2013-14 NHL Season: "We Are North American Scum"

[The_Admiral]

It'll be the Penguins or the Rangers; I don't know of the Capitals even having any other rivalries over the years.

EDIT: it'd be a nice gesture to feature the Isles as they finally start getting good again.

[charger77]

I'm curious, try to get some pics if you can?

[fouhy12]

Boston and Philly are reportedly the finalists for the visiting team for the Winter Classic next year. http://boston.cbslocal.com/2013/09/20/report-bruins-a-possible-opponent-for-capitals-in-washingtons-2015-winter-classic/

[Cosmic]

I wouldn't be surprised if its a rematch between Washington & Pittsburgh. I would like to see Washington play Ottawa like TorinK92 said. I could also see Buffalo for some reason. Either way, I wanna go.

Buffalo would be a good choice... if they weren't godawful.

[Generic]

What did I just witness... weird OT for Leafs and Sabres.

[youcan'tseeme]

Never seen anything like that in my life, and just really summed up the issues with the shootout.

[HedleyLamarr]

Never seen anything like that in my life, and just really summed up the issues with the shootout.

A 15-round shootout with a grand total of one goal scored? Or am I missing more?

[The_Admiral]

You know, if they changed ends for overtime, there would probably be fewer shootouts. Ten minutes of long changes would end all but the most Tippettian of drag-outs.

[dbadefense1990]

So the Caps are officially hosting next years Winter Classic, no opponent announced yet.

So if the game is at FedEx Field, will the crew not screw up maintaining the ice (unlike the way they screwed up the turf there during the Redskins-Seahawks wildcard game)?

[cmm]

I'm curious, try to get some pics if you can?

Just got home. You can probably find better pics than what I took with my crappy camera phone, but here you go.

The weird end:

The scoreboard:

If anyone's interested in how it went...

Getting there by train took me about around 90 minutes--the same time it takes to get to MSG. I was a little disappointed by the arena. It was nice enough but there wasn't anything special about it, kind of like Citi Field. The concourses were very dark. I guess that's what's cool but I didn't like it. They seemed pretty narrow for a new arena too. I didn't get a chance to check out the view from the upper level, but those seats looked very steep. No way the view from up there is as good as the cheap seats in Uniondale. The train back from Brooklyn to Jamaica (in Queens, where most people need to transfer to their connecting train home) was packed. I was afraid I wouldn't get a spot. But I did, and was therefore able to catch the train I usually take home from Ranger games. I got home shortly before midnight. Had I missed that first train back from Brooklyn, I probably wouldn't have gotten home until 1 am, which would have sucked mightily.

It wasn't too bad, but I can definitely see fans from Suffolk County cutting back on the number of games they go to. I'm usually home from the Coliseum around 10:30-10:45, so this is a bit harder, especially if someone from out here wanted to bring the kids. But it's not an impossible trip.

[The_Admiral]

This is an awful mistake. I know those mezzanine seats in The Weird End are probably uber-expensive and the reason why this will be made to work, but this looks like an abomination to normal paying customers. I hope there's a way out of this somehow. This isn't right.

[BLUELANDbeliever]

Hello Sears Centre. (except Sears Centre was actually built for a horseshoe hockey venue). This is disgusting.

[tp49]

This is an awful mistake. I know those mezzanine seats in The Weird End are probably uber-expensive and the reason why this will be made to work, but this looks like an abomination to normal paying customers. I hope there's a way out of this somehow. This isn't right.

It's the Islanders...what do you expect. If it's not right they'll be the first to do it.

[Cosmic]

Now there's some good old-fashioned hockey:

[Generic]

The Barclays Center really looks off like that but honestly, it's not as bad as what I thought. I mean I'm not a fan of that but it's better than a horse shoe in my opinion. I have no sweet clue why they made the arena like that though, I mean the Isles weren't a promised tenant at the time they built it but you'd figure some logic would have been applied when thinking of making the most of the arena.

[Cosmic]

The Barclays Center really looks off like that but honestly, it's not as bad as what I thought. I mean I'm not a fan of that but it's better than a horse shoe in my opinion. I have no sweet clue why they made the arena like that though, I mean the Isles weren't a promised tenant at the time they built it but you'd figure some logic would have been applied when thinking of making the most of the arena.

I could be wrong, but I think scaling it back from a bigger, multipurpose arena to a more basketball-specific arena was part of getting it through the political process. The arena, as it is now, is one of the most profitable in the world... they don't really give a crap about the Islanders or the NHL. I'm sure they did the math and were happy to have the Isles, but the arena really doesn't need them.

[HedleyLamarr]

The Barclays Center really looks off like that but honestly, it's not as bad as what I thought. I mean I'm not a fan of that but it's better than a horse shoe in my opinion. I have no sweet clue why they made the arena like that though, I mean the Isles weren't a promised tenant at the time they built it but you'd figure some logic would have been applied when thinking of making the most of the arena.

There's a couple good reasons for arena owners to not want to have season-long hockey in their building:

1. It forces both ends of the lower bowl seating (the seats that sit behind the nets/backboards to the corners) to be retractable. Why's that a bad thing? These seats/sections have to be raised/lowered often and, combined with frequent use, causes these big-money seats to be some of the more uncomfortable in the building and often in need of tinkering or repair. You can feel these seats constantly bouncing should you be sitting near the aisle. One end will always be retractable because of the arena's "elephant doors".

2. Many performers have these requirements on the arena's "weather". The NHL requires the arena to be a certain temperature when there's ice on the surface. The advantage the Barclays Center has over MSG or the other New York metro NHL/NBA-sized arenas is that they can attract some some concerts and shows during the fall-winter-early spring that the others can't when certain folks require a warmer or non-iced building.

[The_Admiral]

On the first point, couldn't you extrapolate that to saying that it's disadvantageous to host NBA basketball, since that requires bringing in the retractable seats that wouldn't be there for concerts, circuses, expos, wrestling, whatever else necessitates pulling the seats back? I mean, it seems like a necessary evil of a multipurpose facility that you're going to have to do a lot of messing around with seating configurations.

[HedleyLamarr]

On the first point, couldn't you extrapolate that to saying that it's disadvantageous to host NBA basketball, since that requires bringing in the retractable seats that wouldn't be there for concerts, circuses, expos, wrestling, whatever else necessitates pulling the seats back? I mean, it seems like a necessary evil of a multipurpose facility that you're going to have to do a lot of messing around with seating configurations.

Retractable not only goes inside and out, but also raising/lowering.

Should an owner want to build an arena and never want hockey, one end's seats can be built permanently (and the space below those seats can be used for a tournament locker room instead of being dead space). One end will always be retractable.

The hardest seats to sell (mainly to season ticket holders) are these seats on the retractable sections because of all the extra issues a non-fixed seat presents. No cupholders, less-padded seats, noisy and wobbly whenever people walk up/down the aisle.....

[kevsim1]

Giffed!