Henrik Zetterberg would like to see Little Caesars Arena take on a challenge that other multi-sport arenas have yet to pass.
The ice at the Wings' new $863-million home has gotten lukewarm reviews so far, from the first time the Wings tried it in late September through now, a span of five home games.
"Halfway through the periods, if the puck starts bouncing, you just have to take more care of it," Gustav Nyquist said. "Make sure you are maybe not trying to make that extra play because it might roll on you instead of making a safer play."
After Friday's game against the Washington Capitals, Tomas Tatar said the ice "is really soft. When you try to make a move there is a lot of snow."
The Wings enjoyed good ice at their former home, Joe Louis Arena, but then again, that building wasn't also home to an NBA team, as LCA is.
Players say the ice has improved from the first exhibition game, and Zetterberg urged patience.
"You've got to let the guys that handle it, handle it," he said. "We haven't been here for two years or three years _ we've been here for two months. We've got to have a little patience and we believe that we can get it better."
Zetterberg also said the ice at LCA is like "what we play on most of the nights in this league. But we should be able to get better ice. It's not just this building but a lot of buildings, the technology that we have nowadays, we should be able to be better."
Poor ice is not an uncommon complaint in arenas that are homes to both NHL and NBA teams (say, Boston, New York, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Chicago, to name a few). Asked if there is any such arena he can think of where the ice is good, Zetterberg said, "not really. So hopefully we can be the first to have great ice in a multi-sport arena."
