Penguins' practice at Shadyside's Hunt Armory 'pretty magical'

The Penguins took a little field trip for practice on Monday.

Instead of practicing at the Lemieux Complex like usual, players and coaches met at PPG Paints Arena downtown, put on their gear, and then boarded a bus to Hunt Armory in Pittsburgh's Shadyside neighborhood.

The detour to Shadyside was a fun change of scenery from the usual practices, but that wasn't the main motivation for the trip. Rather, the Penguins were looking to give back to the community and draw a little attention to the important work the team has done in building up the Hunt Armory rink.

The Armory is over a century old, having been built between 1909 and 1916. It's a massive building, taking up an entire city block on Shadyside's Emerson Street. It was used by the military until 2013, and functioned as the largest auditorium in Pittsburgh until the construction of the Civic Arena in 1961. It was host to speeches by several U.S. presidents and presidential candidates, including a speech by Harry Truman in front of a crowd of over 25,000 in 1948, and a speech by Dwight Eisenhower in front of over 15,000 -- plus an additional 15,000 outside -- in 1956. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1991, and received historic landmark status from the City of Pittsburgh in 2014.

After years of proposed redevelopment plans for the Armory, it was converted into a seasonal ice rink through an agreement between the Penguins and the City of Pittsburgh and the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh. The Penguins covered the cost of rink installation and operations, with assistance from a grant awarded by the NHL and NHLPA.

It was the first indoor community ice rink to be opened in the city limits in 25 years. The only other sheet of ice in the city exists at PPG Paints Arena.

The interior of the building is beautiful, and makes for a pretty interesting hockey rink. It's covered by a high, arched roof, with large windows at either end and smaller ones along the length of the building letting in natural light.

TAYLOR HAASE / DKPS

Hunt Armory

"It's unique," Mike Sullivan said after the Penguins' practice on Monday. "It's really cool. The roof, I think, is spectacular. I think they've done a great job with with renovating this. I thought it was going to be a little bit colder. We were prepared for the worst, but it wasn't too bad."

The rink serves as the headquarters for the Penguins' Hockey Diversity Program, and is an important part of the Penguins' efforts to make the game of hockey more accessible to communities that might not otherwise be exposed to the game.

"If we as an organization are going to be serious about improving access to the game to the inner city, to diversify the game to reach players of color, we have to bring the sheet of ice to the city neighborhoods," Penguins president of business operations Kevin Acklin explained after the Penguins' practice.

The rink operates from Thanksgiving to St. Patrick's Day every year, due to the constraints involved with keeping the building cool enough to hold an ice rink. In the rink's first season of operation last year, free introductory hockey programs were provided to over 750 children, and over 15,000 city residents and guests attended public skating and hockey games at the Armory. The rink also now serves as the home rink for both the men's and women's programs at Chatham University.

"Last season, it was 'If you build it, they will come,' kind of like the Field of Dreams," Acklin said. "We didn't know if it'd be successful, we didn't know if anyone would show up. But clearly we've activated hundreds of kids from city neighborhoods that otherwise wouldn't have access to the game, the drive to suburban rinks."

A number of those kids from the city neighborhoods who skate at the rink were in attendance for the Penguins' practice on Monday, with players taking the time to take pictures with and sign autographs for those in attendance after practice concluded.

TAYLOR HAASE / DKPS

Penguins players meet with kids after Monday's practice at the Hunt Armory

"It's a great opportunity for us to give back to the community," Sullivan said of the decision to practice at the Armory. "You know, the Penguins have been instrumental in this rink. All the kids that are here today are in the Learn to Play program. I think it's great, just with respect to some of the diversity initiatives and the inclusion that I think the NHL and in particular, our organization, certainly favors and are encouraging. This is a small gesture on our part, for us to come in and practice here. I know our guys really enjoy it. It's nice to play in front of kids with their level of enthusiasm, their enthusiasm is contagious."

Sidney Crosby said that he thinks it would be great if the Penguins could make the Armory practices a yearly event, maybe even more frequent than that.

"I think it's great that we had the opportunity to do it and to have all the kids there," Crosby said. "You're always trying to find ways to introduce the kids to the game and show them what we love and what we get to do every day. It's a cool experience, I think, for everybody. If it's something that ends up being a yearly thing, or even more than that, that's great. Anything we can do to help in that way and be part of the community."

The work the Penguins are doing at the Armory with diversity in hockey and the efforts to reach out to underrepresented groups is especially meaningful for P.O Joseph, who is the only Black player on the team. Joseph has stepped up to get involved with those diversity efforts in the past. The Penguins consulted Joseph in 2021 prior to the founding of the team's Willie O'Ree Academy, a program that aims to grow the game of hockey by increasing the opportunities for Black youth players in the Pittsburgh area. Joseph surprised O'Ree Academy participants for a practice last August, flying in from his home in Montreal for the day just to be able to take part.

"I think it's nice to show that there's different people out there that want to play hockey and also learn about it," Joseph said of being at the Armory. "It's fun to see that diversity in in the rink today. We're getting there. ... It's showing (the kids) that we're still having fun in the best thing in the world. It's a great way to show the community that we support them and want them to start playing hockey and enjoying the game that we all love."

The hope is that by reaching more communities and making hockey more accessible, it will grow the local talent pool and lead to more hockey players coming out of Pittsburgh and moving on to higher levels. But even if a kid never goes on to play at a level higher than a Learn to Play program, the experience of playing at the Armory itself is a special one for those in the local community.

"What it's done is created an additional opportunity for us to reach kids in city neighborhoods," Acklin said. "Maybe we'll draft a kid out of Homewood one day who learned to play and learn to skate at our Armory. But even without that, we're teaching them the intangibles of the game of teamwork and hard work. And to have Sid, Geno, Tanger and everybody on the ice today with these kids here on a day off from school is something pretty magical."