Though the big story of the day involved the Winter Classic Press Conference over at Heinz Field, the Penguins also had another special event up their sleeve for this afternoon. They had a couple of guys names Crosby and Lemieux christen the ice at the Consol Energy Center.
The two changed into Penguins’ warm-ups and laced up their skates and hit the ice via different doors on the bench so that their feet would hit at the exactly the same moment. Pretty damn cool if you ask me…
“That was pretty special,” said Crosby, who was seeing the new building’s interior for the first time. “There are going to be a ton of things that happen here, so to go out there and be the first ones on the ice, that was special. I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to skate with Mario.”
The iconic duo skated alone for about 5 minutes before they were joined by a series of youths decked out in none other than 87 and 66 jerseys.
“It felt great to be able to skate for the first time with Sid and then have all of the kids here,” said Lemieux of the experience. “I think it was pretty special for all of us. It was a long time coming. We worked hard to get this accomplished. I’m glad that we were able to do this today.”
You can view video of the duo’s “first step” onto the new Consol Energy Center ice at the Penguins official site.
It was very cool to be a part of the small group of people (mostly Pens front office staff and a couple dozen construction guys) who got to witness history being made.
You are a lucky man, Ryan….