Dear Santa,
I've been a very good boy this year, so I'm hoping that you will bring me just one gift for Christmas. Would it be too much to ask for some cold weather in Philadelphia the first week of January?
Let's face it, the weather is always a crapshoot when it comes to playing hockey outside. And while it's too early to accurately forecast what awaits for the Icers and Neumann Knights as well as the Rangers and Flyers, everyone involved with the NHL Winter Classic is hoping there will be cold and maybe even some snow like we saw in Buffalo, Chicago and Boston, and not the rain-soaked affair witnessed in Pittsburgh.
If the current seven-day forecast is any indication (and it really isn't), we'd better be extra nice so Santa brings a change in the weather.
Daytime temperatures in the upper 40s and overnight lows hovering around freezing could pose problems for NHL ice guru Dan Craig and his team. Earlier this week, they brought in the trucks and began turning Citizens Bank Park into a hockey arena. As always, the NHL provides 24/7 streaming coverage of their work:
For those of us north of 40, playing outdoors until we couldn't feel our toes remain one of the fondest memories of our mostly misspent youth. For me, my brother and our friends it was a wealth of opportunities. We enjoyed a small natural pond close to our house on the eastern edge of Toronto, a much larger pond provided when the owner of a nearby nursery flooded the field where his plants grew in the summer, and not one but two natural rinks at our elementary school.
Each fall, fathers and sons would construct a hockey rink with plywood sheets as boards and a pleasure skating rink surrounded by 1x10's. Once the cold weather arrived, our dads would haul out the firehose every night and flood the rinks. I swear the ice was smoother and faster than some of the arenas I've been in with the Icers.
Try doing that today and school officials and lawyers would double over with apoplexy. As Jenny Yuen wrote in a Toronto Sun article earlier this week
Ms. Yuen wrote about the many NHL stars that learned the game on ponds and backyard rinks. I can attest to that having shared the ice at Inglewood Heights PS with Brad Park. The Parks lived around the corner from us for a time, long before Brad became Hockey Hall of Fame member Brad Park.
We even played organized hockey under the sky at the Agincourt Lions Arena. I scoured the archives and found this photo from somewhere around 1970. Your humble hockey player is number 6 in red. I can still hear my coach screaming, "Hey Penstone, get two hands on the stick!"
JoeBa eloquently describes the joy of pond hockey in his latest column:
I'm envious as well, but I'm hoping that we'll be able to call the game down at ice level on a cold night, with our noses running and the feeling leaving our toes. I'm not sure the Executive Producer sees it my way, but it sure would be fun.
The fun factor is not lost on senior Paul Daley, but Gunner knows that the Icers will have to take care of business against the Knights.
Lastly, Barbara and I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah and a safe and Happy New Year. We hope to see many of you in Philadelphia!
I've been a very good boy this year, so I'm hoping that you will bring me just one gift for Christmas. Would it be too much to ask for some cold weather in Philadelphia the first week of January?
Let's face it, the weather is always a crapshoot when it comes to playing hockey outside. And while it's too early to accurately forecast what awaits for the Icers and Neumann Knights as well as the Rangers and Flyers, everyone involved with the NHL Winter Classic is hoping there will be cold and maybe even some snow like we saw in Buffalo, Chicago and Boston, and not the rain-soaked affair witnessed in Pittsburgh.
If the current seven-day forecast is any indication (and it really isn't), we'd better be extra nice so Santa brings a change in the weather.
Daytime temperatures in the upper 40s and overnight lows hovering around freezing could pose problems for NHL ice guru Dan Craig and his team. Earlier this week, they brought in the trucks and began turning Citizens Bank Park into a hockey arena. As always, the NHL provides 24/7 streaming coverage of their work:
For those of us north of 40, playing outdoors until we couldn't feel our toes remain one of the fondest memories of our mostly misspent youth. For me, my brother and our friends it was a wealth of opportunities. We enjoyed a small natural pond close to our house on the eastern edge of Toronto, a much larger pond provided when the owner of a nearby nursery flooded the field where his plants grew in the summer, and not one but two natural rinks at our elementary school.
Each fall, fathers and sons would construct a hockey rink with plywood sheets as boards and a pleasure skating rink surrounded by 1x10's. Once the cold weather arrived, our dads would haul out the firehose every night and flood the rinks. I swear the ice was smoother and faster than some of the arenas I've been in with the Icers.
Try doing that today and school officials and lawyers would double over with apoplexy. As Jenny Yuen wrote in a Toronto Sun article earlier this week
...a “community representative” needs to get the principal’s okay and a permit application needs to be filled out. It’s a long-winded process where the Toronto District School Board needs to sign off on it and meetings with city parks staff, janitors and the school board need to be scheduled with the community representative. The whole thing usually takes six to eight weeks and the application must be filed by Aug. 1 each year.
Ms. Yuen wrote about the many NHL stars that learned the game on ponds and backyard rinks. I can attest to that having shared the ice at Inglewood Heights PS with Brad Park. The Parks lived around the corner from us for a time, long before Brad became Hockey Hall of Fame member Brad Park.
We even played organized hockey under the sky at the Agincourt Lions Arena. I scoured the archives and found this photo from somewhere around 1970. Your humble hockey player is number 6 in red. I can still hear my coach screaming, "Hey Penstone, get two hands on the stick!"
JoeBa eloquently describes the joy of pond hockey in his latest column:
Skating outdoors is a throwback to a simpler day with no referees, no coaches and no parents. Just being able to breathe the crisp winter air and work up a sweat while playing the game I love is about as good as it gets. So I am envious of the members of the Icers who will get to experience the ultimate outdoor feeling by playing as a part of the Winter Classic.
I'm envious as well, but I'm hoping that we'll be able to call the game down at ice level on a cold night, with our noses running and the feeling leaving our toes. I'm not sure the Executive Producer sees it my way, but it sure would be fun.
The fun factor is not lost on senior Paul Daley, but Gunner knows that the Icers will have to take care of business against the Knights.
Lastly, Barbara and I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah and a safe and Happy New Year. We hope to see many of you in Philadelphia!
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