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NHL Outdoors at Lake Tahoe

Edgewood Tahoe Resort Stateline, Nevada
February 20–21, 2021
Game one	Vegas Golden Knights at Colorado Avalanche
Game two	Philadelphia Flyers at Boston Bruins

NHL Outdoors at Lake Tahoe was a series of twooutdoor regular seasonNational Hockey League (NHL) games, held on the weekend of February 20–21, 2021. Both games were playedwithout fans at a rink on the 18th fairway of theEdgewood Tahoe Resort inStateline, Nevada, on the south shore ofLake Tahoe. Theelevation of the rink was approximately 6,240 feet (1,900 m) abovesea level.

The first game scheduled for February 20, titledBridgestone NHL Outdoors Saturday, featured theVegas Golden Knights andColorado Avalanche, and the second game on the following day, titledHonda NHL Outdoors Sunday, pitted thePhiladelphia Flyers against theBoston Bruins.^[1] The series was scheduled as a replacement for both the 2021Winter Classic andStadium Series games, which were canceled due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.^[2][3]

The NHL originally scheduled the outdoor games for the2020–21 season prior to theCOVID-19 pandemic. TheWinter Classic, planned for January 1, 2021, was to feature theMinnesota Wild hosting theSt. Louis Blues atTarget Field, and theStadium Series game was to be hosted by theCarolina Hurricanes atCarter–Finley Stadium on February 20, against an unannounced opponent.^[4] The league announced on October 22, 2020, that the Winter Classic was being postponed to the next season due to "ongoing uncertainty" of the pandemic since fan participation is considered "integral to [its] success.^[5][6] The decision to further postpone the Stadium Series game was made on December 23, also because fans would likely not be able to attend.^[7]

In seeking an alternative outdoor stadium with fans not likely to be in attendance, the league focused on natural landscapes capable of mimickingpond hockey and not an in-person fan experience.^[8] TheEdgewood Tahoe Resort inStateline, Nevada, in theLake Tahoe region, was chosen overLake Louise, Alberta, andPark City, Utah.^[9] This is the same golf course that has hosted theAmerican Century Championship annually since 1990.^[10] The golf course was selected because the actual Lake Tahoe does not freeze over and therefore is not suitable for ice hockey play.^[11] The average high temperature on February 20 is 44 °F (7 °C), with an average low of 18 °F (−8 °C).^[12]

With no fans allowed at the event, the geographic location of the teams became less important, as the games became made-for-television showcases. The nearest teams to Lake Tahoe are theVegas Golden Knights andSan Jose Sharks, but the Sharks were not scheduled for the event due to scheduling uncertainties related toSanta Clara County's local COVID-19 health restrictions on contact sports, as well the expectation that the team would finish with a losing record as in the prior season.^[13][14] The Philadelphia Flyers and the Boston Bruins were offered the opportunity to play in both games, but decided to take part in only one contest.^[15]

With the NHL's condensed 56-game regular season schedule and limited geographical travel due to the pandemic, few off-days were scheduled between games. However, allocations were made in the schedule to make travel more manageable.^[16]

On February 10,Greg Wyshynski ofESPN reported a message from NHL chief creative officer Steve Mayer, informing them that the league had backup teams in place should any of the teams scheduled for the Lake Tahoe games become unavailable due to COVID protocols.^[17]

Unlike previous NHL outdoor games in which speciality jerseys were created, all four teams participating in the games wore their “Reverse Retro” jerseys from that season’s league-wide promotion.

TheVegas Golden Knights (VGK) and theColorado Avalanche (COL) began play on February 20 at 12:12 p.m.PT (3:12 p.m.ET).^[18][19] Play was suspended after the first period due to ice conditions caused by its exposure to heat and sunlight; the game was resumed at 9:02 p.m. PT (12:02 a.m. ET).^[19] The game ended at approximately 10:50 p.m. PT (1:50 a.m. ET) with Colorado winning, 3–2.^[20]

Number in parentheses represents the player's total in goals or assists to that point of the season

Vegas Golden Knights # Player Position 2 Zach Whitecloud D 7 Alex Pietrangelo† (A) D 9 Cody Glass C 10 Nicolas Roy C 14 Nicolas Hague D 19 Reilly Smith† (A) RW 20 Chandler Stephenson C 22 Nick Holden D 23 Alec Martinez† D 27 Shea Theodore D 28 William Carrier LW 29 Marc-Andre Fleury† G 35 Oscar Dansk[1] G 55 Keegan Kolesar RW 61 Mark Stone (C) RW 67 Max Pacioretty LW 71 William Karlsson† C 75 Ryan Reaves RW 81 Jonathan Marchessault† C 89 Alex Tuch RW Head coach:Peter DeBoer

