

Unlike our quiet Devils experience, we heard more Islanders cheers on the railroad trip to Barclays than we heard all night in Jersey. And we giggled at Islanders fans chanting insults at the hated crosstown rival Rangers even though the Manhattan team wasn’t playing that night.

Our Brooklyn night began on up notes. It was “Ugly Sweater T-shirt Night,” so fans attending got a plaid-striped, blue-and-orange top that would win prizes at many holiday parties. No, we didn’t wear the gift that evening.

Good fortune continued as my daughter caught a puck that Duck Kevin Bieska tossed into the small gathering of Ducks fans watching the warmups. Then, once play began, the Ducks scored early and took some steam out of an enthusiastic home crowd.

Temporarily. The Islanders countered quickly – three times before the first period ended. That riled up the local faithful, who have more than a few annoying habits.

In one section, too close for our comfort, a group of Islanders loyalists chant feverishly throughout the game, led by a drum beat much like what occurs at Galaxy soccer matches. Also, after each goal, Islanders fans don’t simply passionately cheer – they also sing a team song in unison. Reminded me a lot of a college-campus sports atmosphere.

The Islanders faithful did treat us intruders from Anaheim with due disrespect. Our Ducks garb drew minor heckling in the Barclays concourses. And when the Ducks scored in the third period to make it briefly close at 3-2, our cheering garnered a few rebuttals that, well, I can’t print in a family newspaper.

All is fair (and fun) in hockey, and the Islanders fans got the last laugh – a 5-2 win – and a touching mid-ice salute from their team afterward. That’s a tradition I’d like to see the Ducks adopt.

GAME 3: GARDEN BLUES

There are many arenas. Yet only one Garden.

As we enter Madison Square Garden, I’m reminded of its 47 years of service to Manhattan’s entertainment needs. Growing up in New York, I recall trips to hockey and basketball games – not to mention the circus. And my kids tire of me recalling the who’s who of ’70s rock bands I saw at the Garden.

But the old barn still looks sharp, thanks to a recent billion-dollar renovation that only adds to the Garden’s style and grandeur. Its color scheme is graceful. The signature roof feels homey. Almost every state-of-the-art trick is present, from a mammoth scoreboard to curious bridges above the playing surface offering unique seating opportunities.

The Garden is, in many ways, Manhattan.

This is home to passionate hockey fans. Getting Rangers tickets is a struggle, so thanks to my sense of adventure and a holiday spirit, I relent and pay $180 a seat – more than I’ve ever paid to see any live event.

The crowd, apparel-wise, isn’t as Ranger blue as you’d think. Maybe it’s the rush-from-work crowd, still in big-city business attire. Or maybe the unseasonably warm weather makes a hockey jersey way too warm to wear for the locals, many of whom are simply wearing jeans and a T-shirt on the first day of winter.

The audience is decidedly male. And the beer flows freely. The fans are loud and knowledgable but do believe only one team should be penalized. There’s the odd insult tossed out at the crosstown Islanders. Yes, another awkward post-goal song sung by the fans. And, of course, the not-so-good-natured barbs to the Anaheim faithful in attendance are smartly biting, as you’d expect from New Yorkers.

The Rangers themselves offer a somewhat staid fan environment, letting the arena and the players primarily be the stars.

The Garden has all the new video tools, but the Rangers don’t abuse them. The graphics broadcast on the ice are gone almost in a muted way, unlike New Jersey’s flash. The attempts to rile up the faithful are done tastefully, unlike Brooklyn. The P.A. announcer plays it straight, with little difference in his voice no matter what team has just scored or been penalized. The only over-the-top twists to my eyes were the curious scoreboard acknowledgement of two second-tier entertainers in attendance and the copious number of T-shirts hurled into the stands as fan gifts.

As for the game, the Ducks wear their new orange tops, not traditional road white uniforms – that’s marketing at work, not hope for altered karma. And they do score first – for the third time in three games.

This trend allows the Lansners another early opportunity to show off our loyalties in hostile territory, a relief to my family remembering a baseball trip years ago to see the Angels play at Yankee Stadium. The visitors got blown out early.

It’s 1-1 after two periods, but another Ducks miscue puts the Rangers ahead early in the final period. As the minutes tick down and the locals seem ready for a victory, a late Ducks goal allows us to boldly show off our team pride one more time – amid a suddenly quiet Garden.

Yet there would be no fairy-tale ending to our voyage: The Rangers faithful are rewarded with an overtime victory.

As my kids and I digest the end of our adventure, gazing at the Garden’s mystique one last time, Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind” fittingly plays over the loudspeaker.

In three games around the New York metropolitan area, the hockey fans inside us saw every hockey trouble plaguing the Ducks in this badly disappointing season.

But more important, we completed a family outing that showed my kids how diverse in spirit and taste their dad’s hometown is.

Contact the writer: jlansner@ocregister.com