“Yo VIP, Let’s kick it!
Ice Ice Baby
Ice Ice Baby
All right stop
Collaborate and listen”
Sorry, flashback moment, back to hockey. The Pittsburgh Penguins are off to a slower than expected start and coaching changes to lines changes have been tossed around as possible solutions to the problem. And yet one idea has yet to be discussed and it may be the reason.
“Ice, ice baby.”
Yes, the very surface that hockey is played on. If the ice is very hard and the temperature and humidity in the building are low, the ice will be fast and not chip so much. But in an older, warmer, higher humidity arena, the ice gets choppy, sloppy and slow. Teams, who wish to open up the game to a fast paced affair, want to play on fast ice. Others wanting to slow the action down, clog the neutral zone, would rather skate in a bog.
The Penguins are a young and relatively fast team. With speed from Sidney Crosby, Evegni Malkin, Jordan Staal, Sergi Gonchar, and others, this team needs fast ice. Put them on a choppy surface and you take away an asset and lower their effectiveness. This point shows up in a number of areas.
The home record for the Penguins, playing in the oldest arena in the NHL, is 5-6-2. Not a very good percentage of wins. Digging deeper, check out the home and away records against a number of teams. They are 1-2 against the New Jersey Devils, with the lone win being a 5-0 dominance on the new surface in “The Rock”. In Toronto, they beat the Maple Leafs 6-4 but lost at home 5-2 to the same team one-and-a-half weeks later. The Pens went to Ottawa and won 6-5 on what may be the best ice in the league. When they came home, the humidity, temperature and ice was the best it had been all year and they thrashed the Atlanta team 5-0.
Also, notice the number of goals scored. When they win on the good ice, they score 5 or more goals, but on the slower surface they score much less. Obviously, this isn’t foolproof, nor can it be proved beyond a doubt. Good ice, bad ice, can be different for each player/team. But the Pens sure have been trying not to badmouth their own ice surface, while attempting to state how choppy the ice is.
Sure can’t wait for the new arena and better ice for the players to skate on. If they’re still here. Back to the music….
“Love it or leave it
You better gain way
You better hit bull’s eye
The kid don’t play
If there was a problem
Yo, I’ll solve it
Check out the hook while my DJ revolves it”
