Rebuilt for the 2015 Canada Winter Games, the new and expanded Kin 1 is unofficially open for business and some of the city's recreational athletes - young and old - have already had a chance to carve their blades into the pristine ice.
The big rink was used for the first time last Wednesday afternoon at the unofficial "soft opening," in which a number of young athletes from several user groups - minor hockey, ringette, figure skating and speed skating - were invited to christen the new $16 million arena.
A group of four- and five-year-old skaters from the Prince George Blizzard Speed Skating Club took a few hot laps of the 200-foot-long by 100-foot-wide rink, which is 15 feet wider than a standard hockey rink.
The Prince George Figure Skating Club, which also participated attended in Wednesday's event, will soon join the Blizzard in sharing Kin 1 as a permanent home and both clubs expect their athletes will benefit from being able to practice regularly on the bigger ice. For the speed skaters, the Games competition will result in higher-quality padding to cushion the boards to prevent injuries in falls.
"We're aiming to go there on Feb. 1," said Carol Dennison, the Blizzard's coaching co-ordinator.
"The kids will be able to train way faster and train at speeds that are appropriate because it's safer. The kids are very excited about going out on that fast ice. They skate on Olympic-size ice in the Lower Mainland and in Calgary at higher-level competitions."
The new rink features five large dressing rooms, a referees room, office space, meeting rooms and a kitchen facility. The large east-facing window openings at either end of the rink allow for plenty of natural sunlight, which can be darkened with blinds when needed at the flick of a switch.
Arena staff are still awaiting delivery of the arena scoreclock and sound system.
As a temporary measure, staff have attached the old scoreclock to a moveable hoist parked behind the end glass.
The Prince George Ringette Association had nine players from its under-12 team show up to skate at Kin 1 on Wednesday and the Prince George Minor Hockey Association had some of its development program players in attendance.
"Because we're one of the resident users of the ice in Prince George, we were invited and all the kids received a medal to say they were the first to skate at Kin 1," said PGRA president Janine Gervais.
"We've always asked the city to give us a couple of Kin 1 ice times to showcase ringette, just because there's so much traffic at the Kin Centre but generally we don't get much ice there."
The rink will continue to be used for minor and adult rec league hockey games. Kin 1 is soon to be the new home ice surface of the Cariboo Cougars major midget hockey team. The Coast Inn of the North midget Tier 1 Cougars plan to play the Pursuit of Excellence of Kelowna in an Okanagan Mainline Amateur Hockey Association league game Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
Games and practices will continue over the next two weeks, leading up to the Canada Games grand opening event on Saturday, Feb. 15 to launch the one-year countdown to the opening of the Games.
"We want to get users in here to test it out and we need our staff to get used to running it before the grand opening on Feb. 15," said Andy Beesley, the city's manager of CN Centre and recreational facilities.
"It's Olympic-sized ice so it's different to flood, and we have some things missing like the clock, sound system, some electrics and some finishing painting."
Beesley said the city will extend an open invitation to the public in the coming weeks to try out the new Kin 1.
For hockey players, not only is Kin 1 wider but there will be more skating space behind the nets. Olympic-ice nets are anchored 13 feet away from the end boards, while goal lines in the NHL nets are painted 11 feet from the end boards.
NHL blue lines are 64 feet from the end boards but that distance on Olympic ice is only 56 feet, the same distance between bluelines, as opposed to the 50 feet of space between NHL bluelines.
"It's two very different patterns and when you go from NHL to Olympic, everything is spread out further," Beesley said.
"Most people have never skated on Olympic ice and it's definitely going to be an adjustment for everyone to get used to. It's a lot more ice than people realize."
