Outdoor game pushed late into Saturday night
Sunshine over Lake Tahoe and Edgewood Golf Course on Saturday deteriorated ice conditions and forced the suspension of the Avalanche’s outdoor game against the Vegas Golden Knights.
The NBC-televised game on the south shore of the lake was scheduled to resume Saturday at 10 p.m. MT.
“We knew unabated sunshine was a problem,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said while announcing the postponement.
The Avalanche took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission when the game was suspended. Defenseman Sam Girard scored 2:58 into the first period, beating goalie Marc-Andre Fleury with a wrist shot from the right circle.
The Zamboni did not come out to resurface the ice for the second period. Instead, workers tried to hand repair
slushy spots — most of which were on top of the colored logos that promote heat from the sun.
“After consulting with our icemakers and both teams we didn’t think it was safe or appropriate to continue this game at this time,” Bettman said. “The most prudent thing to do was to discontinue the game now.”
Lights were previously installed at the temporary rink that will also host Sunday’s game between the Philadelphia Flyers and Boston Bruins. Before Saturday’s game began, the Flyers-Bruins game was moved from noon to 5:30 p.m. MT.
“We’ve done over 30 outdoor games. This has been the most difficult weather circumstance we’ve had — and it’s a beautiful day,” Bettman said. “But if you look up at the sun, the cloud cover is everywhere but where the sun is and it did a number on the ice. We were observing during the first period players getting stuck, particularly in center ice, tripping or catching a skate. While both teams and coaches wanted to finish the first period we concluded after consultation … the best thing was to postpone.”
Colorado outshot the Knights 17-8 in the first period and was set to carry a power play into the second, including three seconds remaining on a 5-on-3 advantage.
“There’s not much we can control,” Avs captain Gabe Landeskog said. “Some spots of the ice were slushy. We wanted to come back out but … We’ll figure it out. We were having fun out there.”