Weather, pre game events, and more!
Today’s NHL Outdoor Classic Stadium Series weather for the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks looks to be partly cloudy with game start temperature of 65. It shouldn’t dip into the 50’s until after the game is over – giving nice SoCal Winter weather temperatures in the 60’s. The clouds should be clear by then – hopefully giving a nice moonlight reflection on the ice to accompany the Dodger Stadium lights.
After yesterday’s televised practice, the players seem happy with the conditions, as did Kings head coach Darryl Sutter, who was on the ice with his granddaughter. He had this to say about the atmosphere.
“Well, the atmosphere is pretty cool when you look at it.” Sutter told Fox Sports. “I was lucky to be here this afternoon when they were doing their rehearsing for their music and all that’s going to go on. We’re not going to get to see that, so that was good to see that. Obviously, just being at Dodger Stadium and part of this is pretty impressive.”
Anze Kopitar had this to say about the ice.
“The ice looks pretty good, maybe the glide is not quite there yet”
This is nothing to be alarming about and the players all had mostly positive things to say about playing on this type of setup and the work done to make this happen.
It’s hard to believe that this is all happening in Los Angeles in one of the most summer-like Winters many have seen in years. With all the effort put into keeping the ice perfect I believe the NHL hit a home run on picking LA!
Before the event there will be pre game festivities in the parking lot including music performances, another ice-skating rink and plenty of food and exclusive merchandise for the event. This all begins at 3:30pm when the doors open to Dodger Stadium. Inside their will be even more going on field wise with a volleyball court setup, mini pools in the outfield, a stage area where KISS will perform and much more.
This reporter will be there behind KISS in the right field bleachers watching the game and witnessing the largest hockey game in California history!
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