Disaster strikes the NHL's outdoor game in Lake Tahoe.

A total catastrophe.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 3 years ago
Disaster strikes the NHL's outdoor game in Lake Tahoe.

I honestly can't help but feel bad for the National Hockey League here, they have done such a great job of navigating the difficulties of the pandemic era of the NHL and today's outdoor game at Lake Tahoe was supposed to be one of the few bright spots for them over the last year or so.

Unfortunately disaster has struck the league's outdoor game in Lake Tahoe between the Las Vegas Golden Knights and the Colorado Avalanche after just one period of play, with weather causing some serious problems for the league. So big have the problems become in fact that the game has now been postponed several hours, with it expected to resume at 9 pm Pacific Time or 12 pm Eastern Time. The big hit for the NHL here is that both the remainder of this game, as well tomorrow's game between the Philadelphia Flyers and Boston, will now be aired on NBCSN rather than NBC. 

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman looked extremely disappointed when making the announcement official.

"We concluded after consulting with our icemakers and both teams, we didn't think it was safe or appropriate to continue this game at this time," said Bettman during the broadcast.

You would think that rain or snow would be the issue here, but instead it was the sun that proved to be the cause of the disaster for the NHL. While the league was expecting a cloudy sky, there was an opening in those clouds that caused the sun to shine directly down onto the ice leaving it a complete mess. According to Bettman there were some players who, despite the difficult circumstances, wanted to continue competing while others felt it was unsafe.

"Some of the players wanted to continue playing, other players were more concerned," said Bettman. "I felt, as did the players association and everybody in hockey operations and most importantly the ice makers, that the most prudent thing to do was to discontinue the game now."

"We were observing, during the first period, players getting stuck in center ice or tripping and catching a skate... and we concluded after consultation that the best thing to do was to postpone for the time being."

It was Bettman's comments about what the NHL had envisioned today that really indicated just how disappointing this was.

"We tried to do something different in an unusual time to try and give our fans something special," said Bettman. "The players were excited about it, the social media chatter had been overwhelming at the start of the game, so we're gonna continue to do these. But we always knew... that weather conditions can affect whether or not we can play the game."

Bettman seemed to admit that this was a failure for the NHL.

"You can't have success if you don't risk failure," said Bettman.

I can't lie, I was one of the many fans looking forward to this and I am just as disappointed as the NHL and all of you are today.


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