A familiar story emerged on Saturday when it comes to the NHL playoffs — the quality of the ice.
Both the Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Rangers said the soft ice at Mellon Arena was a big reason why the opening game of their Eastern Conference semi-final was entertaining but sloppy. The warm weather and packed house combined with the ancient arena, the oldest in the NHL, to produce an ice surface only slightly harder than a slushie.
"It's pretty soft," said Penguins star Sidney Crosby, who produced the winning goal on Friday when he bounced a shot off teammate Evgeni Malkin's foot. "I don't think it favours one team more than the other.
"The puck is bouncing for both teams."
The problem is bad enough that the NHL dispatched its ice guru, Dan Craig, to Pittsburgh on Saturday to try to find a solution before the second game of the series on Sunday afternoon.
Another problem for the league is that the ice probably will not be any better when the series shifts to Madison Square Garden in New York on Tuesday. MSG has long had the reputation of having the worst ice in the NHL because its rink is on the fifth floor of the building and it holds many different events.
"I'm sure MSG doesn't have the best ice in the world because of the amount of things they have in that building," Crosby said. "But I don't see that being an edge for either team.
"I think if any team really thinks about it, there's no sense trying to worry about it because there's nothing they can do."
