One thing is for sure that it will be easier to get around the Consol Energy Center than the old Igloo. The Concourses are huge and there are none of the annoying vendor carts impeding progress! Take a look:

Consol Energy Center Concourse Area

I forget exactly where this was but I think it was the First Niagra Club:

In Arena Restaurant area

One thing that really disappointed me (aside from the lack of leg room in the seats) is the Highmark Kid’s Zone.  This area is down right small and cramped and if there are any number of people in it at any time you can see how crammed it gets.  And there isn’t even that much in there.  Plus, the way it is arranged you almost cannot help but walk in front of people trying to take pictures of their kids putting their heads on dummies wearing Penguins uniforms.  One is on one side of the narrow area and the other is on the opposite wall meaning either you have to do a lot of weaving through these two popular items or walk in front of people trying to take pictures.

The Highmark Kid's Zone

Please, and I hope the Penguins will listen, fix the layout of this area!

The gift shops are no longer kiosks taking up space but have their own little cubbies!  Problem seems to be they have crammed too much stuff into these areas if you ask me:

A Consol Energy Center Gift Shop

Now if you are wondering what food and drinks are going to cost well I have a picture of what they were charging at the open house:

The Snack bar menu at the Consol Energy Center

Some things (like the chicken fingers basket) went up while other things (like Nachos) are so far the same price and yet others (like beer) seemed to go down a hair.  I remember at the old arena beers were $8.  They had them listed here as $7.75.  I don’t know if they are the same size or not because I did not buy one. Oh, and FYI the Nacho at the open house were stale as stale can be. That was just not very classy if you ask me as it seemed like the Penguins were trying to rid themselves of last year’s inventory rather than providing quality snacks.

Up next, part IV … and yes this one will include lower bowl pics I promise!

Now for some pics of the ice. Here is the view from the upper concourse.

Center Ice from second level of Consol Energy Center

As for the second concourse, people with these tickets are definitely further back than at the old arena respectively.  Our seats are a good two to four rows back further which is, I suspect, a result of the placement of the boxes between the first and second levels and the decision to not overhang the second level completely over these boxes.

We are in section 201, Row H seats 3 & 4:

Section 201 Row H

Here is the view of the ice from our seats which are tucked closer to the red line where as at the Igloo we were closer to the blue line:

View from Sect 201, Row H, Seats 3 & 4

Here is my son Magnus (age 10 months) testing out a seat:

Magus checks out a Consol Energy Center Seat

Here is my daughter Charlotte (age 3 years) chilling in another:

Charlotte relaxing in one of the Consol Energy Center's seats

A couple comments on the seats if I might.  First, THANK YOU for the wider seats!  This is a definite improvement that I could feel immediately upon sitting down.  Secondly, but really, couldn’t you give us a little more leg room to the row in front of us?  At the old Igloo I could put my feet flat on the floor and not have my toes hit the back of the seat in front of me.  But at the Consol Energy Center with my feet flat on the ground my toes are right up against the seat in front of me.  In fact I have to pull my feet back just to fit.  This means it will be harder for people to get in and out of the row if you ask me.

Also, really?  No cup holders?  Haven’t we all had enough bad experiences with spilled drinks on the ground due to tight quarters at the Igloo to understand how important these are?  The Penguins dropped the ball on this one.  Sorry.

Up next, Part III including views from the lower bowl …

Yesterday was day one (of two) for season ticket holders to go look at the new Consol Energy Center. We had tickets and went and here are some of the pictures of the building with actual people inside along with some comments. There are a lot of pictures so I will be making multiple postings to get the good ones illustrative of the center up without creating one long, cumbersome post.

The Consol Energy Center

Here is a picture of the exterior of the CEC when you are coming down from the old Mellon Arena lots:

Just inside the Trib Total Media gate you will find the Penguins All Time Team display featuring videos, pictures and all sorts of interactive material on the players selected:

Penguins All Time Team Display at Consol Energy Center

More pics of the All Time Team Display:

All Time Team Display (close-up 1)

Another part of the Penguins All Time Team Display

I like the way this has been done because it appears that it would be easy to update if in another thirty years they decide to revamp who is and is not on the team.  The use of video displays instead of things like statutes makes this display very enduring and ensures that it will stay relevant.

Everything is certainly much more open than at the Igloo.  The old arena while nostalgic was just a dark place.  The Consol Energy Center is open and bright.

The second level Concourse at Consol Energy Center

For now you can see the old Igloo from the new arena until it is torn down.

Viewing the Igloo from Consol Energy Center

One last pic for part one of this topic before I start the second post, here are the Championship and scoring title banners hung from the rafters.

Championship and Other Banners Hung At Consol Energy Center

Part II coming in a few minutes …

Thank God for sanity! An arbitrator ruled this week that the NHL was right to void the recently penned obscene contract between the Devils and Kovalchuk which would have been for 17 years and $102 million.
Hey, I am all for players getting what they can but when you sign a contract in bad faith, which is what the Devils and Kovalchuk did make no mistake about that, to try and circumvent a league’s salary cap I am sorry but you need to be smacked down. The deal would have had Kovalchuk playing until he was 44 years old. While not unheard of for players to play into their 40’s it is rare and quite frankly players who play at that age are almost always hardly worth the spot on the bench they occupy.

