One of my biggest struggles with writting these blogs is thinking of topics to write about. So I encourage people who read this to give me some ideas on what they would be interested in.
The idea for this weeks topic came from the support staff on the Gopher Hockey Team who thought that it would be interesting to hear about my five personal favorite community rinks to play in.
5.) Highland Arena - St. Paul
Highland Arena is where I spent many hours during the summers of my high school years. This rink is where some of the best female hockey players from Minnesota got to together and trained under the guidance of the genuis of hockey, Jack Blatherwick.
4.) Richfield Ice Arena - Richfield
This rink is where my dad's camp, DarBlitz all began! Growing up, every Sunday you could find me at Richfield Ice Arena getting my butt kicked in the DarBlitz Hockey Clinic. Then I played knee hockey up in the bleachers with my buddies while my dad continued to be on the ice for another six hours with all of the other age groups.
3.) Bloomington Ice Gardens - Bloomington
It is always fun to play at B.I.G. This arena just has great atmosphere and history to it. It is evident that this building cares about hockey and it's hockey players. They created shooting pits in their third rink for any player who wants to get better and work on their shooting and stickhandling before and after practice.
2.) Blaine Super Rink - Blaine
Current home rink of the USA Women's National Team and where the 2010 Olympic Team will train. I mean, you can't beat a rink that has eight sheets of ice and the Herb Brooks Training Center to work on your off-ice training.
1.) Eagan Civic Arena - Eagan
I have spend countless hours in this arena from my youth hockey days, to high school hockey and coaching numerous clinics. This rink holds many, many memories for me. Not to mention, my mom played a huge and instrumental role into getting this arena built! There is nothing greater than feeling a part of your community and having the staff at this arena help me out in every possible way: from allowing me to get much needed ice time to improve as an athlete to hosting clincs that I conduct in Eagan every summer.

There are many great ice arena's in the Twin Cities. However, these five rinks are my personal favorties.