Yanni is forcing the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins to play two playoff games in as many nights, and Capitals owner Ted Leonsis doesn't like it.
Three events in eight days at Mellon Arena required the NHL to schedule the Capitals and Penguins to play Game 4 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series in Pittsburgh on Friday night and Game 5 at the Verizon Center in Washington on Saturday.
"You don't want to play back-to-back," Capitals general manager George McPhee said. "Neither team wanted it."
The teams are playing every other day during the series except for the back-to-back games. Normally, the teams would have played Friday in Pittsburgh, Sunday in Washington and Tuesday (if necessary) in Pittsburgh, but the Yanni concert conflict ruled out Tuesday.
Instead, Game 6 would be played Monday night in Pittsburgh, the third game between the teams in four days.
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WWE wrestling event this past Tuesday and a Dane Cook show on Thursday in Pittsburgh also factored into the NHL schedule.
"It is a shame that both teams will have to play back to back games ... because the Pittsburgh building -- against NHL rules -- booked a series of concerts and forced the league to alter the playoff schedule," Leonsis wrote recently on his blog, Ted's Take. "This is bad for the league, both fan bases and for the players."
