Players weigh in on weather conditions

PHILADELPHIA -- There's no real way for players to prepare for the conditions of playing in these outdoor games.

Most of these players have at least one outdoor game on their resume by now, and the players all do get a practice in the day before. But the reality is, with the weather being a factor, nobody really knows what exactly to expect.

In the end, the weather ended up being more mild than originally anticipated. The temperature hovered around a comfortable 40 degrees all game, and there were no heavy winds. The rain that threatened to postpone the game remained a light mist through the first two periods, then picked up throughout the third.

Or as Flyers goaltender Brian Elliott described it, "the first part was like a curling rink, and then the second period was actually really good ice, I think it stopped raining for a little bit. The third got a little rough. It started to come down pretty good."

Many Penguins players were reluctant to talk about the tough conditions, perhaps not wanting to be perceived as making excuses.

"The conditions weren't bad," Matt Cullen said after the game. "The ice was good."

Patric Hornqvist thinks that the skaters had it a little easier out there compared to their goaltenders.

"Obviously it's hard for the goalies," said Hornqvist. "It always can be hard for goalies when you play outside. For us other players, it was good."

Matt Murray called the experience "a little different." He said that he did have to towel off his face because the rain would get in his eyes, and that he had to swap out headbands because his first one was saturated with rainwater. He wasn't using the weather as a reason for the loss, saying "everybody is playing in the same conditions."

Elliott, though, said that it's actually the skaters who had it tougher, since goaltenders don't have to worry about their masks collecting water droplets and fogging up from the inside.

"I think it was probably tougher for guys with visors, just skating through it and trying to see through the water," said Elliott. "For me, it's falling straight down so you're not getting anything in your eyes, really."

So, it's the visors that become a problem during the rainy weather. What is there to do, though?

Beginning in the 2017-18 season, the league began cracking down on incorrect visor usage. If a player has his visor angled in a way that it doesn't fully cover his eyes, officials can remove him from the ice until he fixes his visor, or penalize him for multiple offenses. The Penguins' locker room in Cranberry even has a sign showing the proper and improper ways to wear a visor.

Some players, like Jack Johnson and Jared McCann, bent the rules a bit in order to actually be able to see, and angled their visors in an otherwise improper way. I can't imagine an official would have actually penalized a player for a visor infraction in such a tight game, especially when the modification likely increased player safety in these circumstances.

The Claude Giroux method didn't sound much safer.

"The whole game, it was kind of a weird game," said Giroux. "I think I spent more time trying to clean my visor than actually playing."

Was the weather ultimately a factor in the outcome of the game? The Penguins' captain doesn't believe it was.

"It's coming down pretty good," said Sidney Crosby. "But with a lead, that would usually work to your advantage, I think, with rolling pucks and things like that. Unfortunately we gave them some life there, and they took advantage of it."

The NHL did have the power to call the game after a minimum of 40 minutes, if it deemed the conditions unplayable. The conditions were clearly unsafe towards the latter half of the final frame, considering players on both sides spoke about problems with visibility.

The weather isn't the reason the Penguins lost. But perhaps those crucial final minutes of the game shouldn't have been played at all.

MATT SUNDAY GALLERY