Boston Bruins not the only ones playing outside with backyard rink boom in New England

The Boston Bruins normally use any extended time off the ice for rest and relaxation in order to heal the bumps and bruises associated with a grueling NHL schedule.

Not Patrice Bergeron.

While the Bruins played their fourth outdoor game since 2010 on Sunday in Lake Tahoe, it’s also peak season for pond hockey in New England. Bergeron was recently asked, with the exception of the Winter Classic games at Fenway Park, Gillette Stadium and Notre Dame Stadium, when was the last time he skated outside, and his answer was typical of the Bruins captain.

It was January 2020, and the Bruins reached the bye week in their schedule. Most players travel to warmer climates, but Bergeron took his family to his lake house in Quebec. Once they arrived, No. 37 quickly tied his skates and hit the ice.

“It’s amazing,” he said. “It’s always a great feeling. It’s funny because we have a bye week, we go back home, and the first thing I want to do is go skate on the lake. It’s hard to get away from it. It brings back so many great memories, and it’s a nice way to escape to go out there with no one and just skate around and be with your family. It’s always a nice feeling.”

Families across New England agree.

There’s been a boom of backyard rinks, especially this winter in the midst of a global pandemic. With so many guidelines and restrictions, these backyard rinks have become a safe haven for many.

The DiPiazza Family

Michael DiPiazza, 38, of Shrewsbury, has built a 35-by-24 rink the last four winters. He always wanted a backyard rink as a child, but his parent’s house in Albany, New York, didn’t have the space. When he moved into the area in 2016, he wanted to find a house with a perfect yard for a rink. Even though he didn’t play hockey as a kid, his rink now is part of his passion for the game.

“It’s a fun project to take on for the winter,” DiPiazza said. “It keeps us outside. It keeps us active and gives the kids a chance to skate.”

Similar to the holidays, hockey families have traditions when it comes to the backyard rinks. DiPiazza, along with his neighbor, begin the building process the weekend after Thanksgiving. Once the boards are up, he waits until there’s a cold snap to drop a tarp and fill it with water.

“I look forward to that weekend every year because of the tradition that goes along with it,” he said. “My family and his family are always the first ones that are on the rink once it freezes; no one else is allowed to skate until they come over.”

Some winters Mother Nature is kind and allows for freezing temperatures. Once the ice freezes that’s when the real work takes place. It’s time consuming to keep a perfect sheet. The ice needs constant care to be enjoyable to skate on. Any accumulation of snow will wreak havoc if not removed in a timely fashion.

“You really need to maintain it in order for it to be functional,” DiPiazza said.  

Backyard rinks have been an important aspect for families this winter from a mental, physical and emotional standpoint.

“It’s been great,” DiPiazza said. “Honestly, we weren’t going to do it this year. When I took the boards down last year, it was early March, so before the pandemic hit, and I told (my family) ‘We’re not doing it again. We’re only getting two or three days because the weather is not cooperating. It’s just not worth it.’”

As the pandemic persisted, DiPiazza changed his mind and kept the tradition intact for 2021. His three children, all under the age of 10, have become rink rats.

“It’s been a godsend,” he said. “The kids are able to be outside. In what’s been a completely unusual and inconsistent year for them, the rink has at least provided at little bit of normalcy in their lives.”

DiPiazza’s parents still live in Albany, and they’ve only been able to visit with their grandkids a few times since the pandemic began last March. Each visit has been outdoors, so a few days before Christmas, DiPiazza built a fire next to the rink, and the entire family celebrated the holiday for a few hours.

“They also surprised my kids when my dad showed up in a Santa costume. He then put skates on and now they tell everyone that Santa skated on our rink,” DiPiazza said.

The Perez Family

Eliza Perez, of Medfield, is considered the Clark Griswold of her family, because she goes above and beyond with any project. This is only the second winter she has built a rink in her family’s backyard, and it took months to create a skating winter wonderland.

When the family lived in Boston, they didn’t have the space for a rink, but once they moved to Medfield, it was game on.

“I need everything huge, and I've been planning it all year," said Perez, who wanted the rink to cover her entire backyard.

However, there were a few obstacles in the way of Perez achieving her goal, mainly a 20-inch slope. So she collected pallets to level the yard. Plus, being a mom of a 10-year-old son and a 4-year-old daughter, and both home for remote learning, time to build the rink was limited.

“It’s been nailing a pallet here, dragging a pallet there. It’s like playing Tetris with the pallets to get the right configuration,” she said. “We made a million trips to Lowe’s to get screws long enough, so essentially I have Noah’s Ark underneath the rink. It’s huge. It’s such a massive structure. I wanted to take it to the absolute limit.”

In total, her rink is 40 feet by 70 feet.

Perez used her resourcefulness to gather other materials for the rink, including cardboard, an old hot tub cover and rugs.

“Any trash we had laying around is under the rink,” she said with a laugh. “And, being the Clark Griswold of our family, I needed to have lots of razzle dazzle in addition to a big sheet of ice.”

So she added sunken LED lights, color changing strobes, string lights all around the property and a sound system.

The Bennett family

There’s a source of pride with all these outdoor rinks. For Greg Bennett and his family, they wanted to add a personal touch, so their 20-by-40 sheet was named the “Torin Lekan Memorial Backyard Rink” to honor Bennett’s brother-in-law, who passed away a few years ago. He was 32. 

“He was the type of kid who would’ve been out there every day with the kids,” Bennett said. “It was just cool, special.”

The Bennetts held a ceremony for family and friends and unveiled the 4-by-6 black banner in Torin’s honor, joining an American, Irish and Bruins flag.

“He was the sweetest kid in the world,” Bennett said.

As a former golf course superintendent, Bennett would study the weather during the summer months. Now, he hopes to see single digits with each 10-day forecast so his son and two daughters can enjoy Uncle Torin’s rink.

Spending countless hours on a frozen pond, or backyard rink, creates unforgettable memories. It doesn’t matter how big, or how small, the feeling of skating outside with family and friends is well worth the time and effort to build a rink.  

After resurfacing his sheet, Bennett will stand in his house, look out the window at the ice and say to his wife: “Glass, babe. Glass.”