Hockey Day at Protection Farm

Hockey Day in Canada (February 11) and Hockey Day in the United States (February 20) are celebrations of Hockey’s Birthday.  It is a really big deal.   Almost every person in Canada is celebrating. Many in the U.S. are. I am.

Part of this celebration is about heritage. A big part of the heritage of hockey is that the sport was invented out of doors. Many outdoor pond hockey tournaments are being held across both nations.  Buffalo has a huge pond tournament called the Labatts Blue tournament held in the Buffalo Harbor on Lake Erie.

Hockey has always been a big deal for us. Here, Jamie (left in the Yankees shirt and wearing a "west side" baseball cap)  and Jajean stand next to the ultimate trophy. This picture was taken in about 1997.

This is the Hart Memorial Trophy, or MVP 

For me, a retun to outdoor hockey is an exciting developments. In my youth, growing up in northern New England, hockey was exclusively an outdoor sport. On cold winter days you went to the local pond with a shovel, scraped off a playing surface, made a makeshift goal, and skated the day away with friends and family. You had to contend with cold winds and blowing snow, impossible and complicated ice surfaces, and the occasional open lead in the water. If the sun was out the ice might become soft or wet. If you did it right, there was a bench and maybe an open fire in which to cook hotdogs. A thermos of hot chocolate was a must for us kids. Adults had something else in their thermoses.

Jonna and Jajean clear the ice while I try to contain my emotions

Jonna, Jajean, and Ana clear the ice

As I grew into my teen’s indoor hockey rinks became all the rage. Gradually the game moved entirely indoors. By the time I had my own kids, no one, at least in the city of Buffalo where we lived had the slightest interest in playing hockey outdoors.

However, I thought I would give it a shot. I went to Delaware Park and with some friends and my kids and we cleared off a portion of the ice. We played for an afternoon. At one point a couple of official park workers came by and kicked us off the ice.  This didn’t sit well with me. We went back the next day with the same result. I was very irritated. I started a campaign that included letter writing to the local newspapers. Within a few weeks we had gatherings of about 20 people playing on Delaware Lake. We scraped and shoveled, set up pairs of boots as goals, and played and played. Everyone was very excited about this experience. At first my kids were totally overwhelmed by the breeze and the erratic ice conditions and the puck would leap and jump over sticks and fly recklessly and annoyingly into the snow banks around the edges. Gradually Jajean and Jamie came to really love playing outdoors. Once you got through the sometimes bitter cold conditions, we all realized how much fun we were having.

However, city officials, notably parks officials were not happy.  The contentiousness regarding our being recreational on this most recreational of places ended up with the Buffalo Parks Commissioner, one Robert Delano, dumping a load of salt and ice solvents on the ice where we had been skating.  That ended our efforts for the year.

The next year was unusual in terms of cold. It wasn’t very and the ice hardly ever froze. A couple of times we were able to skate near the bridges that carried Lincoln Parkway up to the Scajaquada over the end of the lake, but mostly we were not able to create any outdoor hockey to speak of.

The following year there was an announcement that Buffalo was going to hold a “Winterfest” at Delaware Park Lake and I got involved in promoting the idea of an outdoor skating on the lake. It didn’t go well and ultimately I organized a bunch of folks to go to the park during Winterfest and clear off the ice and skate. It was amazing. On day one we had about 100 people skating. Day 2, about twice that.  We couldn’t play much rough and tumble hockey because a lot of families were out trying out the ice but we had fun and we skated around and with families and little children for hours and hours and hours. Every once in a while Buffalo parks workers would drive or walk around the plowed edge of the lake, give us all hard stares and angrily depart. The Buffalo Police came to watch us, but they all had big smiles.

I knew outdoor winter hockey had arrived in Buffalo when in the middle of a crowd of skating kids I was directing a forward charge up the ice when a really big fella on skates, to my left wearing a handsome and sleek fur coat and a fur Ushanka hat foot, passed me a puck which I moved up to our 10 year old center. That big fella was Alexi Zhitnik, then a defenseman of the Buffalo Sabres. Alexi was from Kiev and he had a huge smile on his face.

The next year’s festival was marked for me by the determination of the City of Buffalo not to let any ice-skating occur on Delaware Park Lake during the Winterfest or at any other time.  Next came a couple of years where the winter weather was kind of funky and warm and we lost our collective desire to engage in the outdoor skate experience at Delaware Lake. But I will never forget the scene on the day Alexi Zhitnek passed me the puck. As we drove home and drove by the park on the Scajaquada Expressway I looked across and the pond was full of skaters. I am guessing 200-300 colorful and fun loving winter loving Buffalonians. It is an image indelibly etched in my mind.

When we moved to Protection Farm our primary winter activities were cross-country skiing and outdoor skating.  After trying and failing miserably at creating an outdoor rink next to the house, my good neighbors Chuck and Judy pointed to their pond and said, its yours, enjoy. It has been wonderful.  And now, in commemoration of Hockey Day 2011, I am glad to post these photos of that pond and of our family. All of the outdoor photos taken in January of 2010, celebrating hockey at Protection Farm

Wowowo!

Now this is a hockey pond!

Left to right, Dejon, Jet, Issac, Jamie, Ben, Jajean

Jajean prepares

Ana takes a break

Al Marino's Avalanche, floor hockey team at West Side Asarese Center.
1996?
Left to right back row: Al Marino, Taylor, Jajean Burney
Middle Row: Andy Mogavero, Jeffy Bly, ?, ?, Chris Netter
Front Row: Phil Ruffino, Goalie Steve Rossi, Ricky B, Jamie Burney

Jamie and Jajean 2010

Fading light, Hockey Day Protection Farm January 2010

UPDATE -February 20, Hockey Day in America Day

I drove past Deleware Lake (Hoyt Lake) in Buffalo this past week and this is what it looks like. Rumor is that the authorities have insisted that no one skate on the pond. I don't know if they made people leave the goals and benchs on the ice, or if in fact people will return to play. this was photographed on Sunday afternoon, so I am not feeling good about it.

Last Weekend in Buffalo the Labatt's Blue Hockey Tournament played out beautifully on the inner harbor. This year the ice was great and the crowds were pretty damned fine.  Buffalo has a great winter season!