Small Town Hockey

I was never much of a skater, to say nothing of being a decent hockey player, but the game is one of those things that defines Minnesota. Some kids are on skates by the age of three or four - they can skate better than they can run. The local kids here live on the ice, and now there is a girl's high school team as well as the boy's team. We also have a really bad Junior team with recruits from around the Midwest. But that's for watching, not for playing.

A.L. is a city of neighborhood parks. During the winter they flood them all and have hockey rinks, some with high boards, others with just low boards. The rinks are all lighted and most have warming houses. The games are all continual with rotating players ranging from preschool to adults. The NHL make a big deal out of playing one game on outdoor ice, and they cry about the problems of cracks, hard ice and soft ice. Jeez, these guys all grew up playing on natural ice or they wouldn't be in the NHL.

My favorite local rink is one in the neighborhood that is simply snow cleared from the lake ice. Folding lawn chairs spend the winter out there on the ice. They double as seats for putting on skates and then become goal markers. A little 3 on 4 with a smaller goal for one team, to even it up...that's the pure game.