Hockey Weekend in America...is this on anyone's radar?

Great idea to get kids involved early in the sport but for those of you down there, is anything happening in your community? Do people even know about it? Just curious.

http://www.usahockey.com/hwaa/default.aspx

The CBC sponsored "Hockey Day in Canada", with about 13 hours of coverage has been a huge hit up here.

 

The Times mentioned it in an article about the growth of hockey -- as a participatory sport -- across the country.

Without that article, I would have had no idea.

Here's the article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/18/sports/hockey/18hockey.html?ref=sports

 

Eagle River, Wis., hosted the sixth annual USA Hockey Pond Hockey Championships last weekend... and will be featured on before the Blackhawks-Penguins game on NBC. It featured 250 teams from 25 states playing 452 games on 24 rinks over three days.

 

That looks pretty freaking cool, but is there anything to keep the puck from going from one rink to the other?

It looks like stray pucks would constantly being interrupting games.

 

You'd think that, but there is no point to be firing slapshots/wristshots when the goals look like this:

 

I'll make sure to call for a moment of observation right before baseball practice starts.

 

I noticed the local NBC affiliate is playing the Red Wings game at noon on Sunday. I don't think they have had a Wings game on once this year. It seemed odd to me.

 

No checking or raising the puck in pond hockey aka shinny. Puck doesn't fly out of the rink very often.

I've been reading about the outdoor championship. We should field an SportsJournalists.com Team for next year.

Need a snappy team name though.

 

I've been wanting to play in this for years but can't get anyone to commit to that weekend. They apparently love their wives too much.

Lame.


SJ Outing 2012?

 

If I'm not mistaken, I thought NBC showed a Wings/Bruins game last Sunday. Maybe it was Versus but it was those two teams

 

If they have a Seniors Division in the tourney, I'm in.