Hockey on a baseball field? Charlotte Checkers take to Truist Field to revisit ‘roots’
“Everybody has a story of playing at an outdoor rink.”
That quote comes from Geordie Kinnear, the man in his third year as head coach of the Charlotte Checkers, the American Hockey League team in town.
The former AHL and NHL defenseman tends to stick to the coaching constants in interviews with The Observer — of the “constant-work-gets-results” and “the-team-is-coming-together” variety.
But on Thursday afternoon, when asked about the team’s plans next week, Kinnear did what normally doesn’t do: He waxed poetic about the sport he loves.
The Charlotte Checkers plan to hold an outdoor practice at Trust Field, home of the Charlotte Knights, at 10 a.m. on Monday, Dec. 12. The practice will last about 30 minutes, weather permitting.
This is the first year the Checkers are doing it, Kinnear said, and the coach is excited about it.
“Everybody has a story of playing at an outdoor rink,” Kinnear said. “There’s something, for me, being outside, in the elements, playing the game you love. There’s something about it.”
Kinnear — a native of Simcoe, Ontario, Canada — has one of those stories.
“I had a backyard rink,” Kinnear said. “It had lots of bumps in it and holes, but I was out there. My dad would definitely be out there. I can even remember, he had a green coat with a hood on, and he’d flood the rink for me so I could go up there and work on my game, and I’d be out there for hours all by myself, with the big floodlight on so I could see in the dark.
“I truly believe that’s where kids get the most benefit, when you’re out there by yourself, trying different things. You’re always your best coach, so I definitely cherish those times of being on the outdoor rink, all by myself, shooting hockey pucks.”
Kinnear said the event would be a great opportunity for the community to see the Checkers in a new setting. Outdoor hockey isn’t just a made-for-TV luxury that a few NHL teams do once or twice a year — it’s how the game began.
While this is a practice this year, Kinnear said he and everyone in the Checkers organization would potentially support having games at Truist Field in the future.
“I think if you ask anybody in this organization, that would be something they would jump at, as long as the ice conditions were suitable for an opponent in a real game,” he said. “I’m not sure how many guys have played in an outdoor game. I have not been a part of one, but I think everyone would be excited to have that opportunity.
“Again it gets back to your roots, back to all the memories you had as a kid. And that’s what makes our game great: the creativity, the outdoors, the passion, the elements — that’s the root of hockey. So I think that would be a great idea.”
Two other Checkers notes
▪ Zac Dalpe and Matt Kierstead are the latest Checkers players to get called up to play for the Florida Panthers, the Checkers’ NHL affiliate. The two were sent up earlier this week. The American Hockey League, thanks to a salary-cap-strapped NHL, is a bit more juiced this year than normal years; this Checkers locker room had a “lot of NHL games” in it before the season began.
▪ The Checkers are 12-7 on the season and have also added two overtime losses and one shootout loss. That’s puts them smack-dab in the middle of the AHL’s Atlantic Division (fourth of eight teams). They have two road contests coming up — Friday and Saturday against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms — before seeing four straight home games in Bojangles Coliseum on Dec. 16 and 17, and then Dec. 22 and 23.
This story was originally published December 9, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
