Learn to Play helping Islanders-affiliated rink flourish in New York

The NHL is celebrating Asian and Pacific Islander Month in May. As part of that celebration, NHL.com will be providing stories of activations across the sport of hockey. Today, a look at how the New York Islanders and San Jose Sharks are welcoming kids from all backgrounds to the game of hockey.

NEW YORK -- Minutes from a picturesque view of the Manhattan skyline in the western tip of Queens is a narrow, rectangular skating rink, where boys and girls of Asian-American heritage are welcomed to Learn to Play.

Not long ago, even with a heavy demand for after-school activities, a myth hovered over Long Island City Ice like ominous cumulus clouds. Owners Matt and Lucia Grosek were told hockey is too expensive and not accessible. They feared after immigrating from Slovakia in 2016 that their business would not survive.

"We really had no idea what we were doing," Matt said. "I had no concept of who we're going to attract, who we're going to bring in, if anybody."

A breakthrough occurred when Matt was introduced to the NHL Learn to Play program created by the League and NHL Players' Association that inspires youth and offers a free first session with all gear included. Long Island City Ice formed an affiliation with the New York Islanders. It was a life raft.

"Without Learn to Play, we wouldn't be able to function," Matt said.

About 3,000 miles across the United States, the San Jose Sharks have been one of the more progressive organizations commemorating Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (API) honoring communities and their contributions to hockey. The Sharks held their annual Celebration of South Asian Culture at SAP Center on March 11 before a 5-2 loss to the Minnesota Wild. Their practice facility is Sharks Ice on South Tenth Street, promoted as the largest rink west of the Mississippi River with coaches of Asian descent helping with camps and clinics as part of the allure for API youth.

"It's been almost self-sufficient," Sharks Ice youth hockey coordinator Nick Romeo said. "It's a community that's been growing on its own. I guess we're lucky here in that we're in a very diverse area, so while we have the same general diversity issues that a lot of other clubs have, we also have a diverse community."

RELATED: [Learn more about Asian and Pacific Islander Month]

Long Island City Ice got the spark it needed from Lubomir Visnovsky, one of many Slovakia-born players who befriended Matt. Visnovsky retired in 2015 after playing three seasons for the Islanders. He introduced Matt to Jesse Eisenberg, the Islanders' senior director of team services and communications, who lived down the block. Matt was then linked with director of amateur hockey Jocelyne Cummings.

The floodgates were opened.

"I took us about half a year to put it together," Grosek said. "We were walking on the waterfront of Long Island City with fliers and handing it to people, going to people [asking], would you like to try this?"

Then came the second challenge, retention. The answer was a door prize and sugar high.

"I remember sitting with my wife and we said, 'What are we going to do to make these kids who fell in love with this stay with us?'" Grosek said. "We came up with the idea that every kid at the end of the session will get a donut. Since then, I think we spent almost $48,000 in donuts. Every time I walk around the neighborhood, kids scream at me, 'Hey, that's Mr. Donut. He gets the donuts.' We like to say that if you like hockey more than the donut after you're done with your first Learn to Play, we have succeeded, and that's typically the case."

About 95 percent stuck with the program. An estimated 1,200 to 1,300 boys and girls are hooked with new students and their parents coming from Greenpoint, Manhattan, Long Island, Staten Island and Connecticut. USA hockey certified level 4 coach Jimmy Iucci worked with Grosek's son at the pee-wee level and joined LIC Ice at its infancy stage from the Brooklyn-based Aviator Hockey Club.

According to the United States Census Bureau, that community has seen the API population climb to 9,413 in 2021 from 4,403 in 2011.

"There may be a language barrier sometimes, but we make sure that the kids are feeding off of the positive energy," Iucci said. "You create an enjoyable session, and the parents see that. The parents are very comfortable bringing their kids to this environment."

In addition to the API community, others have visited Long Island City from as far as Hungary and Australia, including a mother from Egypt. San Jose's population rose from 320,225 people of Asian descent and 4,381 Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders in 2021 to 383,176 and 5,325 the next year. The interest in Learn to Play is also growing with the Bay Arena having enough rinks operated by the Sharks or another party.

"We're probably at a rink close to you somewhere," Romeo said, "so I think that really helps in that we've got a good community. Most of the other rinks are involved on some consistent level and so I think that really helps bring in as many different kinds of people as we can."