It’s taken a bit of time but the Detroit Red Wings haven finally found something to complain about with their new home, Little Caesars Arena - the ice.
It stinks.
OK, maybe not as much as the Wings did in Sunday’s 4-1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks but it’s bad, nonetheless.
“The ice is really bad,” left-winger Tomas Tatar said. “It’s not easy. It’s really soft. For a lot of guys out there, for anyone to try to make a move, it’s kind of hard.
“We’re just hoping it will be better and it will be easier to play.”
The Wings are discovering what the vast majority of NHL teams have been dealing with for years - it’s no fun when you’re not the only game in the building.
For decades, they had Joe Louis Arena all to themselves, other than the occasional concert or wrestling show. That’s not the case at the Pizza Dough Joe. Almost every night that the Wings aren’t going , there’s something else going on - concerts, UFC, and of course, a full slate of Detroit Pistons NBA home games.
Oh, the Pistons also found something they don’t like about playing roundball with the hardwood above an ice surface.
They say it’s too cold inside LCA.
The Wings beg to differ, insisting that part of the problem with the soft ice is that the arena temperature is too warm.
“There’s a lot of components into it, but I think when you go and watch a hockey game you don’t have to wear shorts and a t-shirt,” captain Henrik Zetterberg said. “If you cool it down a little bit it makes it easier to have better ice.”
Zetterberg is hopeful that part of the problem stems from the newness of the facility. He believes that with time and experimentation, they can rectify the issues with the ice surface.
“How many games have we played in here?” Zetterberg asked, the answer being three regular-season games and four preseason contests. “We haven’t skated much in here, either. It’s a big difference from the Joe, more activities in this arena than there was at the Joe, so it has gotten better than the start. From the start it was bad but I think it’s getting better each day.”
At the same time, with all the scientific study that the NHL has afforded to ice making in recent years with the Winter Classic games and so many postseason contests in non-traditional hockey markets, Zetterberg puzzles over why they ice gurus at LCA can’t find a recipe for a successful skating surface.
“I still think it’s a learning curve for the guys, but this is what we play on most of the nights in this league,” Zetterberg said. “We should be able to get better ice. It’s just not this building but in a lot (of buildings) with the technology we now have nowadays, they should be able to be better.
“Hopefully we can be the first to have great ice at a multi-sport arena.”
Follow me on Twitter @asktheduffer
Detroit Red Wings Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»