How many Boston based professional sports teams can you name?
Make a list.
Give yourself bonus points if the Boston Blades are on your list. Ever hear of them? Well, they're a professional women's ice hockey team in the Canadian Women's Hockey League, and guess where they play their home games? Right here at the Lawrence Larsen Skating Rink at the Mike Eruzione Center!
We went to the rink on Saturday night to see the Blades lose to the Markham (Ontario) Thunder 8-0. Here are my thoughts on the rink.
Pros
The rink is very easy to find and is within walking distance of quite a few restaurants.
Free parking !
General Admission was a super reasonable $15.
The lobby that separates you from entering the rink has a snack bar and a souvenir stand.
I also loved their mini museum-like display on Winthrop native Mike Eruzione, the captain of Team USA's 1980 ''Miracle on Ice '' Olympic hockey team.
The arena sightlines were pretty good. From our seats we were able to see all of the rink, even the four corners.
There was a raffle drawing early in the third period for tickets to the New England Aquarium- that was a pretty nice touch.
Cons
IT WAS COLD INSIDE. Unreasonably cold. So cold you could see your breath. So cold that you really should have had a blanket, hat, and winter gloves. So cold that an hour and a half after the game, my rear end was still COLD from being parked on those frigid metal benches. If I ever go back, I'll know better.
During stoppages in play, the sound system would either play music or someone would make announcements. Once we heard both simultaneously which kind of defeats the option of listening to either.
I would have liked to have seen some security presence in the arena.
There were three or four older kids running through the stands and stomping around the walkways all evening acting in as an obnoxious manner as I have seen in quite a while. They bumped into people and almost mowed down a few. Its a good thing no one whacked the little darlings on top of their noggins with a goalie stick. read more