Memories of the Civic Arena

I was the lucky one.

That’s what comes to my mind when I think of the Civic(it’ll always be that to me) Arena. Partially because my dad has had season tickets since the early 80’s, when he bought them just to watch the then dominant Islanders teams from that era. I honestly have lost track of the amount of games I’ve been to, but it's a lot.

And, true, maybe it’s because I could see the locker room. Maybe it’s because I met Ray Shero, the current general manager in said locker room, who teasing me about picking the wrong New York state university(Shero attended St. Lawrence).

(The Mellon Arena is famous for having one of the worst visiting locker rooms in the NHL.)

Or maybe it’s because I played there.

Yes, I was able to play on the same ice as Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr, Sidney Crosby, and multitudes of talented Penguins. It was the semi-finals of the Penguin Cup, essentially the section championship in Pittsburgh. We lost, 4-2.

It’s ironic that I remember that, even though people said I’d forget that whole game by now. But that was the power of the Civic Arena. It turned us all into kids. It was a culmination of a dream. Even though my team tried to contain it, we just weren’t ready for how it felt to skate on that ice with the fans chanting your name. I almost broke down right there before the game even started.

(The Mellon Arena also served at the home of the Penguins Cup, the championship for high school hockey in the city.)

I saw today that the arena is going to be demolished. It’s sad, and I have shed a tear or two over it. I’ve been on dates there (yes, actually), watched games there, cried there, been angry there, hugged strangers there. It’s been a great place for me and 16,000 of my closest friends.

Game-wise, I’ll always remember proudly sitting next to my brother as my hero and the player I tried to emulate the most, Gary Roberts, scored his last two goals in a Penguins uniform and utterly dominated the Senators. It probably qualifies as one of the best moments of my life. It’s only my second best moment at the Civic Arena though.

(Scary Gary Roberts.)

Because nothing will replicate what it felt like to be on that ice.

- Pete Gegick