The New Jersey Devils are worthy of their position as the Eastern Conference champions, but their ice wasn’t Cup-caliber on Wednesday.
“It was like playing with a tennis ball, quite honestly,” Los Angeles Kings captain Dustin Brown said regarding the poor ice conditions in Game 1 at the Prudential Center.
Teammate Justin Williams was more diplomatic in his remarks, but did say “the ice wasn’t very good.”
You won’t find a dissenting opinion from Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur. He attacked Madison Square Garden a couple weeks ago for its “awful” boards and ice that’s “not good.”
After Game 1, he wasn’t afraid to call out his home arena for having what he felt was a poor playing surface.
This isn’t the first time that the Prudential Center ice has been criticized. Panthers coach Kevin Dineen bashed the conditions after their morning skate prior to Game 3 of their first round series, and the issue came up again in the second round.