Colorado Avalanche # Player Position 4 Bowen Byram D 7 Devon Toews† D 8 Cale Makar† D 11 Matt Calvert LW 13 Valeri Nichushkin RW 17 Tyson Jost C 20 Brandon Saad LW 22 Conor Timmins D 27 Ryan Graves D 29 Nathan MacKinnon† (A) C 30 Adam Werner[2] G 31 Philipp Grubauer† G 37 J. T. Compher LW 41 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare LW 49 Samuel Girard D 72 Joonas Donskoi RW 91 Nazem Kadri C 92 Gabriel Landeskog (C) LW 95 Andre Burakovsky† LW 96 Mikko Rantanen† (A) RW Head coach:Jared Bednar

^ Oscar Dansk and Adam Werner dressed as the back-up goaltenders. Neither entered the game.
† Starting lineup.^[22]

• Vegas Golden Knights:Robin Lehner,Tomas Nosek
• Colorado Avalanche:Dennis Gilbert

The game between thePhiladelphia Flyers (PHI) andBoston Bruins (BOS) was scheduled for February 21,^[23] originally at noon PT (3:00 p.m. ET); in the week before the game, the start time was adjusted to 11:00 a.m. local time.^[24] Due to the delay of the Saturday game, the league announced that the Sunday game would be moved later in the day, to start at 4:30 p.m. local time.^[19] The actual start time of the game was 4:59 p.m. local time, and it ended at 7:25 p.m. PT (10:25 p.m. ET) as a 7–3 win for Boston.^[25][26]

Number in parentheses represents the player's total in goals or assists to that point of the season

Philadelphia Flyers # Player Position 3 Mark Friedman D 5 Philippe Myers† D 6 Travis Sanheim D 8 Robert Hagg D 9 Ivan Provorov† (A) D 10 Andy Andreoff C 12 Michael Raffl LW 13 Kevin Hayes (A) RW 14 Sean Couturier† (A) C 19 Nolan Patrick C 25 James van Riemsdyk† LW 37 Brian Elliott[3] G 53 Shayne Gostisbehere D 55 Samuel Morin D 56 Erik Gustafsson D 62 Nicholas Aube-Kubel RW 64 Maxim Sushko RW 79 Carter Hart† G 82 Connor Bunnaman C 86 Joel Farabee† LW Head coach:Alain Vigneault

Boston Bruins # Player Position 10 Anders Bjork LW 11 Trent Frederic C 12 Craig Smith C 13 Charlie Coyle C 14 Chris Wagner RW 21 Nick Ritchie LW 23 Jack Studnicka C 25 Brandon Carlo (A) D 27 John Moore D 37 Patrice Bergeron† (C) C 40 Tuukka Rask† G 41 Jaroslav Halak[4] G 52 Sean Kuraly C 55 Jeremy Lauzon† D 58 Urho Vaakanainen D 63 Brad Marchand† (A) C 73 Charlie McAvoy† D 74 Jake DeBrusk LW 75 Connor Clifton D 88 David Pastrnak† RW Head coach:Bruce Cassidy

^ Brian Elliott and Jaroslav Halak dressed as the back-up goaltenders. Elliott played the third period for Philadelphia.
† Starting lineup.^[27]

• Philadelphia Flyers:Claude Giroux,Justin Braun,David Kase
• Boston Bruins:Steven Kampfer,David Krejci,Kevan Miller

The same officials worked both games:

• Referees:Wes McCauley,Kelly Sutherland
• Linesmen: Matt MacPherson,Jonny Murray

Both games were originally planned to be televised in the United States onNBC.^[28] Coverage of the Saturday game began as scheduled on NBC, but was then moved toNBCSN due to the delay. As a result of the Sunday game being moved to a 7:30 p.m. ET start time, it too was moved from NBC to NBCSN (with an evening game between the New Jersey Devils and Washington Capitals swapped into NBC's afternoon window as a replacement).^[19]Mike Tirico provided the play-by-play commentary withUnited States Hockey Hall of Fame member and analystEddie Olczyk and "Inside-the-Glass" reporterBrian Boucher.Rutledge Wood meanwhile, served as an on-site reporter in Lake Tahoe.^[28] These were the last outdoor games broadcast on NBC.

Both games were originally scheduled to be simulcast onSportsnet in Canada.^[29] Due to the conflict with the Calgary Flames–Edmonton OilersHockey Night in Canada broadcast, coverage of the delayed second and third periods of Saturday's game began onSportsnet One before Sportsnet joined it in progress.^[30] The second game was also moved to Sportsnet One.^[31]

38°58′05″N119°56′56″W / 38.968°N 119.949°W /38.968; -119.949

• 2020–21 NHL season
• 2021 in ice hockey
• February 2021 sports events in the United States
• Ice hockey competitions in Nevada
• NHL outdoor games
• Colorado Avalanche games
• Vegas Golden Knights games
• Philadelphia Flyers games
• Boston Bruins games

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