The NHL's recurring issue of ice quality sprung up again Saturday night.
Pittsburgh's Josh Archibald was gifted his first NHL goal when typically sure-handed Arizona Coyotes netminder Mike Smith failed to effectively collect and dispose of a puck iced toward the trapezoid. His blunder led to the first of two Penguins goals scored inside the last six minutes, helping force overtime.
Arizona prevailed in extra time on Connor Murphy's winner, but that didn't eliminate the sour taste lingering in Smith's mouth.
"That play can't happen. I understand that, but that ice is a joke," Smith said, according to Sarah McLellan of the Arizona Republic.
That mistake indeed can't happen when protecting a two-goal lead against the defending champs, but the conditions did appear to increase his plight. The iced puck suddenly lost of all its momentum as it rebounded through the trapezoid. Naturally, that caused Smith to hesitate, but also required him to attempt to pick the puck out of the area using the toe of his blade with Archibald steaming in.
The goaltender explained afterward that these problems are all too common at Gila River Arena.
"You can't play on that (ice)," Smith said. "When you got other teams coming in complaining about it on the ice, we have to skate on that all the time. It's not an excuse, but it's something that has to get better.
"It's like slush out there."
This season, we've heard complaints in Chicago and Pittsburgh and seen a game between the Hurricanes and Red Wings rescheduled due to a malfunction in Raleigh - and, of course, that system in Brooklyn still doesn't meet the NHL standard.
The issue's become so pervasive that it's even spread to Edmonton, where the ice was always flawless at Rexall Place, but is no longer special at the club's new arena.
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