street hockey

The Ducks also sponsor a street hockey tournament each year, sending coaches into grade schools to teach kids how to play on the pavement wearing sneakers or in-line skates, easing the need for expensive equipment and ice.

“Very personal things. My roller skates from the 50s when I played street hockey in Brooklyn. I’m a pack rat and a collector. My restaurant was like my gallery, my museum.”

If the National Hockey League has its way, youth in Australia — where it’s common to see cricket being played in parks and on quiet streets — will soon have an opportunity to do the same with a variation of North American street hockey.

The NHL, attempting to build on its first foray into the Southern Hemisphere with two preseason games between the Los Angeles Kings and Arizona Coyotes on Saturday and Sunday in Melbourne, is expanding its NHL Street Hockey program to Australia.

The NHL’s Black says he hopes that the two preseason weekend games at Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena and the street hockey program in schools might result in more home-grown Aussies in the NHL in the future, and help create a player pool for Australian teams in international competitions.