Kukla's Korner

Unique Rinks Could Change Playing Style

Blog: KK Hockey By Paul

09/06/07 at 09:03 AM ET | Comments (1)

from Tony Gallagher of the Vancouver Province,

They could have taken a page from baseball’s book and allowed anyone—within a certain degree of reason—to design their home rink with different configurations from the standard 85 feet wide by 200 feet long.
Remember the old Boston Garden? The Bruins used to create so much excitement there, with their narrow neutral zone and shallow corners, facilitating a hitting game whereby they could load up on size and do very well at home. Remember the old rink in Buffalo, that used to be smaller? Ditto the corners at the old Chicago Stadium, where the ice wasn’t quite as long. And in the Western league there was the old rink in Edmonton which was wider and 210 feet long instead of the 185 feet found in Chicago and Boston.
Each rink had its own set of factors visiting teams had to consider, whether it was really flexible boards with lots of give, lively boards, narrow corners or a short neutral zone or a little more or less room behind the net.

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