December 28th, 2010
Atlanta Thrashers vs Pittsburgh Penguins
Consol Energy Center, Pittsburgh, PA (opened Fall 2010)
www.consolenergycenter.com
(Click any photo for larger view)
AE Gate view from 5th Ave & Iceberg, the mascot, being badass.
Upon Arrival to the hotel and completed with check-in, we embarked on a venture to find lunch. After reviewing several locales around town, we settled on a small (seats about 40 maximum) bar near Consol Energy Center named “Tailgaters.” Lunch was very good, with a menu typical to most sports bars, and we were the only occupants other than the cook/bartender as it was 3pm local time, but would be extremely crowded during game-day. Overall a very nice place on the same block as the arena. Definitely recommended.
The trip for lunch required a walk past the Arena, which is absolutely stunning, built into the hill between 5th ave and Centre Ave. (For those who've been in Pittsburgh in the past, directly across Center ave is Mellon Arena. Despite the address as listed on 5th ave, the best entrance is up top, directly across from Mellon on Centre Ave (Trib Total Media gate)). I did not venture to the Verizon gate. The TTM entrance is immediately greeted by the Pen's Gear Store dead ahead, Lemieux Wall to the right, and their version of the 'Wall of Fame' to the left. Arena seating is up the stairs/escalators immediately right, and angled left. These take you to the lower concourse, with many of the premier food stalls. There is a set of escalators that go down, WAY down, to the 5th ave American Eagle entrance as well. Not recommended unless you parked on 5th ave or south of the arena. Nestled in next to the PensGear shop is the indoor Will Call window.
Upon arrival on the arena for game-day, all guests are subject to search entering the building, which is a minor inconvenience, but went quickly. The concourse is very easy to get turned around in, as the Captain Morgan Club and First Niagara Club flank each side of the rink, providing a sort of 'gated entrance' to the 100 level center ice sections on each side. In reality, these two 'clubs' block off easy access to nearly two thirds of the lower bowl, sprawling between both goals on each side of the arena. Upon peeking into these areas after the game, they are very nicely finished and rather elegant. This leaves only the corner and end seating sections open for easy access to the concourse, and made for an interesting trek upstairs to get the center ice picture (which is very crowded between periods).
The Lower bowl is stepped like a normal stairwell, which I guess to be about 35-40 degrees, and has truly perfect views no matter where your chair, or standing, vantage point is. I can picture this being equally as good for the B-Ball games held here, or for any other event in the building, as there was a WWE Wrestling taping the night prior. Overhead is a giant, HD scoreboard, with excellent picture, color, and thankfully, the proper brightness level, as that type of board could have been quite blinding. Notable food vendor includes Primanti Bro's, the Pitt staple mega-sandwich, and a 'smokehouse' vendor upstairs. I cannot comment on food, as I ate prior to the game. Beer was going for about $7 each.
Upstairs is quite a bit more compact, as the seating spreads wider out cramping the concourse greatly, with 34 sections up vs 22 down. The stairs are also much steeper, and could be treacherous after a few imbibing beverages. View from the tip top was strained, but clear, and felt roughly like standing on a high-dive over a frozen pool. Definitely not for the faint of heart or unsteady on the feet in the 200 level. As a rough reference point, the main-frame rafters are about 20-30 feet above the top row of seating, and the top row is above the top of the scoreboard. The television angle is from the Lowest points of the Upper level.
View from the top:
After scalping a ticket in, which I do NOT wish to repeat, the lighting over the rink was dimmed about 2/3, with various 'Pens' wordage and logos about the rink during the first intermission. The immediate impression I got was how close the top row, even being some 30 rows up, actually was to the rink, due to the aforementioned lower bowl slope.
Coming out of the 1st intermission, the Pens quickly took over the flow of the game, which was a 2-2 tie after 20 minutes. Atlanta rarely got the puck into their offensive zone by Fluery, even during their Power Play time. In fact, Pittsburgh's goal was shorthanded. The pens could not convert on several great chances, and left the 2nd with a 3-2 lead.
Into the 3rd period, the Thrashers pushed hard early to make a comeback, but they failed to properly take care of defense right out of the gate, and gave up a goal 9 seconds in. This proved to be the final blow for the loss, but not the game, as they were out-hustled throughout much of the 3rd despite some valiant attempts to get back into the game once it was completely out of hand. Pittsburgh had scored all 6 of their goals before Atlanta notched their 3rd of the night with just over 3 minutes to go in the game.
The final blow to the the momentum that Atlanta had came when #9 Evander Kane was KO'd on the side boards chasing down an iced puck in the middle of the 3rd. He registered the first goal of the game, just 47 seconds in, but was stuck on defense for most of the rest of the game. He spent several minutes on the ice w/out moving, so it was excellent to see him leave the ice on his own Power, albeit slowly and with help.
Broken defense was the story of the night, with the Thrashers not recovering all game long, and the Penguins making the needed changes after the first period to put this game away with a final tally: Thrashers 3 Penguins 6.
The hat trick that wasn't:
Thrashers on the Power Play:
Faceoff in the 2nd period:
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