- The National Hockey League will play a pair of outdoor games the Edgewood Tahoe Resort in Lake Tahoe.
- The Vegas Golden Knights will face the Colorado Avalanche on February 20.
- The Boston Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers will play on February 21.
The National Hockey League has made outdoor games a tradition but thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic the 2021 version will have a bit of a twist. In most years, the league holds the outdoor games in a football stadium–for example, in 2019-2020 games were played at Mosaic Stadium in Regina, Saskatchewan, the Cotton Bowl Stadium in Dallas and the Air Force Academy’s Falcon Stadium in Colorado Springs, Colorado. This time around they’ve chosen a more remote location scheduling a pair of games at the Edgewood Tahoe Resort in Stateline, Nevada on the South Shore of Lake Tahoe.
Unfortunately, you won’t be able to attend these games due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Reports suggest that attendance will be limited to 400 spectators–the traveling parties for the teams involved and the production staff necessary to televise the event. Since the logistics of hosting fans isn’t an issue the league decided to go for maximum scenic beauty with their choice of location and there are few places in North America that can rival Lake Tahoe in the wintertime.
Park City, Utah was apparently the NHL’s ‘Plan B’ location and hopefully that will happen at some point. Here’s another picture of the Edgewood Tahoe Resort which is where the event will take place. If you’re familiar with the area, the rink will be built near the 16th, 17th and 18th holes of the golf course for maximum lake visibility. How cool will this look on TV?
The NHL is calling it the ‘Outdoor Weekend’ and for now it is a one off event. If it works out as well as I think it will it would be great for the league to make it an annual tradition.
Since the event will be taking place in Nevada, obviously the Vegas Golden Knights will be involved. They’ll host the Colorado Avalanche on February 20 with the Philadelphia Flyers and Boston Bruins set for February 21.
