Wow, on the happenstance that somebody would visit this forum…the Ultra-Violet Mooses have become/evolved into the El Paso Black Rhinos in 2016/17…heading into the 2017/18 season, we now use a stainless steel hockey puck, 3.5″×1.5″, with an automotive back-up alarm w/9-volt battery for the sounding device (112 db!). Works great, we have played over 100 hour with this puck, and both the puck casing and the alarm device are still in impervious, great shape! In fact, this puck should last for years!

Still casting about to play with an oponent, after we have been playing intra-club for 6 years now (since 2011). Hoping Chicago Blackhawks might like to play with another team, or the Dallas Stars could inaugurate a program.

Yeah, and we all play totally blind! We pebble the blue lines (we are almost NEVER offsides), and have buzzing sounding devices on the goals, as well as the alarm sounding device in the puck. Our goalies talk all the time, alerting players as to direction and orientation. This is a great game!

The pebbled blue lines are the great orientation devices: when you skate over a blue line, you know where you are! We call our positions to each other using “first base,” “second” and “third”…eliminates the misdirection confusion of “left-right,” which is relative to any one player’s position.

Hope somebody out there sees this and might like to start a new blind hockey team in the Southwest United States – Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, California, Colorado: talking to you guys!

Anybody give me a call, we’ll be glad to come to you and show you how we have set up this program (I gotta get a web site…).

Hope to hear you out on the ice sometime soon…

Danny Guard, EL Paso Black Rhinos Blind Hockey Club

please note that the Ultra-Violet Mooses, blind hockey club in El Paso, Texas, we have been playing with a regulation puck, 1" hole bored in center, inserted 75decibel buzzer and battery, continuous sound, even when puck airborne or rolling, works entire game very well. In contact with a number of players from teams around Canada in various forums, I have yet to gain even a single acknowledgement that they have tried an electric sounding device in a regular puck.

But allow me to cast the gauntlet, fellahs, we play a truly blind hockey game here, that is, no sighted players. To be sure, our club has b1’s up through b5’s, but when we play, WE ALL PLAY BLIND!

This means that our B1’s are equal to the fully sighted guys! They actually contribute to the team’s success on BOTH defense and offense. They are not simple pylons hanging around the back circles til something runs into them.

I’ll be in contact soon, we are looking at challenging the Canadian teams to a truly blind game in the summer of 2014. Ultra-Violet Mooses, coming to a rink near you soon…or, hey, call me at 915-252-1678

We already have the commitment from the rink operator in Las Vegas to include a blind division of play at the 2014 USA nationals in October…

Quebec City was the site of the 2nd annual Blind Hockey Tournament presented by Courage Canada, CNIB and Accessible Media. Dave Brown reports on the wins, the losses and how each teams members were determined

Biographical piece on Willie O’Ree NHL’s first Black Player. Amazing life story and hockey career as willie lost sight in one eye due to a receiving a puck to the eye, willie continued to play blind in one eye and never told anyone

The Courage Carolina Project – 2011 NHL All-Star Week – Raleigh, North Carolina. Accessible Media Inc

Montreal hosted the first Courage Canada Learn to Skate program in the province of Quebec. There were 19 visually impaired children from the Fondation des Aveugles du Quebec in attendance

The Calgary Seeing Ice Dogs, a blind hockey team that’s scoring goals on and off the Ice

The Toronto Ice Owls – 2011 – The Ice owls Hockey team is made up of low vision, blind, and deaf-blind players

Christopher Duffley, 9, wows the crowd at the High School State Hockey Championships when he sang the national anthem

In life he was known as an irascible old man who created lots of controversy, and even in death his kids hated him for giving away most of his millions to charity. He dared to defy NHL rules, greatly angered league officials, taunted the media, and terrorized the Maple Leafs players. Yet there was another side to Harold Ballard that would have surprised almost all of us. It was a very hidden side of Uncle Harold who took a deep interest in a very special hockey team. Harold Ballard allowed this team to play at the Gardens on several occasions. He fulfilled the dreams of many of this team’s players who normally would never have been able to play at the Gardens. They savoured every minute of being able to skate, handle the puck, and bang into the Gardens Boards. It did not matter to them if they were not able to see the ice with its blue and red lines, and the goal posts, crossbars, and nets. Yes, the Ice Owls are a team made up of mostly totally blind and visually impaired players. There are only four sighted players on the team, and there is even one Female player. She is both visually impaired and hard of hearing. The team is made up of 13 guys and 1 girl. The youngest is 15, and the oldest is 71. For the past 29 years, the Ice Owls have been playing ice hockey. They were formed by two MTHL Coaches who wanted to teach blind and visually impaired persons how to play ice hockey. During this time the Ice Owls team has done much to change the lives of many of their players. They are heavily involved in playing benefits games, and they travel to other cities and countries to spread the word that blind and visually impaired persons can play ice hockey. This team wants to help make a difference to those who are blind and visually impaired. They want to show the sighted world that nothing is impossible if you put your mind to it. They are spreading the word both on and off the ice. Their Captain Eddy Parenteau wants to use the Internet to attract more players and sponsors, and their goalie Mario Ros wants persons to come out and give it a try

This is a promotional video I made for the Vancouver Eclipse Blind Hockey Team

This was clip was featured in an episode of Abstrakt Videos in 2008…here it is in its entirety.
Hoy Sinsation The Blind Air Hockey MASTAAAAA

Robbed of much of her sight, Fryeburg Academy’s Christina DiPietro, 17, has lost none of her determination to do what she loves

Portsmouth’s Travis Nevins isn’t letting his impairment keep him off the ice

Seven years ago Mark DeMontis learnt that he had developed a condition that left him legally blind and unable to pursue his dream of playing professional hockey. But despite his condition, he didn’t let his passion for the game die. In fact, he decided to bring that passion to others by starting Courage Canada, an organization that gives visually impaired kids the opportunity to learn to ice skate and play hockey. So when Mark’s best friend Cameron Williams heard about the grant from Tetley Green Tea, he knew exactly who he was going to nominate

Mark DeMontis, Playing Hockey Blind

Courage Canada and North Carolina State Blind Hockey Puck Project with College of Textile Engineering – Accessible Media Inc

Courage Canada National Blind Hockey Tournament – 2011 – Montreal