Art of hockey

Fine arts photographer Marina Chen was shooting photos during our hockey clinic last Wednesday night and has posted a nice slideshow on her Flickr page. The above shot actually was taken during a peewee practice after we left the ice -- but it's a great image of the current Pasadena ice rink, due to be replaced next September.

Check out her work and if you're interested in purchasing a print or hiring her for a photography project (i.e. shooting your next game), she can be contacted at marina_chen@yahoo.com. 

--S.H.


photo by Marina Chen

Are you ready to skate 200 feet?

If you're playing hockey in Pasadena after September of next year, that's the distance you'll be skating when you have to chase someone down end-to-end.

After more than a decade of talking about it -- MORE THAN A FREAKING DECADE, PEOPLE -- the wise men and lady of the Pasadena City Council approved a 10-year, 2.5 percent loan to the Convention Center that will enable them to relocate the existing rink next door. Here's the short story from the Pasadena Star News, which smartly quotes a member of my team.

The new rink will be in the existing tent structure, which will have to be slightly lengthened. There will be locker rooms, party rooms, a skating store and, we're told, an all-around tidier atmosphere than the current rink which has character (it's in a converted ballroom) and is probably an incubator for several diseases that thrive among smelly hockey gear.

All this is good news, obviously. But think about it. After years of talking and studying and talking and pretending to be interested in the issue, the Council agreed to a chump change loan that won't cost them a single penny over the long haul. All to do something that would benefit their constituents, visitors to Pasadena and businesses that profit from being near the rink. Councilman Steve Madison gets credit for his support; the rest, as far as I was concerned, were just going through the motions.

Example: After my Wednesday night clinic, I usually motor over to the Whole Foods on the Arroyo Parkway. They've got a nice pig bar/buffet in which you pay $5.99 for a pound of food. I'm usually starving, so I feel up a box or two with mashed potatoes and pasta -- which are really awesomely tasty when mixed together.

Pasadena City Council to hockey players: you are a lower breed and we don't need you, want you or care about you!

That's the kind of headline you get after Puck Boy imbibes a large coffee on an empty stomach at Peets, ruminating about why elected officials in GeezerTown are in such an un-hurry to secure a future for ice skating and hockey here.

Attentive readers of this blog -- which, btw, is henceforth emerging from its summer hibernation -- already know the basic story. In 2009, the Pasadena City Council balked at building a new ice rink with two sheets of ice, citing concerns over cost and location. 

Then, in July of this year, the Council again balked at relocating the current rink next door to an existing tent structure, citing concerns over....cost and location.

Councilman Steve Madison is clearly for preserving ice skating in Pasadena, but I can't say the same about the rest of the Council who clearly have issues with anything having to do with...COST AND LOCATION. Those are their go-to keywords for wishing the issue would just go away.

In case you were the curious sort, the cost of building an entirely new rink in eastern Pasadena was nearly $20 million. Some of that would have been repaid to the city through revenues generated by the rink. The cost of relocating the rink to the tent structure is a $1.5-million loan to be repaid to the city over 10 years. 

In the meantime, a member of my hockey team spotted this intriguing little story in the Star News about a proposed $171-million renovation of the Rose Bowl. My favorite sentence:

The new press box, which will take a few years to construct, is expected to have six levels and include broadcast media rooms, suites and premium club seats, concession stands and an underground kitchen. 

So there you go. The city is willing to invest in premium club seats for corporate fat cats and a new kitchen for sportswriters who may starve to death over the course of a three-hour contest. But when it comes to investing in a sport actually played by city residents, the Council basically couldn't give two hairy poops about a sport played by its own residents.

Last call for Pasadena spring league team

It's hard to get excited about baseball's opening day when it's just six days until the Pasadena Puckalolos open the spring lower division season at the Pasadena Ice Skating Center. Now that will be exciting -- it's my first foray into actual league play.

And if you're a relative newcomer to the thrilling world of adult ice hockey, the Puckalolos (the name pays tribute to the grand tradition of hockey in Hawaii) still have room on their roster for a couple of players.

My team is playing in the lower division, meaning you really don't have to be good to play, although you do need to be able to skate and be extremely enthusiastic. We've got eight guys on our team at the moment and I'd like to add a couple more before the season begins this coming Sunday (the 11th) -- games will be late Sunday afternoons and evenings. It's $300 for a season -- a bargain compared to other leagues around town -- and the Pasadena rink is smaller than an NHL rink for those seeking a more intimate hockey experience. We might even be playing four-on-four plus goalies.

If you're interested, email me ASAP at steve.hymon1@gmail.com. More details about the league are on the rink's website at http://www.skatepasadena.com/hockey.htm.

--Steve Hymon