The New York Islanders may have won their home game against the Arizona Coyotes on Friday night, but at least one player wasn’t happy with his home rink.
Cal Clutterbuck wasn’t pleased with the quality of the ice and he made it known after the game.
“From about the 5-6 minute mark of the second, you knew it was one of those nights,” Clutterbuck said, per Newsday. “You basically couldn’t string three passes together, the ice was unplayable. But we found a way.”
This is hardly a surprise and it’s not the first time a player has called out the quality of the ice in Brooklyn. Last March, Kyle Okposo mentioned that the ice was “awful”.
We know the ice is bad, but why is it so bad?
Chris Botta reports that the piping system at the Barclays Center isn’t up to NHL standards. The only solution, according to Botta, is to ‘tear up’ the floor of the arena to put in the proper pipes, which is something that should have been done during the off-season.
4. Arena mgt knows this and hasn't fixed it yet, which is inexcusable, brings down caliber of play and is potentially dangerous.
— Chris Botta (@ChrisBottaNHL) October 22, 2016
New York’s next home game is Sunday night against Minnesota.