Surveying Sullivan Arena's "pink'' ice, which appears nearly red for exhibition hockey games with a charity twist this week, some Alaska Aces got in touch with their inner artist Tuesday morning.
"Somebody spilled their Kool-Aid on the ice,'' defenseman Matt Shasby noted wryly.
The ice isn't as tame as cotton candy pink nor as bold as hot pink.
"More like fuchsia,'' offered goaltender Chris Beckford-Tseu.
"I've played on green ice on St. Patrick's Day, blue ice in Long Beach and something like cement in Europe (in the 1990s) -- they didn't color the ice there,'' offered center Kimbi Daniels. "But never anything like this.''
Magenta, anyone?
Regardless, the Aces's ECHL exhibition games tonight and Thursday night against the Texas Wildcatters will be played on "pink'' ice, and the Aces will wear pink sweaters to be auctioned for charity after Thursday's game. All that is a nod to the team's "Paint The Rink Pink'' promotion, designed to focus attention on cancer awareness and raise as much as $75,000.
Before the first puck drops, the Aces are well on their way to that goal. As of Tuesday afternoon, 4,330 tickets had been sold to tonight's game and 5,746 tickets had already been sold to Thursday's projected sellout, according to Brendan Desjardin, the team's director of ticket sales.
By comparison, two Aces exhibitions last season averaged 2,542 fans. And in eight exhibition games at Sullivan since 2003, the Aces' biggest crowd was 3,780.
Aces managing partner Terry Parks said the team's ticket sales and marketing staff have worked hard to promote tonight's effort for general cancer awareness and Thursday's focus on breast cancer. He said the organization has been blown away by the response from corporate contributors and fans.
"I think there's a lot more emotion involved than we realized,'' Parks said. "There's very few people who haven't been touched by cancer in some way.''
Parks is confident the Aces will reach their $75,000 goal, after deducting expenses including rink rental and air fare and hotel costs for the Wildcatters.
"I'd bet your left leg on it, how about that?'' Parks said.
As for the on-ice focus, Aces coach Keith McCambridge, who has 29 players in training camp, said he will likely play many of his projected regulars in just one of the two exhibitions. Come the regular season, the Aces must be down to 20 players on their active roster. There is some wiggle room -- a few players can be placed on injured reserve, where center Vladimir Novak, coming off knee surgery, will start the season.
That means McCambridge likely needs to make at least six cuts, so the exhibitions serve as auditions for a half dozen roster spots.
"For bubble guys, who's going to stand out? Who's going to rise above?'' McCambridge said.
And how will the players and linesmen fare on colored ice that makes it relatively difficult to see the blue lines, and the face-off circles and hash marks? Several Aces said after Tuesday's practice that it was tougher to track the puck on the colored ice but became easier as their eyes adjusted to it.
"It's probably not the best,'' Daniels said of the ice, "but it could be worse.''
The heavy pink isn't blood red, but it may be at some time these in these two games. After all, exhibition games are often a fight club of sorts -- in the last three seasons, the Aces' exhibition games have averaged six fights per series.
Shuffling the deck
Neither Novak or rookie forward Mike Batovanja (off-season wrist surgery) will play in the exhibitions.
Two guys who look forward to playing in front of big crowds are forwards Bo Cheesman and Eric Neilson. Both played last season for now-defunct Long Beach, which averaged just 2,230 fans per game in an arena that holds 10,400 -- and some believe that attendance figure was inflated.
Cheesman was taken aback when more than 100 people attended the Aces' first practice Saturday at Ben Boeke Arena.
"That's a Long Beach crowd,'' he said.
After Thursday's exhibition, the maintenance crew at Sullivan will shave down the ice with the Zamboni to remove the "pink'' in time for UAA's Nye Frontier Classic, which is Friday and Saturday.
Find Doyle Woody's blog online at adn.com/hockeyblog or call him at 257-4335.
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TEXAS WILDCATTERS
vs.
ALASKA ACES
WHEN: Tonight and Thursday night, 7:15 p.m.
WHERE: Sullivan Arena (cap. 6,251)
TICKETS: $16.25 Call 258-2237 for more information.
RADIO: AM-750 KFQD.
TRENDS: Texas' lineup could feature guys with Alaska connections, like former Aces goaltender Peter Aubry, former Aces forward Troy Riddle and rookie forward Moises Gutierrez of Anchorage.