During the final five years of the contract Kovalchuk would have earned $550,000 each year. The structure of the contract in its entirety however was clearly designed to circumvent the cap and lock up Kovalchuk for a smaller hit each year than he would normally have counted for. This whole situation was made difficult because for years the NHL has sat by and allowed other players to flirt with similar contracts in terms of length and salary without much of a peep if any. Kovalchuk and the Devils were probably right to assume that they would be able to get away with this latest bizarre contract. But they did not.

Now it is back to the drawing board and it will be interesting to see what these two parties have up their sleeves as “Plan B.” There will probably be another long term deal hashed out but not as obscene as 17 years. But it will still, most likely, be a deal that is designed to circumvent the cap as best as both parties think they can get away with. They have other long term deals already accepted by the league to draw on and can always use the excuse that the league accepted those.

I honestly do not care if Kovalchuk ends up with the Devils or not when this all shakes out. In his stint with the team last year he proved a pretty ineffective part of the team and for the Devils to use him effectively they would have to reword their tried and true strategy for winning. I do not think that Kovalchuk makes the perennially dangerous Devils any more dangerous. He might make them dangerous in a different way but nothing more than that.

According to sources the final plans for a statue of Mario Lemieux to grace the front of the new Consol Energy Center are complete. The only thing missing is the statue itself. Someone within the Pens organization last year told me what they thought the statue would be. I have heard a couple rumors about what it will be now. I don’t really care.

Lemieux deserves a statue as the great player he was. Even if he did jerk the fans of Pittsburgh around when the whole concept of a new arena was in doubt.

Whatever the statue ultimately looks like, this is what the statue should look like.

In the center there should be Mario Lemieux, triumphant after scoring his very first NHL goal. Around him, at his feet should be four or five children who are now NHL stars that grew up watching him play, looking up in awe. They should each be wearing Jerseys with their names and numbers on the back but no team logos on the front. One of those kids, and he should stand out from the rest, should be Sidney Crosby.

Do this and you successfully pay tribute to Mario’s great playing career and manage to make a statement about the impact Mario had on the game off the ice and above and beyond scoring goals at will against hapless defensemen. You even tie the old nicely in with the new.

Just my opinion.

If you are a Penguins fan and don’t like Sergei Gonchar then there is something really wrong with you and your brain is not wired right. I remember when the Penguins signed Gonchar a few years back too many people ballyhooed about the acquisition because they knew so little about the skill Sarge brought to the blue line. They remembered he was a Capital and hated him because of it.

But like it or not for the better part of his career in the NHL Sergei Gonchar has been one of elite offense defensemen if not the cream of that crop and the cherry on top too. Especially where the power play was concerned there was no finer player to quarterback the slaughter. His offensive prowess has never been in doubt except to those uninitiated in the finer points of hockey.

This year however things seem different. Perhaps it is age and two grueling seasons on a team who went deep into the playoff playing a demanding offensive style that has taken its toll on Gonch. Perhaps it is just an off year. Perhaps it is just misconceptions about exactly what he has accomplished. But right now, with Sergei Gonchar looking for a new contract things just don’t seem to rosy for one of the top offensive d-men to ever play the game.

In 62 regular season games Gonchar had 11 goals and 39 assists. Unfortunately he was also a -4 but he was tied for third in scoring on the team. And the guy he was tied with, Alex Ponikarovsky did most of his scoring elsewhere before joining the Penguins. In the playoffs Gonchar had 2 goals, 10 assists and was +4 in 13 games. I’ll take that from a defenseman any day of the week and twice on Sunday. So it cannot be his offensive stats that are the problem. What does seems to be the problem is that his offensive output is leading to a defensive lapse. That’s not good even for an offensive defenseman.

Probably though the biggest reason people are down on Gonchar this year is the power play which was pathetic 26th. Gonchar is an easy target considering that he plays most of every power play for the Penguins. But so too do Crosby and Malkin. I think the problems with the man advantage are deeper than Gonchar although he is an easy scapegoat. I still maintain that it is long past time to split up the dynamic duo and have them each run their own unit because it is obvious that both Sid and Geno want to play the same spot on the ice making it very easy to defend. And teams have defended it well. But this is not say that Gonchar is not blameless either.

I like Gonchar. I bought a number 55 jersey when he joined the team. My friend John liked the acquisition of Ziggy Palffy that year better. Good thing he didn’t invest the money in a #33 sweater.

But even though I like him it does not mean that I am interested in giving him the farm to stay. Gonchar made five million this past year. That is a hefty sum and one that he has been worth. But this year, especially with the power play faltering, the Penguins cannot really afford to invest in a multiyear contract for Gonch at that rate. Hate to say it but I think age is catching up to him. He is still a way above average offensive D-man but I do not know that he is the same guy I drafted quickly and often every year in fantasy hockey because of his skills.

Is he worth what Letang just got? I’d say yes for two years. But it would be a pay cut to what Sarge would likely get on the open market.

Honestly I don’t care what Gonchar does. If he wants the money he wants the money. Can’t fault him for that. But what if he takes that money and doesn’t win? I don’t know about you but being a richer loser doesn’t seem like much fun when you can be a slightly less rich winner.

If I were the Penguins the deal would be three years at an average of 2.75 million a year (3 mill this year, 2.75 next and 2.5 in year three). Take it or leave it. Time is not on Sarge’s side. He’s 36 and I think he’s got three good years left in him. Not great years, but good ones. Plus as long as he is on the bench I have a feeling that Letang and Goligoski will never get the ice time they need to develop in the Power Play quarterbacks they can become.