We’re hitting the backyard rink season in stride, flying towards the frigid awesomeness of winter. We have lots of great stuff coming up, but let’s get some administrivia out of the way first.

• It’s about a month later than I had originally planned, but our first run of Backyard-Hockey.com tee shirts, hoodies, and other products are now for sale. You can find them all at our store, located at www.backyard-hockey.com/store. Our Twitter followers were the first to know, as we sent out a 50% off coupon a week ago to soft launch our hoodies. We have plans for more coupon releases to our Twitter followers and Facebook fans, so if you needed another reason to join our community, there you go.
• I appreciate the outpouring of support for our friend Nick Jenkins and his quest to start a sled hockey organization in California. With hundreds of re-tweets and shares on Facebook, Nick’s idea on the Pepsi Refresh site moved from 21st to 20th. But there is still work to be done to get them into the top ten. Please remember to vote every day through the end of November, and keep sharing within your own network.
• I got a chance on Friday to watch a pre-screening of the upcoming Hockey in the USA – Part I documentary by New Jersey filmmaker Steve Chernoski (prior posts here, here, and here). Steve does a great job gauging the pulse of hockey in the United States by asking some difficult questions and eliciting some interesting responses. This is a must-watch for anyone who is interested in the health of hockey in this country, and who has a vested interest in the growth of the sport. I know that it will certainly spark some great conversation, and I’m excited to be able to show the film in its entirety the day it is released. Mark it down — November 25th, 2010.
• I ordered my backyard rink liner last week at a discount, and I’ll be rocking my new PondRocket Faceoff Tee for my troubles. In case you didn’t see our post a couple weeks ago, we’ve teamed up to bring you 5% off Nicerink liners, free PondRocket gear, and a pair of charitable donations as part of your transaction. Find all the details here, but don’t wait — the deal ends at 11:59pm on November 28th.
• Looking for help with your backyard rink? Our site stats tell us that hundreds of people have found these old gems in recent weeks, so it warrants mentioning that we have some helpful how-to articles in our archives. Our most popular rinkbuilding posts are our ‘How to build a homeboni/rink rake‘ and our ‘How to build a 24×40 backyard rink for under $250‘. And there’s always the Yahoo! Backyard Rink group, which I cannot recommend enough if you’re a fledgling ‘builder.