Buffalo, NY (WBEN) After sitting relatively stagnant for months, local hockey rinks are again bustling with the sounds of zambonis refreshing ice and the sounds of pucks hitting the boards. Hockey is back.
In these days since Governor Cuomo allowed competitive hockey and other high risk sports to resume, ice rinks have been busy accommodating recreational, youth and high school leagues.
At Holiday Twin Rinks, Mark Grundtisch says as things get back to normal, more people will be coming to watch. "Erie County allows two spectators per player as well as two teams on the ice for games. We're just upping our maintenance schedules where we're staying on top of locker room and common areas getting more use," says Grundtisch.
Grundtisch says empty ice time slots have been filled by leagues trying to get a short season in. "They're trying to get 10 to 12 games in in February, March, and maybe April. They've been filling in those slots, and that's good," explains Grundtisch.
Public ice skating isn't offered at Holiday Twin Rinks or Leisure Rinks, but there is a popular practice program that is offered. "We do have skate and shoot, and we've had skate and shoot. We're just limiting the number of kids on the ice, mostly 4-11 year old sessions," says Grundtisch.
At Northtown Centre, Eric Guzdek says the big difference is the return of competitive play. "We're seeing home and visiting teams and spectators in the facility, and we're asking people to self-monitor and do the health screening and stay safe," says Guzdek.
He says ice times have been filling up. "As soon as the governor made the announcement, we had people calling us to start games. The first one was a youth game Monday night and everything appeared to go well," says Guzdek. He says other community rinks are trying to work together with policies to ensure everything is the same from rink to rink.
But Guzdek says public skating won't be offered anytime soon. "We don't feel as though having an extreme amount of people on the ice is a safe practice at the moment," says Guzdek. He says in the past, there could be as many as 250 people on the ice for an open skate. "If we started bringing that back too soon, we wouldn't be promoting the safe social distancing and I wouldn't feel exposing our staff and other patrons to that risk as well," says Guzdek.
Both say they are glad hockey is back.
