Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Status Report

As much as I enjoyed the Heritage Classic (hey, I didn't even dislike the Flames' off-white pants!), it's time to swing the topic of conversation back to my rink.  This is the time of year when you don't have to be an expert weather forecaster to know that, sadly, the end is near for this year's edition of the backyard rink.

Last Wednesday evening, February 16, Joey and I had a good skate on the rink.  While I scraped off some snow that we received in the previous days, Joe practiced his stickhandling by weaving through our boots.  He also lined up some pucks and worked on his shot.  When I finished shoveling, we practiced some passing and then we played some keep-away.  Joey had lots of fun with that last activity in particular, and when we were finished he looked up at me and asked if we could play it again the next day.  Based on the forecast, I had to say probably not.

Unfortunately, the forecast was correct...we got a full day of above-zero temperatures (topping out at almost plus 6) and more than a little sunshine.  High temperatures are bad enough, but the sun at this time of year is a real rink-killer.  So, when I got home from work on Thursday, the first thing I did was head out to the backyard to check out the damage.  We probably lost up to a few centimetres of ice, which means that a couple of the rink's high points were poking out, and so we didn't go for a skate on the very soft ice.

On Friday we got a decent little snow storm (school was cancelled in the afternoon), and we received what seemed to be at least a few centimetres of snow every day until today.  It has also been very windy, and occasionally sunny, so I haven't cleared the snow off the rink - this is prime melting weather.  For example, the patches of bare asphalt on the driveway, once they catch some sun, really melt the nearby snow.  This melting principle also applies to the rink.

The forecast is sunny for the next few days.  Also, the forecast for this Thursday is a high of plus 1, so I will leave the snow there until at least then.  Right now they are calling for a bit more snow on Friday, with a high of plus 3.  (These temperatures are from Environment Canada; the Weather Network is calling for highs of minus 1, but with sunshine that kind of weather is still hard on the ice.)  Both forecasts say that the next few days after Friday look cold-ish.  So, if everything goes well, I'll clear the snow off at some point and either go for a skate (watch out for the bare patches!) or give it a flood.  If everything goes really well, we might get another skate out there...and maybe some more smiles like this one:

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Big-Time Outdoor Hockey

About a month ago, when I first mentioned that I might write about the Calgary Flames' outdoor game, I was less than enthusiastic about the prospect.  At the time, they had been in 14th place in the conference for a very long time and it looked like the game would be meaningless.  However, thanks to an incredible run, the Flames are back in playoff contention and the points up for grabs in the Heritage Classic were big ones for both teams.

These outdoor games have become a nice gimmick for the NHL, and the TV networks get to do nice montages showing kids playing on ponds and such.  I'm sure that no-one is complaining about the merchandise profits and beer sales either.  And, as I said in my previous article, it also gives me a chance to write a little bit about the NHL and stay within the context of this blog.

There were some great scenes, especially whenever you could see the big open sky above the playing surface, or see the players' breath because of the cold; both are big elements that embody what playing hockey outdoors is all about.  Another one was no Zamboni!  Still, the best scene was ultimately Flames 4, Habs 0.  Check out NHL.com's video:


It makes things more enjoyable when the team you cheer for is playing well, but it wasn't that long ago when many Flames fans and hockey experts were calling for a complete dismantling of the team - including trading Jarome Iginla.  While I don't think this team will win the Stanley Cup this year - I hope I'm wrong! - I really do hope that Iggy gets to hoist the ol' mug someday.  He might have to do it the same way Ray Bourque did, and if he does eventually go to another team I will temporarily change my allegiance and cheer for that team.  Please please please don't let it be Montreal, however...that would be really tough to do.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Cold Hockey

On the other side of my computer screen as I start writing this, the second period of the Heritage Classic Alumni Game is streaming...and Lanny McDonald just scored on a penalty shot!  Anyway, this weekend in Calgary, with the games being played sans roof, gives me an opportunity to write about my favourite team and still stay within the context of my blog.  Those players sure look cold.  Been there, done that...only difference is that I played in front of a few less fans.

