This past weekend, the Michigan Tech Huskies hockey team played host to a pair of opponents the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the U.S. National Development Program.

It would take an internet search to determine whether or not Notre Dame had set foot in the MacInnes Student Ice Arena at any point since 1982, when they served as the Winter Carnival opponent.

It certainly has been awhile.

That makes what happened Friday night so frustrating for community members who attended the game.

We know that it is not always easy to get all of the maintenance done on a given building, whether it is a house or ice arena, especially as our economy slowly lumbers its way back out of a pandemic that shut as much down as it could.

However, having paint chips fall from the ceiling of the ice arena while games are being played on the ice surfaace is not a good look, no matter how you look it. Fans in attendance during both games where witness to what felt like a fall day outdoors watching leaves fall to the ground.

Sure, weather had a factor in what transpired over the weekend. October has been abnormally warm to this point. Although, that appears to be changing with the dip in temperatures over the next several days.

However, paint chipping is something that could be found in inspections, which can be done over the summer, when the building is seeing less use than it does once the Huskies are back in school and in season and practicing some three-to-five days a week.

Wednesday, much of the paint that fell in the entryway to the ice surface from the visitor’s locker room area was still on the floor, meaning that anyone walking out from those locker rooms had to walk through it just to get to the ice.

The same could be said for the opposing bench. Smatterings of paint laid behind the bench and some smaller chips lay where skaters sit when not involved in a drill or a rental skate.

It is a bad look for the university as a whole. Hopefully it has already addressed the problem and a plan will emerge that the public will see in the coming days. If not, then some soul searching will need to be done soon.