Our favorite ESPN anchor and backyard enthusiast discusses how great outdoor hockey and a backyard rink can be. Thanks again Bucci for reminding us why we play this game!

My backyard rink is up again here in Connecticut. The recent blast of arctic air has set us up for one of the finest stretches in Bucci Heritage Garden history. The kids have skated eight days in a row and 10 out of the past 12. Free ice, 30 feet from the back door.

It is amazing how your attitude toward winter changes after you construct your backyard rink. You instantly root for cold temperatures. The cold is your ally. You are not depressed by the short, dry, cold days and nights, but rejoice in them. Without question, my life is better with my backyard rink. I’m happier, more upbeat and more attuned to nature. I’m Henry David Thoreau with MGMT on his iPod.

For the entire article visit ESPN.com. For more Bucci, you can read his articles every Tuesday afternoon on ESPN.com/nhl

Father and son time is one of the main reasons backyard rinks are so great. photo by Spencer Gillis

The Buccigross sons take it to director Tommy Haines. photo by Spencer Gillis

The Anoka Area Hockey Association will host a benefit screening of Pond Hockey this Friday, Jan 23 at 6:30pm at the 850 seat Anoka High School theater. Please join hockey players from the Anoka community for this fun, one night only event.

For more information about tickets and the event visit the Anoka Hockey Association website.

Richard Sandomir of the New York Times wrote up a nice piece about the NHL’s Winter Classic.

The N.H.L. gleaned two simple lessons from the rousing debut of its Winter Classic game last New Year’s Day. No. 1: Do it again. No. 2: Make it much, much bigger. What began in the snow and sleet at Ralph Wilson Stadium outside Buffalo continues Thursday at Wrigley Field in Chicago with two of the league’s Original Six teams. The Chicago Blackhawks, a renascent team in second place in the Central Division, and the defending champion Detroit Red Wings, who are in first place in the Central, play at 1 p.m. on NBC (and CBC and RDS in Canada).

…The appeal of an outdoor game is obvious: it reminds hockey lovers, at least those who learned or appreciate the sport in very cold climes, of playing on frozen ponds and lakes. “Pond Hockey: The Game as Nature Intended,” a newly released documentary (now on DVD) that was built around the 2005 United States Pond Hockey Championships in Minneapolis, celebrates skating in the elements.

“It’s a pretty indescribable experience,” said Tommy Haines, who directed and co-produced the film, and grew up playing on outdoor ice in Mountain Iron, Minn. “You’re out there in nature, with your buddies, with no parents around, and you’re skating faster than you can run, the breeze is in your face, and you pull a few more moves than you could inside.”

Haines said he hoped the Classic eventually rotated into his home state.

To read the entire article visit The New York Time Website

The folks at NBC Sports dot com put up a scene from Pond hockey on their website in conjunction with the upcoming Winter Classic at Wrigley Field. The clip fittingly features Patrick Kane and Dustin Byfuglien from the Chicago Blackhawks along with Wayne Gretzky, Krissy Wendell, Neal Broten, Sidney Crosby and dozens of other hockey greats. To view the sneak peak visit NBC Sports.

Pond, park and street hockey as well as backyard rinks are such a large part of our movie — from Jack Falla’s “Bacon Street Omni” in Natick, MA to “The Cradle of Hockey” in Windsor, Nova Scotia to the Highland Park outdoor rink in Edina, MN — we wanted to let you show off some of your favorite spots. Each week we will be posting photos and brief stories of hockey’s most dedicated fans and enthusiasts. Please send a photo or two of your rink and a brief story about it to stories@pondhockeymovie.com or upload to our Flickr Pond Hockey group for possible inclusion in our blog. Selected posts will receive an autographed poster!

This week we are featuring two stories:

First, Dennis from Littleton, CO

At the age of ten my family moved across the country from Walnut Creek, CA to Bridgewater, NJ. Our house on Donald Drive had a pond in the backyard where my twin brother and I learned to skate.

