Ice surface a hot topic

LAS VEGAS — After just one game, it’s already clear this Stanley Cup Final is on thin ice. Thin, patchy, slushy, rut-riddled ice.

The Golden Knights have shocked the sporting world by playing for a championship in their inaugural season. But their incredible playoff run has taken them straight into summer in the Mojave Desert, where temperatures routinely soar past 100 degrees from May to October.

With sizzling heat outside and a frenzied sellout crowd inside, T-Mobile Arena’s ice melted into an inconsistent playing surface for the Golden Knights and the Capitals in the series opener.

Despite constant sprucing from attendants during timeouts, both teams chased the puck through dozens of weird bounces and unpredictable slides while Vegas rallied for a 6-4 victory.

“It was pretty bad,” Capitals forward Jay Beagle said. “It’s so hot outside, so it’s not like it’s a surprise.”

And it’s about to get worse: The mercury on the Strip could hit triple digits Wednesday for Game 2, when the league is likely to see its hottest outdoor temperature ever recorded at a final game.

But before any Canadians develop heatstroke at the prospect of their national game being played in a Nevada swimming pool, players were eager to make it clear the Vegas ice is absolutely playable.

“It’s the same for both teams, which is why it doesn’t matter,” Knights forward James Neal said. “Of course, everybody would like to play on perfect ice, but that doesn’t happen at this time of year.”

Middling ice quality can be a fact of life year-round in NHL rinks, particularly for the Sun Belt teams from Anaheim to Miami, yet their players still thrive. It’s common to see ice deterioration in rinks at various latitudes when temperatures rise.

The Capitals are well aware they won’t skate onto a pristine Nordic pond when they return to Capital One Arena for Game 3 on Saturday — not with 85-degree temperatures and 70-percent humidity in the Washington forecast.

“It’s probably the time of the year where it’s pretty hard to keep the ice fresh,” Capitals forward Evgeny Kuznetsov said. “But both teams play on the same ice.”

Both coaches used the Vegas ice quality to emphasize points in their game plan that would probably be important on any surface. The Capitals’ Barry Trotz and the Golden Knights’ Gerard Gallant want a north-south approach with crisp passes, minimal puck-handling and no turnovers.

It’s all easier said than done when the puck refuses to behave.

“The pucks were bouncing pretty good,” Trotz said. “The ice wasn’t great. There was a lot of chaos.”

BRUCE BENNETT/GETTY-AFP Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby and his teammates had to endure a rough ice surface during Game 1.