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Final forty minutes of the Avalanche game in Lake Tahoe pushed back to 10pm MT after ice troubles

The Avalanche and Golden Knights made it through one period of play through tough ice conditions

By Evan Liu
@LLou1e
NHL Outdoors At Lake Tahoe - Vegas Golden Knights v Colorado Avalanche Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Who’s up for a 7 hour intermission?

After one period of play in the outdoor game between the Colorado Avalanche and Vegas Golden Knights, the NHL has decided to wait for the sun to go down before they play the final 40 minutes.

With the first intermission dragging on for about an hour and fifteen minutes, Gary Bettman and the NHL decided to push back the resumption of the Avalanche’s outdoor game to 9pm local time, 10pm MT, after ice troubles plagued the teams in the first period. The game will move from NBC to NBCSN.

Players and officials were seen consistently tripping on the ice in this new, unique experiment the NHL is trying out. However, the sunny conditions in Lake Tahoe has caused the ice to falter and cause some issues.

After one period, the Avalanche are ahead 1-0 thanks to a shot from the right circle from Samuel Girard in his first game back. The Avalanche have been the better team on the front foot, and ended the period on the power play. With this being possibly the longest intermission in the NHL, the momentum will be reset when play resumes.

Even in warmups, Phillip Grubauer had a unique challenge with the sun glare and even experimented with sunglasses to deal with it.

Pregame ceremonies included a puck delivery from the US Coast Guard and a stunning drone shot of the scenery in this spectacular event. Before play was halted, the sports world was gawking at the sight of the rink right on the shore of Lake Tahoe, with white-capped mountains standing tall in the background.

The NHL also pushed back tomorrow’s outdoor game of the Flyers vs. the Bruins to 7 PM ET because of the ice troubles under the glaring sun. After the game was pushed back to later this evening, Gabe Landeskog spoke to NBC about the unique situation.

This may just be the longest intermission in NHL history. Get a nap in, we’ve got some late-night hockey coming! We’ll see you in a few hours for the resumption of the game at Lake Tahoe!

See you tonight!