Last time I brought you some insider lockout
information, I had been clued in by multiple credible sources, the NHL has a specific date in mind to start the season. That specific date being The Winter Classic game on January 1st, 2013. You can read more on that here.
That date looks to be more and more real as we start to slip deeper into the month of October. The only thing that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me is what the HBO 24/7 series will be about if there are no games played prior to the Winter Classic to cover. Also if a deal needs to be reached in November for the Winter Classic not to be cancelled, wouldn’t it make sense that games would be played in December, at the very least? I guess we’ll have to just wait and see on all of that. Little pieces of news pop up here and there to give us an idea as to where things really are with the CBA negotiations. Well this time, it looks like the Penguins organization is dropping their little hint.
On Friday, October 12th, 2012, the Consol Energy Center will be hosting a hockey game between the Pittsburgh Police and the Pittsburgh Fire Department. This may not seem like much of an inside piece of information, but it’s the way they are conducting this game that makes one give a little raise of the eyebrow. The entire stadium’s game staff will be present and acting as though this game is a televised broadcast. The ice is going to be prepared as it is usually for an official NHL match up. There will be TV timeouts. The game cameras will be operating as though the game is being televised so the controls can be re-calibrated for this year’s season. The ice will be scraped during commercial stoppages. The zambonis will be smoothing out the ice before the game and after each period.
No word yet on whether or not this game will be open to the public or not. The players seem to have sparse details on the game. Only that it is happening and that the arena will be conducting the game as I’ve mentioned above. That all being said, it looks as though the Penguins organization is preparing to have the arena up, running, and ready to go for a new NHL season. I can’t imagine that this sort of action would be taken by the Penguins Organization if there was no sign of this lockout ending in the next few months.
Though this is purely speculative, it looks very promising. I have really good connections with both the Pittsburgh Fire Department and the Pittsburgh Police, so hopefully I will be spending my Friday night in the Consol Energy Center, watching hockey, and trying to find out more details from people in the arena. Hopefully by next week, I’ll be able to have some more details to share with you on everything. Until then, lets keep being hopeful that this season sees it’s start in the very near future.
