First of all, the arena was so very quiet. It was the opposite of what you hear in NHL arenas, but when the camera showed the fans up close, it was obvious that they were very into the game. You could actually hear the player’s skates digging into the ice and hear what the coaches and players were saying to each other it was so quiet. The announcers said that the Japanese people are very respectful and that was why they were so quiet. The fans did have white "bats" that they clapped together, but they didn’t seem to make much noise probably because it’s such a huge arena.

There were jerseys from every NHL team, but the Pens jerseys were by far the most prevalent and most of them were captain sweaters with either number 66 or 68 on them. Mario Lemieux was there watching the games and apparently was besieged with autograph seekers everywhere he went.

Another interesting thing about the arena was the choice of music. There was everything played from Kid Rock to Elvis to Cotton-eyed Joe and everything in between including a Japanese version of YMCA! I read that the penalty boxes, the boards, etc. had all been shipped to Japan from Los Angeles. Maybe they brought the music too.

J. S. Aubin really kept the team in both games. He played very well, stopping almost everything that came his way. Until the second period of the second game when the Pens finally woke up, he was the only one playing great. In game two, the Pens had to kill two 2-man advantages and Aubin shone in goal on each one of those. The Penguins did not play physically until the third period of the second game and even though they had several power plays, they played poorly on them.

It seems like a long way to go to split a series, but it was interesting. We’ll see what happens in the next several games to see if the travel affects them.