Penguins season ticket holders paint the ice in annual event at PPG Paints Arena
The ice surface at PPG Paints Arena won’t be needed for hockey again until the fall. But it perhaps never looked better than it did Thursday night.
Pittsburgh Penguins season ticket holders were invited for what the organization has made a tradition: a night in which they were free to take to the playing surface and paint messages onto where the Penguins skate at PPG Paints Arena.
Spectacular creativity and unwavering support.
Shoutout to all the season ticket holders who joined us at last night's Paint the Ice event, presented by @PPG! ???? pic.twitter.com/O14vwcT3Tf
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) May 20, 2022
The Penguins had staged the event in the past, though it had taken a hiatus for the coronavirus pandemic.
Some of the messages painted Thursday included an image of a black-and-gold clad hockey player wearing No. 66 with “Here’s the G.O.A.T.” displayed nearby. Franchise icon Mario Lemieux, of course, wore No. 66. The “G.O.A.T.” acronym stands for “greatest of all-time.”
Another fan painted “Please stay #71 #58 #17,” a reference to the looming unrestricted free agency for longtime star players Evgeni Malkin (No. 71), Kris Letang (No. 58) and Bryan Rust (No. 17).
Like had been displayed in the past, at least one fan painted “Thanks for the Jake Shakes,” a reference to a promotion at a local retail store that sold half-price milkshakes the day after Jake Guentzel scored a goal.
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— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) May 20, 2022
The Penguins’ season ended Sunday in a 4-3 overtime loss during Game 7 of a first-round playoff series against the New York Rangers. It was the fourth consecutive season the Penguins’ season ended without a playoff series victory.
A sellout streak of 14 years ended this past fall for the franchise, but the Penguins’ average crowd for home games of 17,684 still was 97.2% of capacity and 10th-highest in the 32-team NHL.
Chris Adamski is a TribLive reporter who has covered primarily the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2014 following two seasons on the Penn State football beat. A Western Pennsylvania native, he joined the Trib in 2012 after spending a decade covering Pittsburgh sports for other outlets. He can be reached at cadamski@triblive.com.
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