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| Kenny Brooks, Tommy Olczyk and Curtis Loik were introduced to the crowd at last year's event |
Penn State has confirmed and announced details on what was more or less widespread knowledge for a while: there will be a midnight public practice to officially open the men's hockey season this year.
The event, which begins Friday night at 11:30 p.m. (doors open at 11) in Pegula Ice Arena, is designed to coincide with the NCAA's first allowed day for full team practices, Saturday October 5th. Therefore, the Nittany Lions will hit the ice right at midnight for an hour-long session. Afterwards, fans are invited to join in a public skate with the players.
Friday-Saturday's gathering follows the successful initiation of one of Penn State hockey's newest traditions last year at the Greenberg Ice Pavilion.
Here's the full release:
Fans will have the opportunity to watch the 2013-14 Penn State men's hockey team for the first time at Pegula Ice Arena the night of Friday, Oct. 4. The practice is free and open to the public.
Doors to the new, $90 million facility will open at 11 p.m. Friday (Oct. 4) and fans will have the chance to receive giveaways and complimentary food (while supplies last), courtesy of The Pointe. Practice will then run from midnight until 1 a.m. during the early-morning hours of Saturday, Oct. 5. Following practice, fans are welcome to join the team on the ice for a free public skate from 1-2 a.m. Fans who have their own skates are encouraged to bring them.
Prior to the start of practice, each member of the Nittany Lions will be introduced and head coach Guy Gadowsky will address those in attendance. The practice will be the team's first official session of the season as NCAA rules stipulate Oct. 5 as the first day for organized team practices.
In 2013-14, the Nittany Lions will face a challenging schedule with at least 19 games against teams that have reached the NCAA Frozen Four since 2009. Included in the team's 34-game regular-season slate are six opponents ranked in either the preseason USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine or USCHO.com polls. Penn State will also play a 20-game conference schedule in the first year of the Big Ten.
Single-game tickets for the 2013-14 season go on sale Thursday, Oct. 3 and can be purchased by visiting the Bryce Jordan Center Athletic Ticket Office weekdays 9 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. or by calling 1-800-NITTANY. Single-game tickets in the main bowl start at just $15 per game. The Nittany Lions season opener against Army is sold out.
Schedule of Events - Friday, Oct. 4
11:00 p.m.: Doors open (giveaways, complimentary food while supplies last)
11:30 p.m.: Festivities begin
Midnight-1:00 a.m.: Practice
1:00-2:00 a.m.: Free public skate with the team
It's a bit absurd that practices have to start so late. I'm surprised nobody asked Guy or the players how they feel about that.
ReplyDeletePractice starts the same day for everyone. Not everyone plays their first game a week later. If you want more practice to start the season, schedule your first game later.
DeleteThat's true...but at the same time, they're squeezed on the back end by the mandated end dates for Big Tens/NCAAs and there are only so many weekends in between. It's not like they're going to play less than the maximum games just to have a longer official preseason. It is sort of a dumb situation, IMO. Of course, in future years, we'll probably lead off with an exhibition, which will help a little. They weren't going to open PIA with a fake game against Waterloo.
DeleteI think the women were allowed to practice on 9/21 or something like that. There were a couple of exhibitions that weekend, then a couple more and some regular season games this past weekend, with PSU starting on Friday of course. No clue why men's and women's are different.
Reed, Ben Jones recently did a nice feature on captain's practices that sort of gets at the issue a little bit: http://www.statecollege.com/news/local-news/penn-state-hockey-captain-practices-a-unique-wrinkle-as-the-season-approaches,1391343/