March Comes In and Ice Goes Out

The Hockey Tattler, Vol. I, No. 7

Thursday March 4, 2010

I drove past Edgemont Pond today. There’s a thin coat of ice in the southern end, but the western part is open water with geese doing their thing. At the northern end, the small brick house is still standing. It is a place of memories.

In that house, thousands or maybe even millions of people over the years have donned skates, trudged over the grass and dirt to the edge of the pond, and then gone skating in the shadow of the first Appalachian ridge. After skating, there used to be hot chocolate made available by someone. Who exactly? Volunteers. The ice skating ladies auxiliary. Hot chocolate somehow goes hand in hand with this sport, like none other.

It was on Edgemont pond one starry night that I learned how to kick a puck from behind my skates out onto the stick ahead. A neat trick. There were pickup games, mostly at night. I’m not sure they happen there anymore, since there are now two rinks in the same town. The old one, and then a new arena built several years ago.

When the new facility was built, there were predictions that the rink in the middle of town would lose business and fold up. It had a 35-year run. The place smells of hockey sweat, soaked into the seats, the locker rooms, the walls. It’s small, and the parking is hard. The concession stand, where the smells of dogs and hot chocolate, ketchup and fries all mingle in the air, has always been too small.

The rink didn’t close shop. It is as busy as ever. But there are fewer ice skaters out on Edgemont Pond. And today, with the zephyrs of March blowing above 32°F, the water was open and the NO SKATING signs were posted.

It is still hockey season. A college championship series will be held this weekend in Brunswick Maine. The next NESCAC champion will be crowned. One small college in New England will have a title for a year. And, soon, the lacrosse and baseball teams will get out their gear and find the green grass, which lies beneath the melting snow.

And in the indoor rinks, the professional hockey players will continue to do battle. Tonight, the Penguins overcame the Rangers in a 5-4-overtime win. The intensity escalates now that the regular season has only 5 weeks left.

Hockey Rules.