A year later we moved to Littleton, CO and we skated on our neighborhood lake. Dad would provide us with a stick, some skates and the occasional puck, everything else we had to fend for ourselves, which included using Mom’s National Geographic magazines tucked into our tube socks as shin pads. A nice man named Mr. Walter’s lived next to the lake and had a dock for his small sailboat. We would lace up on his dock and he would always leave a shovel out for us to clear a spot to play.

Now I’m 47 and still live in the Littleton area. The climate change doesn’t really allow for skating on the lakes in town anymore so I head up to Evergreen Lake which is just west of Littleton in the foothills. The ice gets about 18 inches thick and they have a Zamboni, which is nice since I don’t have to shovel anymore. And we’re pretty spoiled because they have a really nice Lake House to lace up, complete with a snack bar…and they even have a coin operated skate sharpener which nobody in their right mind would ever use. That’s me breezing by the Lake House on MLK day this year.

My twin brother lives in SLC now so I don’t have anyone to pass the puck with except when I can convince some of my indoor hockey buddies to make it up on a Saturday morning, which is rare. They’d rather skate inside and work on their killer slap shots (which I don’t think any of them have scored with all season). There’s plenty of pickup games at Evergreen as they clear about 8 rinks just for hockey, but mostly I just find an empty rink and skate around by myself with a stick and a puck. It makes me feel like I’m ten years old again.

Winter temperatures have struck in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, as this backyard rink in Lakeville, MN can attest. The rink opened for skating this past weekend after six weeks of waiting. The brackets and boards were installed into the ground in mid-October, the liner was laid out in late-November, and after leaving the hose running for 20 hours to flood a base, it was just a matter of waiting for the cold. After a few weeks spent installing bumpers, rigging lights, and hanging outdoor speakers, the base was frozen and it was finally time for the hard work: a few snowfalls left a lot of shoveling and coats of water to be laid, but the rink is now ready for skating. It looks like Christmas has come early for the kids in this neighborhood!

We are excited to see Toews play in the upcoming Winter Classic. His backyard rink skills are going to come in handy in what we hope becomes a dangle-fest.

Krissy, Erik and Larry Wendell chat with the Pond Hockey crew about growing up playing outdoor hockey in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota.

The DC screening was a huge hit thanks to John Keeley and the OnFrozenBlog gang! Here is a brief except from Mr. Keeley and some photos of the night:

“A Monday Night at the Movies Folks Won’t Soon Forget. If nothing else I’ve learned this about our magnificent sport over the years: hockey enriches the lives of its players and fans, but the people in it actually have an uncanny ability to change lives. Mine got changed, again, on Monday night, in a small Northwest Washington movie theater filled with hockey lovers bearing witness to a cinematic labor of love by one of their own.”

For the entire article visit OnFrozenBlog.com

DC screening with Miss Virginia Tara Wheeler, Producer Andrew Sherburne and the OFB gang.

The Michigan show was equally special. Pete Read, the director of the Michigan Pond Hockey Classic, did a wonderful job of making last Wednesday night in Ann Arbor a memorable one.

“The movie showing turned out great!! A crowd of over 400 attended the one-tie showing of The Pond Hockey Movie at the beautifully ornate historical Michigan Theater. In attendance were the players from the USA Hockey National Team Development Program, representatives from the Detroit Red Wings, and the hockey legend Red Berenson. The screening really brought back memories and made me realize that I am creating memories for my son with our pond hockey rink. The movie was just awesome for all, hockey people as well as non hockey people. The movie really made a point that I have always known…you have to play pond hockey to develop a love for the game and to develop as a player!!! Great movie, I will always have a copy and will be watching it when I am 80yrs old!!!” Pete Read

The historic Michigan Theater a few hours before the screening
Red Berenson with the U17 guys
Pete Read hanging out with the U18 guys
Kids lined up to get these future NHLers autographs

Check out the new Pond Hockey commercial and look for it in upcoming hockey games!