Poor ice conditions delay NHL's Lake Tahoe outdoor game until Saturday night, also shifts Sunday's game
The NHL will finish its Lake Tahoe outdoor game between the Colorado Avalanche and Vegas Golden Knights at 9 p.m. local time (midnight ET), after it was paused because of deteriorating ice conditions following the first period.
Puck drop was at 12:12 p.m. PT under intense sunshine that was melting snow around the rink and causing problems with the ice. The Avalanche lead the Golden Knights 1-0 after the first period on a goal by defenseman Samuel Girard. The teams left for their dressing rooms and remained there until NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announced the game would be completed later Saturday.
"We knew that unabated sunshine was a problem," Bettman said on NBC, which is shifting the completion of the game to NBCSN. "After consulting with our icemakers and both teams, we didn't think it was safe or appropriate to continue this game at this time. Some of the players wanted to continue playing. Others were more concerned. I felt the most prudent thing to do was to discontinue the game now."
Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog said his team was ready to go back out but was pulled back by league officials.
"It's probably a good decision to move it tonight," he said.
The rink was constructed next to the shores of Lake Tahoe on the 18th hole of a golf course at Edgewood Tahoe Resort. The NHL had temporary lights on cranes around the rink, and Bettman was confident the league had enough lighting for the nighttime game.
The NHL decided Saturday morning to move Sunday's outdoor game between the Philadelphia Flyers and Boston Bruins from an 11 a.m. PT/2 p.m. ET start time to a 4:30 p.m. PT/7:30 p.m. ET start due to what's expected to be another sunny day.
The NHL originally moved the game one hour earlier because of sun concerns during the week.
This created a scheduling domino effect. The New Jersey Devils vs. Washington Capitals game was moved from 7 p.m. ET to 2 p.m. ET to fill the gap created by the rescheduling of the outdoor game. The Bruins vs. Flyers game was shifted to NBCSN.
"This has been the most difficult weather circumstance we've had -- and it's a beautiful day," Bettman said. "The cloud cover is everywhere but where the sun is."
The first sign of trouble came when the Flyers and Bruins had their outdoor practices on Saturday morning moved indoors at the South Lake Tahoe Ice Arena. According to Flyers coach Alain Vigneault, the practices were relocated to preserve the quality of the outdoor ice, as after two sessions on Friday it was in rough shape.
Later, with the sun beaming on the rink, players and officials appeared to stumble over ruts during the game's first period. The snowfall that covered the golf course near the rink had melted considerably since the morning, when South Lake Tahoe had two to five inches of snowfall overnight.
Some have questioned why the NHL started its game in the middle of the day if sun could have been an issue. NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told ESPN on Saturday that the original start times were established a while ago in conjunction with NBC "for the purpose of hitting their available windows and maximizing distribution and impact."
Daly said the league had no hesitation in adjusting those start times "to maximize player safety" and to ensure that the game could be completed.
"The decision to move tomorrow's game first to 11 a.m., and then to 4:30 p.m., was made based on what we understood the weather forecast was predicting for tomorrow. Today's forecast was for it to be partially cloudy through midafternoon, with temperatures in the 30s. At the time we came to the rink, we had every reason to believe we could get the game in," he said.
As for restarting Saturday's game at the late hour of 9 p.m. local time -- and midnight back on the East Coast -- Daly said that is "completely a function of when our ice crew believed" the teams could safely complete the game.
"Given tomorrow's forecast, our only other option was to go very early tomorrow morning -- 7 a.m. local. This was seen as a better alternative to ensure a full day of ice care tomorrow before the 4:30 game," he said.
Daly said the lighting for the nighttime game has been tested and has "more than sufficient and even more coverage and brightness than many of our indoor arenas."
The NHL announced contingency plans before the game if there were "unplayable weather conditions." Among them: That the game would be considered "official" once two periods had been played, and the team leading when play is stopped will be declared the winner.
If the score is tied when play is halted after two periods, each team would be awarded one point in the standings, and the winner would be determined by a shootout. That shootout would take place immediately after play was stopped at the Lake Tahoe rink or, if conditions wouldn't permit that, at Ball Arena in Denver on Monday, before the regularly scheduled game between the Golden Knights and Avalanche.
Related Stories
ABC News Live