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This weekend, the NHL will carry on a long tradition and head outside. On Saturday, the Avalanche and Golden Knights will launch a double dip on the shores of Lake Tahoe. The Flyers and Bruins play Game 2 on Sunday.
Saturday’s game, the 31st roofless tilt, will be played atop a golf course. The fastest game in the world is heading for the green – the 18th par 5 fairway at Edgewood Tahoe Resort on the south shore of Lake Tahoe in Stateline, Nevada, to be exact. And while it’s disappointing that fans can’t attend, this game will have one of the most beautiful settings in the history of the sport: Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Nevada mountains.
At 6,224 feet above sea level, this will be the second highest location for an outdoor competition; the Avs and Kings faced off at 6,621 feet in last year’s Stadium Series at the US Air Force Academy’s Falcon Stadium in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Watch both 2021 outdoor NHL games in Lake Tahoe live with fuboTV (7 day free trial)
And while the two teams face off against each other in a picturesque setting, there are still two big points to be won. Vegas will touch the ice just one point behind West Division leader St. Louis with the Avalanche four points behind them in third place.
The teams have just parted from a two-game set, with Vegas goalie Marc-André Fleury throwing a shutout on Sunday and Avs forward Nazem Kadri scoring a winner with 41 seconds remaining on Tuesday.
Fleury will start the Golden Knights on Saturday. He is one of 13 goalkeepers with several away games to his name, although he has never won one. He lost in the 2011 Winter Classic and the 2014 Stadium Series with the Penguins (he served as a substitute in Pittsburgh’s 2017 Stadium Series victory over the Flyers). Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar has not announced his starter.
The Avalanche will also launch its retro reverse jerseys, which pay homage to the team’s roots like the Quebec Nordiques.
REVERSE RETROS: SN ranks the 31 jerseys, from worst to first
When NHL Outdoors: Golden Knights vs Avalanche will take place?
- Dated: Saturday February 20
- Time: 3 p.m. ET
Which channel is NHL Outdoors: Golden Knights vs Avalanche on?
- TV Channel (US): NBC
- Live Streaming (US): NBCSports, fuboTV
- TV Channel (Canada): SN, TVAS
- Live Streaming (Canada): SN now
Mike Tirico will call play-by-play for NBC while Eddie Olczyk and Brian Boucher will serve as analysts.
Saturday’s pre-game ceremonies will include frontline workers: Aurora C. Gooch will sing the national anthem and U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Jared Elliott will hand the game puck to Nurse Daryl Braga, nurse Miranda Miller and firefighter / paramedic Dusty R. Gooch (Aurora’s father), who will present the puck to the game officials.
Nathan MacKinnon will do what?
With the game on a golf course, the first intermission on Saturday will showcase, well, golf. Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon will head to the 17th par 3 hole and swing.
Why? Well, in 2011 Joe Sakic, the Hockey Hall of Fame and now General Manager of Avalanche, scored a hole in one in the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship at the same venue. Using an 8 iron, Sakic’s left tee shot only needed two short rebounds before falling.
If MacKinnon makes an ace, then the NHL will donate $ 1 million to the NHL / NHLPA Learn to Play program. The only thing he won’t be able to recreate, if he matches his GM’s feat, will be what Sakic looked like screwing up all the fans in attendance.
Will there be fans?
In the previous 30 outdoor competitions, over 1.6 million fans have braved (mostly) cold stadiums to witness a once-in-a-lifetime game. The 2020 Winter Classic had the second largest crowd in NHL history, with 85,630 fans watching the host stars beat the Predators 4-2 at Cotton Bowl Stadium in Dallas.
With the COVID-19 pandemic still ongoing, these will be the first outdoor games without fans.
Who will play on Saturday?
Green Day will continue his collaboration with the NHL by releasing his new song, “Here Comes the Shock”, during Golden Knights-Avs’ second intermission.
At the 2020 NHL All-Star Game in St. Louis, Green Day performed “Fire, Ready, Aim” before the start of the festivities. The group also rocked Enterprise Center during the second intermission.
The NHL is surely hoping this year’s performance will be, uh, cleaner.
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