NHL, Lightning take part in ball hockey rink opening

TAMPA -- The blue synthetic floor was scattered with hockey players of all shapes and sizes, clutching brand-new hockey sticks and passing the ball all over the rink to get shots on the goalie at each end.

Tampa Bay Lightning forwards Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov, along with goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, who each will take part in the 2018 Honda NHL All-Star Game on Sunday, were watching from the benches.
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Also present were NHL mascots, including ThunderBug (Lightning) and Gnash (Nashville Predators), county sheriffs, and, of course, the kids, each decked out in a white T-shirt from the Boys & Girls Club.
The one thing they all had in common were the omnipresent smiles through the 30-minute dedication ceremony and the open-play session that followed at the new ball hockey rink at the Jeff and Penny Vinik Boys & Girls Club at Winston Park.

Jeff Vinik, the owner of the Lightning and one of the driving forces behind the creation of a new Boys & Girls Club facility situated next to the new rink, stood on the court a few minutes earlier and explained how the rink -- the NHL's Legacy Project in association with the 2018 Honda NHL All-Star Weekend -- was funded by his charitable arm, the NHL office, and the contributions of fans through a 50-50 raffle. Asked why here and now for the rink, Vinik stopped and smiled himself.
"Our return on this is the smile on the faces of these kids," Vinik said. "They are having such a good time. This rink is going to be occupied 12 hours a day, every day, for years to come. We are so glad we could provide this community with a location where kids can get together in a positive setting and build up teamwork and respect for each other and learning how to lose, all great life skills. That's what we can provide here."
Such a facility dovetails perfectly with the NHL's desire to leave behind an evergreen reminder of the All-Star Weekend that also impacts the host city in a positive manner, according to NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman.

"For the community to be recognized for the great weekend we are having, we like to leave a Legacy Project behind," Commissioner Bettman said. "And since I know that community involvement is so important to Jeff and Penny Vinik, we together figured that this would be a great way to recognize All-Star Weekend and give something back.
"Hockey, for us, is about more than creating new fans. This is about life lessons, hard work, teamwork, leadership, getting along with people, diligence, and being physically fit, and this rink can accomplish all of those things for the young people that are going to play here."

Some of the features of the rink includes a synthetic playing surface that can withstand rain, permanent hockey boards, and expanded lighting to better accommodate outdoor play year-round. The donation includes new youth street hockey equipment.
In addition to the rink, the NHL and the Lightning partnered with Ross Initiative in Sports for Equality (RISE) and the Hillsborough County Sherriff's office to provide the Boys & Girls Club with the educational programming "Full Strength: Uniting Communities through Hockey," which is designed to create a positive interaction between local youth and the police.
"To me, this is the beacon," said Chris Letsos, president and CEO for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Tampa Bay. "It was unbelievable when the kids saw this today. Their faces lit up. The best part of this is that every single one of our club kids will come here and I get to watch as 25 different communities bring their kids, we're talking more than 10,000 kids, and those kids see this place and I'll get to relive this 25 more times."