Good times.
I never really had a favourite NHL team until 1980, when I decided to become a fan of the team that had just relocated to Calgary.  My reasons for doing this were what you might expect from an 11-year old kid: I wanted to cheer for a team from a Canadian city, and the Leafs were too bad and the Canadiens were too good.  So, I've been a loyal fan of the Flames since then, through the good times and the bad times.

My favourite original Calgary Flame was Paul Reinhart; my favourite players on the 1989 team were Al MacInnis and Lanny, of course.  It was nice to see so many players from that team together again, even if they were freezing their way through the Alumni game.  And, I actually played outside against one of the players in that game...you can read all about that experience right here.

The day after...

Something I didn't mention in that article about playing in the pouring rain at the World Pond Hockey Championships against Brian Skrudland was that the next day, the temperatures dropped like crazy.  In fact, I checked Environment Canada's historical data: the day we played against Skrudland had a high of plus 12; the next morning, when we played our game, it was minus 12.  That's a temperature swing of 24 degrees in less than a day.  Oh, and it was windy of course, so we played with a wind chill of about minus 23.  Let me tell you, when that much water almost instantly freezes, great ice for skating is not the result.  As we played, we tried to avoid sections of the ice that had huge cracks and chunks that were chipped out.  Our game that morning was against a team of some fine hockey players from Newfoundland, who didn't seem to have as much trouble with the ice conditions as we did.  If you click on the picture to look at the larger version, you might get a sense of how not-great the ice was.  Apparently the cold weather in Calgary tonight also made for poor - and dangerous - ice.  Hopefully everything will be OK for tomorrow's game.

Finally, here is another picture from our cold game.  It looks like I'm scoring a goal against a guy who is playing with only one leg.  Fact is, he must have thought I was going to lift the puck...little did he know that I can't do that!

Sunday, February 13, 2011

...Not Just For Skating

When I first moved to northern New Brunswick many winters ago, the guys I played hockey with told me about another game they like to play up here, called "boot hockey."  Now, a quick review of Google search results of the term give many different ways to play, but up here it is, of course, hockey played on a sheet of ice - without skates.  I didn't really play it until I got here, because when I was growing up in southern NB if we had a sheet of ice good enough to play hockey on, you can be darn sure we were going to put our skates on.  Anyway, one year they got me to play in an organized boot hockey tournament.  Some guys wore regular winter boots, some wore work boots, and some even wore sneakers.  After a weekend of running on ice, slipping, sliding, crashing and banging - and the occasional refreshment between games - I pretty much vowed never to play a boot hockey game again.  I don't hear too much about boot hockey any more, which is definitely a good thing as far as I am concerned.

Another thing you can do on the ice, as demonstrated here by Joey, is have some fun with the snow-removal aspects of outdoor rinks.  The prevailing winds blow from the northeast corner (behind Joe) to the southwest corner.  So, no matter how much snow we get, and if there is any breeze at all, the northeast corner of the ice has very little or no snow on it and the southwest corner can have several feet.  On this day, Joe kept busy clearing the shallow end while I went at the deep end with the snowblower.

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By the way, I recently finished reading Home Ice by Jack Falla.  Several blog posts ago, I mentioned that I would like to read this book sometime.  My very astute wife noted this and set to work looking for a copy of the out-of-print and hard-to-find book (published in 2000) as a Christmas gift for me.  She managed to find one through an online book store, and I am very glad she did.  What a wonderful book, as in it Mr. Falla recounts some great stories about skating outdoors in general, and particularly about his own backyard rink in Massachusetts.  Certainly, anyone who has ever built (or tried to build) their own patch of ice to skate on, or has ever skated on natural ice in the fresh air, will enjoy this book.  I'm not a book reviewer, so I'll just let this line from the foreword by Bobby Orr describe it: "It's a book about the heart and soul of hockey - a backyard rink, a frozen pond and the families and friends who play on them."  And, as Dickie Dunn might say, Jack Falla certainly "captured the spirit of the thing" in Home Ice - which is what I am always trying to do in this little blog.