Pardon the Interruption, but I'm Kyle Hanlin, manager of media relations/broadcast coordinator for the Canes. This marks my once-every-two-or-three-years takeover of Mike Sundheim's "Guy Behind The Guy" blog.

Kyle Hanlin

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Friday marked one of my favorite once-in-a-while occurrences that happen when traveling with the Hurricanes - the between-gamedays, off-site practice. Our off-site practice on Friday in Philadelphia was held at the University of Pennsylvania's Class of 1923 Arena.

Now, before you start thinking, "Wow, that's a really OLD rink," let me tell you that, while it is an older facility, the rink is not from the 1920s. It was conceived and built in the late-1960s and early-1970s by a group of Penn grads, led by Howard Butcher III, that dubbed themselves the "Friends of Pennsylvania Hockey." Read the Wikipedia entry here, or visit the rink's official site here. I won't claim to have put in hours of research on this.

Many of you that may casually or ardently following college hockey likely realize that Penn does not have a Division-I hockey program - men's or women's. But, the University does have a relatively rich hockey history, despite not having a history of success other than on the club level. Again, I urge you to visit the rink's official site (link above) to read all about it.

The reason for my taking over the blog today is mainly to share this photo gallery of the Hurricanes practicing in this small, and somewhat historic in-town arena. The players seem to have fun whenever the team practices at one of these off-site rinks, whether its here in Philly, or at Montclair State in New Jersey, Verdun in Montreal or Compuware Arena in Plymouth, MI, near Detroit. Whether it reminds them of playing hockey as a kid, or the humor involved with a bus full of grown men riding across town in full hockey gear - the team dressed at the Wachovia Center then took a bus for 15-20 minutes to the practice rink- there's just something special about these rare, off-site practice days.

So, enjoy the photos, and look forward to Mike's next, likely more poignant, blog entry.

Go Canes!