Taking in a game at Consol

My friend Jim has been a season ticket holder for the Penguins for a few years now. He's a big man, at about 6'-3" and 260 lbs roughly, and used to be a recreational league ice hockey goalie. As a result, he got his seats right on the end line by the net so that he could study the Pens goalie for 2 of the 3 periods of the game. At Mellon, he was 3 rows off the glass.

This was my first game at the Consol Energy Center. DB~ and I toured it with our friends this summer, though. I was wondering how his seats would transfer to the new arena. Turns out -- exactly the same seats. It was like we never left Mellon...except it was brighter, cleaner, wider concourses, and better food. But other than -- totally the same, right down to a lot of the same people in his section.

It was like they picked the seating area up from Mellon and plopped it into Consol.

The Pens played the Islanders tonight and won 3-0. The Islanders may be my least favorite team to watch in the NHL. They have no interesting players (their version of Crosby, John Tavares, is kind of a bust to this point) and no real style to their game. It's like a team full of 3rd and 4th liners. And for the first 59 minutes and 44 seconds, this game reflected that boring, grinding type of game.

And then we got to see the hockey equivalent of stumbling upon Bigfoot making sweet love to the Loch Ness Monster....a goalie fight!

With 16 seconds left, a 5 on 5 scrum developed after pretty boy (and pretty big bust) Rick DiPietro interfered with Matt Cooke, causing Cooke to crash to the ice. The scrum ensued, but ultimate team guy Brent Johnson (playing for Fleury tonight) decided to defend his teammate. He skated to center ice and crossed it, ensuring that he would be tossed out as a goalie, whipped off his mask and motioned to "go" with DiPietro.

In my opinion, DiPietro thought they were just going to lock up and dance for a minute or so. Johnson had other ideas. His idea was to land a left hook squaw on DiPietro's jaw. He went down to the ice like a ton of bricks; in fact, Johnson held back from delivering a right overhand while DiPietro was on the ice.

The place erupted and the video replay crew showed the fight at least 3 more times, sending the crowd to a fever pitch. Johnson was tossed out and Fleury actually had to come in for 15 seconds (he stretched out and everything).

It was just an awesome sight to behold. A goalie fight. I have never seen one live and may never see one again. Unfortunately, as I was pulling my camera out to take a picture of the goalie fight, Jim knocked the camera out of my hand due to his excitement level. It crashed to the ground and may be broken. Waaa waaaa. The picture above is from my phone, which Jim did not manhandle.

PS - I had the beef brisket sandwich from the 2nd floor Smokehouse area. Pretty strong sandwich. Not as good as delicious roadside meats, but very acceptable.

Consoled by Consol

On Saturday, DB~ and I went with our friends (and their 18 month old) to tour the new Consol Energy Center, the soon-to-be home to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

I'm not really sure how to say this properly, so....it was kind of bland. I found the color scheme to be very laid back and soothing in the concourses, with a lot of pale yellows and beiges. I loved the fact that you can walk around the entire circumference of the concourse and be able to see the ice at all times (especially in the top section).

But there were a lot of things that I wasn't sure about. Can anyone explain the pattern of the gold-backed seats to me? At first I thought it might be a Fibonacci sequence of every 1, 2, then 3, then 5 rows, but that didn't work out. DB~ thought it may have something to do with handicapped access or special seating, but uh-uh.

I found it somewhat interesting that the Consol is saturated with pictures of Sidney Crosby, but very, very few of Geno Malkin. I found his absence very telling as to who will be here long-term.

And the Kids Zone? It was full of hard surfaces and sterile colors. And as our friends pointed out...good idea to give a bunch of rowdy kids access to hockey sticks. It had Wii Sports set up. Good to see we can get the kids out of the house for a night so they can be addicted to gaming consoles somewhere different. /end cranky mid-30's man rant/

The California University Conference Center was very bland and utilitarian. Who needs to come downtown to get a lights-on Powerpoint projector and a conference table? Do people not have these? And not have to fight traffic and pay for parking?

In the Lexus Club, you can survey the city out of the wall of glass windows and stare at the sad remains of the Mellon Arena. Sort of like looking at your wife's grave as you blow through the cemetery in a convertible with your new blond trophy wife. The luxury suites, at least the ones open to the public or visible from the First Niagara Zone/Captain Morgan Lounge were nothing special. Certainly not as nice as the ones at PNC Park, which I had the pleasure of being in twice through no merit of my own.

Overall it will be a fun place to watch Sidney Crosby and the boys bring home another Stanley Cup, but just don't go expecting the Taj Mahal.