Enough Pond Hockey?
NEIRAD enilno edition
Darien hockey fans look forward to the harsh winter ahead for two reasons: the NHL and high school seasons and the beginning of pond hockey. However, that eagerly anticipated event to pass the puck outdoors has been sorely missed. With the recent warm temperatures (January for the most part), Tilly Pond and other ponds such as Gorham’s Pond, which is near Pear Tree Point, has been unsuitable for the intense pond hockey students enjoy.
Avid New York Ranger and pond hockey fan, junior Chris Losito said, “Pond hockey is a lot of fun, but unfortunately, this year there has really only been two weekends of good hockey due to the warm temperatures this winter.”
Those weekends were Jan. 8-11 and most recently, Jan. 29-31. “Pond hockey is a game of grace and life and death and tears and sweat and blood and it grows hair on your chest,” junior Chris Yowan said.
These passionate hockey players are disappointed with this year’s mild winter temperatures. Usually a pond hockey lover would have played about 10 times at this point in the season, whereas most of the DHS students and other nearby towns have only played six or so. Sophomores Nick Bruno and John Baker, as well as Juniors Alex Peter and Alex Brown have skated a few games on the pond this year as well as in the ice rink.
“Unfortunately the weather has been uncooperative with our desire for pond hockey, but it also means that we have to take advantage of every minute the pond is frozen for the rest of the year,” junior Evan Burns said.
Senior Reilly Harmer added, “When I’m on the ice and my flow is outrageous, I feel like Mike Richards of the [Philadelphia] Flyers. After 4-6 goals in the first 15 minutes, I feel like Danny Carcillo.”
Needless to say that this pond hockey season has been below average, but the quality of the games have been tremendous with a much needed high intensity level and a lot of dangling, which by definition is the action of performing a move or deke with the puck in order to get past a defender or goalie.
From the start of the New Year until Jan. 28, the average high temperature has been roughly 36˚F, which is not nearly neither cold nor consistent enough for ponds to freeze over and acquire a thick enough coating for hockey. There was a brief spell of cold that let people play Feb. 1-5. Also, more recently than early February, the temperatures have allowed for some intense pond hockey games to take place. Hopefully DHS pond players can continue to play some ‘puck’ this winter to make February a month to remember for hockey not the lack of it.
