Our friend and fav blogger Peerless was at Tuesday night’s game 7, and he shared with us this morning his observations about the conditions inside the Phone Booth:
“In game seven, sitting where I was, the goal crease at the end the Caps shoot at twice was a lake. There was standing water in the crease, and when the goalies came out to scuff the ice at the start of the period, they could have made sno-cones with the results. In the last games of the season, one could see a lattice-work of cracks in the ice. It looked as if someone had dropped a boulder from an overpass onto a windshield.
The Capitals have made a $124-million investment in a player. They have built a team for speed. They employ a coach whose governing philosophy is to press the action. Yet, they play on an ice sheet that jeopardizes the investment and the very nature of the team they have built.
It is past an embarrassment; the word you used — scandal — is precisely correct. It’s like buying a high-definition TV and hooking the thing up to rabbit ears. What was the point in making such an investment or buying in to such a strategic philosophy (speed and pursuit) when the underlying infrastructure is so inadequate?”
9 Comments
Great post, and a great cause for the Non-MSM “crowd” to undertake. Can we arrange a march on Kettler sometime to make our concern clear?
I sure hope this doesn’t turn into a situation where every time it comes up to Ted, he gives some song and dance about multi-use facilities, yada yada yada. Like NO OTHER arena has multiple events going on (like MSG)!
Mark, when Chris Clark’s quote appeared in the Post late last year, Ted most definitely acted. And positive change took place. The question this week is, why wasn’t it durable? And who’s accountable?
I am confident that VC managment have known that the existing system is crap even before Chris Clark made his comments. This problem is probally the result of under engineering the ice surface chilling system. Either due to budget constraints or poor calculations during the design/construction of the MCI Arena 10 plus years ago.
To upgrade the obviously under engineered ice surface chilling system would be costly. Additionally, the VC would be out of comission while undergoing the upgrades, preventing any REVENUE generating events from taking place.
Somebody needs to grow a pair and make some serious decisions and quickly…
Well, I think we should look at the big picture here. How many free agents will want to come in or re-sign if our star players go down with career ending (or hampering) injury because of the ice. I really don’t want to think about losing any of our guys for any length of time due to poor ice.
Add to all of this that next year we will have an additional group using the ice – and some pretty special ones at that – when the Frozen Four is here. The problem needs to be addressed, so DC doesn’t get tainted by the NCAA as a problem arena.
waaaah! this blog went downhill after you actually took yourselves so seriously.
Depending on where you live rabbit ears can pull in some of the best HD video around.
Wasn’t the ice brand new after the Caps long road trip to end the season? I would think new ice would be better ice. Is this not true?
It was, in fact, new (from what I read), and it was still abominable. I have no idea whether it was too warm, too humid in the building, not allowed sufficient time to set, or what, but that sheet that the Caps played on in the last week of the year had me thinking that they were going to look like a M*A*S*H unit…fortunately they didn’t.
***steph wrote:
Add to all of this that next year we will have an additional group using the ice – and some pretty special ones at that – when the Frozen Four is here. The problem needs to be addressed, so DC doesn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t get tainted by the NCAA as a problem arena. ***
Man, great point! Forgot ab the Frozen Four coming next year. They better fix this crap by then.
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