Marc-Andre Fleury, the most impactful player in the short history of the Vegas Golden Knights, this weekend will start the highest-profile regular-season game they have played.
They had seen pictures and digital renderings of what an ice rink on a golf course just off the south shore of Lake Tahoe would look like, but the Colorado Avalanche players finally got to view the setup themselves and soak it in for the first time."Hard to describe really," said Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog. "It s a really cool feeling. Obviously the surroundings kind of speak for themselves, you see that in pictures, but it really doesn t do it justice."
Take it Outside: Tahoe Game Brings B s Back
Bruins remember childhood skates on the pond as they prep for outdoor game by Eric Russo @erusso22 / BostonBruins.com
BOSTON - Patrice Bergeron remembers it so well.
Throughout his childhood, the native of Ancienne, Lorette, Quebec, would take to the ponds near his home with his friends and his brother, Guillaume, skating for hours with only the clouds and the trees as a backdrop.
There were no screaming fans, no roof overhead, and no scoreboards or clocks limiting their ice time. Just the soothing sights and sounds of nature guiding them across the frozen sheet.
NHL Lake Tahoe event owes nod to Mystery, Alaska
League ice expert Craig assisted 1999 film, which helped spark outdoor hockey craze by Nicholas J. Cotsonika @cotsonika / NHL.com Columnist
STATELINE, Nev. Dan Craig looked at his pager one day in the late 1990s and saw the number for the NHL office in New York. As the League ice expert, he was in Washington for a game that night. Who needed him, he wondered, and what about?
When he phoned in to the office, Craig was told Howard Baldwin wanted to speak with him. Baldwin was a part-owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins at the time; he was also a movie producer. Craig called Baldwin in Los Angeles right away.
NHL Outdoors at Lake Tahoe connects with 1960 U.S. Olympic champion
McCartan helped Americans win hockey gold in nearby Squaw Valley by Nicholas J. Cotsonika @cotsonika / NHL.com Columnist
STATELINE, Nev. One of the greatest moments in United States hockey history happened near Lake Tahoe.
It was in Squaw Valley, California just northwest of the lake, a 40-mile drive from where the NHL Outdoors at Lake Tahoe will be held on the south shore this weekend where the United States won its first gold medal in hockey at the 1960 Olympics. It was the miracle before the Miracle on Ice in Lake Placid, New York, 20 years later.