Road Trippin' - Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH - The venerable Mellon Arena has seen better days in its 45 year history. Tonight (April 8), the venue, formerly known as the Civic Arena through 1999, hosts an important National Hockey League (NHL) game between the home standing Pittsburgh Penguins against the New York Rangers. The Pens, as the locals call them, are playing for positioning in the 2007 Stanley Cup playoffs. Considered the toughest post-season tournament in professional sports, the NHL post-season lasts for almost three months. The crowd is especially enthusiastic as the Penguins have not been in the playoffs for five years.

Young Penguins star Sydney Crosby receives a standing ovation for being recognized as the NHL's scoring champion for the season. Crosby, 19, is the youngest recipient of the honor in the league history, surpassing the famed Wayne Gretzky (20 years, 3 months). Ironically, the sellout crowd of 17,132 constantly jeers one of its former favorites New York forward Jaromir Jagr, who helped the Pens to the consecutive Stanley Cups titles in the early 1990's. Now each time he touched the puck, a chorus of boos rained down on the ice.

Mellon Arena knows about NHL playoffs, it was the home to two Stanley Cup teams in 1990-92. The Penguins were led by a then-young hotshot named Lemieux. Many similarities between the championship teams of the early 90's and today's young guns leading the evolution of possibly championship hockey in the future. The old building, commonly refereed to as "The Igloo." is long in the tooth, but does feature suites, a serviceable press box and media lounge, great site lines for a majority of the seats. What it lacks ascetically, is overcome by its charm as the oldest sports arena that houses a NHL team. Once again, another arena which is better than our own IpayOne Center. Credit the people of Pittsburgh and its leadership, because over the past five years the city has built two new sports venues, Heinz Field for football and PNC Park for baseball.

The Penguins edged the Rangers 2-1 to secure the fifth seed in the NHL's Eastern Conference playoffs. Pittsburgh is facing the fourth seeded Ottawa Senators in the first round of the quest for Lord Stanley's cup. The Penguins lost their opening round series to the Senators four games to one.