Last weekend the NHL tried to give fans some sense of normalcy when they played 2 games outside in Lake Tahoe. At first I thought why? The lake never freezes enough. But then I smartened up and waited for the plan. Build the rink on the 18th green of the Lake Tahoe country club. Ok I'm sold. Things did not start out great for the NHL when things kicked off. First the temps in Tahoe were slightly higher then they hoped for. Secondly over 2 days there was almost zero cloud coverage to stop the sun from beating down on the ice. So the first game got underway between the Vegas Golden Knights and the Colorado Avalanche. I want to break down the game but honestly it was a week ago so ill just stick to my overall point of this post. First can we take a minute as sports fans to smile at the Nordiques jerseys that graced an NHL game for the first time since 1994. Even with the purple avs colors they looked fresh. Ok moving on. Remember that lack of cloud coverage I mentioned, Yea well with a 3pm puck drop for game 1. The ice melted by the end of the first. You read that right, IT MELTED! The NHL tried all they could to fix it but in the end had to wait for the sun to go away. Total intermission time...6 hours! Game resumed at 9pm EST. One fun and kind of cool thing that occurred because of this time gap was Vegas captain Mark Stone was serving a penalty at the end of the first. Normally you get 2 minutes for tripping. This time he set an NHL record for longest penalized player at 6 hours 1 minute and 17 seconds. Now in game time it was still 2 minutes but that is just a funny antidote I thought you would like to hear. So game resumes after sun goes away and the reminder of the game is actually a decent hockey game after having to sit for that long in between shifts. Now moving on to the Bruins. Boston came into the rink dressed in 90s attire and i have to say they should have been awarded the 2 points right there. From fanny packs to might ducks jerseys and even Pastrnak wearing the Macho Man glasses. Game time was moved back a few times for this one due once again to the lack of clouds. 7pm Puck drop for this one. Boston scored early when pasta buried the games first goal 34 seconds into the game. They did not look back. Wining 7-3 and improving their outdoor record to 3-1-0. The best part of this game however was some of the picturesque views shown. Sunset with the mountains behind it, Dark skies with just the generator lights on the rink. It really felt like pond hockey more so then the winter classics we have come to love. Going forward now the bruins have some injuries they need to address including Kevan Miller who got all our collective hopes up by playing out of his mind. So hopefully his injury isn't anything to bad. its getting close to playoff time and the bruins will need every bit of his early season play if they hope to make a good cup run this year.
I don't post much on here about basketball because as you all know I'm not very well versed in the sport. But I do pay enough attention to see when things aren't right. Currently the Celtics sit at 15-17. 2 games under .500 and tied for the 8th playoff spot. As you know things aren't looking good for the Celtics. I think from what I can see their problems are simple yet not easily fixed. 1st they are trying to build this entire franchise around 2 players. Which is not the problem in its self but these players aren't Michal and Scottie. They need help. They need defense, they need a bench, they need depth. Something they currently don't have. People are calling for Brad Stevens to be fired and you know what that is not the problem either. This man has got the Celtics to 3 of the last 4 eastern conference finals. Hes not the issue. If had the media credentials I bet not a single player would say its him. Players are never shy about wanting to get a coach out of town if they feel he just isn't working out but Stevens is loved by everyone in that room. They need to add some bench and depth to the roster.
The Celtics other issue is more of a cosmetic issue that ultimately doesn't effect the team at all. At the end of last year NBC sports Boston had to make some budget cuts because of the effect Covid-19 was having on ad sales and so much more. Long time analyst Kyle Draper was let go and that spelled the demise of the Celtics in 2021. Yes this is a shameless push to get the people I've become friends their to retweet this blog and this is not a knock on the current crew of Abby, Forsberg, Scal and Perk. I'm just a firm believer that once a staple and fan favorite leaves town things don't go well for a little bit. So while I'm happy Drapes is doing good out in Cali, He needs to know the hole he left back here.
