Popular on Patch: Hockey and Skating in Gilbert Park, Pre-Super Bowl

Skaters of all ages take to the rinks before the Big Game on Sunday to slap around pucks or just enjoy the ice.

Photo Gallery: Hockey and Skating in Gilbert Park, Pre-Super Bowl

Skaters of all ages take to the rinks before the Big Game on Sunday to slap around pucks or just enjoy the ice.

The Gilbert Park ice rinks may have gotten off to a slightly slow start this winter, but the cold snap at the end of last week had them ready for action on Super Bowl Sunday, and plenty of locals—parents, teens and tykes—were out taking advantage of the freeze. With the friendly green flag flying, hockey players dueled at shinny up and down the rinks while others practiced their wrist shots and puck-handling. Other skaters casually cruised around the rink, with some of the youngest getting some of their first experience on blades. Patch dropped by with a camera; check out our photo gallery above! Get news alerts and Facebook updates from these Patch sites:

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Darren McRoy

4:02 pm on Monday, February 4, 2013

I can confirm that hockey players were definitely far more prevalent on both rinks. Most of the free skating was actually being done on the north half of the "hockey" rink.   more ›

Ice Rinks at Gilbert Park: Two This Year, Neither Ready

After a winter in which the park saw no skating, the Park District of La Grange has added a dedicated hockey rink, but the weather prognosis continues to be poor.

Although the Park District of La Grange has expanded its Gilbert Park ice-skating service to two rinks this year, neither is yet operational—and it appear that neither will be anytime soon, either. “Neither of them are frozen solid, so neither of them are open,” said the Park District’s Superintendent of Facilities Chris Finn. “It’s all dependent on the weather. We need several nights and days of below freezing for it to freeze completely, and they have to be 100 percent frozen.”  Finn said that the Park District added the second rink due to popular demand and the need for safety. The larger east rink will be for general skating, while the smaller west rink closer to Gilbert Avenue is exclusively for hockey, keeping pucks and sticks far …

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About Town

Do You Know the Pond Posse?

Gilbert Park has a terrific ice skating rink that is maintained by volunteers in our community.

My sons stalk Gilbert Park in the winter looking for the green flag. For those unaware of the green flag, it means the ice rink is open for skating. The red flag means the rink is closed. I saw the track for the rink go up last week so I decided to do a little research on the rink. Boy, did I learn a lot! I had no idea that the rink was maintained by a group known as the "Pond Posse," which is comprised of volunteers. Currently the group is at 60 and would love to get more. According to Dan Laczynski, "We've found that 80 is a good number to keep things running efficiently." Dan runs the Pond Posse and has since 2002. The rink is here because Dan proposed the plan back in 2001-02. He was moving to La Grange from Riverside and based his …

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