Opened: 2014
Seating Capacity: 1800
The next arena I will be looking into in my blog is the Key Bank Rink located in Buffalo, NY. It is the home of Canisius College's Division 1 ice hockey team.
The HARBORCENTER is by far the newest arena in the Atlantic Hockey Conference. It is located across the street from the Key Bank Center, which is home to the Buffalo Sabres in the National Hockey League. The rink opened in October 31, 2014 and it definitely shows. It is my favorite arena in our conference. The arena has a modern wooden truss ceiling with wooden bleachers along both sides of the ice which I find very appealing.
One very unique feature about the arena is that it's located on the 6th floor of the building. Yes, you read that correctly. After unloading the bus, players must ride up a large service elevator to the 6th floor, which is operated by an arena employee, to get to the ice level. From there, a hallway leads to the locker rooms, which are themselves, very functional. They have a current feeling about them and there is plenty of room for all the players' gear and hockey bags.
The arena's lighting is one of the reasons why I enjoy playing there so much. It is vibrantly lit unlike some of the other facilities that I have played in in the past. The Key Bank Rink sound system is surreal. Canisius has always created a good soundtrack for the games that I've played there, and the soundtracks does the speaker system a lot of justice.
One thing about the arena that doesn't pertain to the fans, but the players deeply care about, are the boards and glass. The glass is very forgiving at the Key Bank Rink. What I mean by that is, when a player gets hit into the boards, they have a lot of leeway which reduces the impact from a check. Ask any player, it's much more favorable to get hit into this style of class compared to some others. The boards are also very lively. The puck reacts extremely well after impacting the boards. This makes it easier to make geometric passes to teammates and it creates potential scoring chances from pucks bouncing off of the end walls, behind the nets.
Canisius doesn't get the best turnout in regard to its crowd, but the arena is never empty either. The crowd seems to be...enough. The box score recorded 935 people in attendance at our recent game in the arena which is roughly around half of the maximum seating capacity.
It is not a venue when the crowd and atmosphere will take your breath away. But its modern and conventional appearance, along with vivid lighting and a deafening sound system, is what makes it my favorite place to play in Atlantic Hockey.
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- Joshua Lammon
Wood Ceiling
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