AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. — The snowstorm that hit Colorado on Thursday offered the right backdrop for the NHL and the Air Drive Academy to advertise the Stadium Collection occasion to be held at Falcon Stadium on Feb. 15.
The matchup between the Los Angeles Kings and Colorado Avalanche is the second outside NHL recreation to be performed in Colorado. The Avalanche and Detroit Crimson Wings performed at Coors Area on Feb. 27, 2016, in balmy temperatures when it was 65 levels in the beginning of Detroit’s 5-Three win.
This week, temperatures in Denver and Colorado Springs had been within the 20s with a powerful snowstorm hitting the world, giving the NHL’s information convention a wintry really feel.
“If at the moment’s climate is like this in February, I’ve little question that the sport we play right here at Falcon Stadium between the Avalanche and Kings goes to be nothing wanting superior,” commissioner Gary Bettman mentioned.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman (AP Picture/Ted S. Warren, File)
Bettman was joined by Avalanche government vice-president and basic supervisor Joe Sakic and Kings president Luc Robitaille at Falcon Stadium. The information convention was initially scheduled to be held on the sector however was moved inside as a result of climate.
The February recreation will mark the second time the NHL has performed a regular-season outside recreation at a U.S. service academy. The Toronto Maple Leafs and Washington Capitals performed at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium on the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, on March Three, 2018.
The Air Drive Academy is roughly 60 miles south of the Denver metro space and sits at 6,621 ft, 1,000 ft greater than Coors Area.
Sakic, who helped lead the Avalanche to 2 Stanley Cup titles in his Corridor of Fame profession, mentioned the gamers are trying ahead to taking part in at Falcon Stadium
“The primary one at Coors Area was a smashing success and we all know right here on the iconic Falcon Stadium it’s going to be an unbelievable expertise for everyone,” he mentioned. “I wasn’t capable of play in one in every of these as a participant, solely an alumni recreation a number of years in the past, however I can communicate on behalf of the gamers, it is a recreation that’s been circled for a very long time. We all know there’s a number of video games earlier than it but it surely’s the one recreation that each single participant appears to be like ahead to.”
This would be the third time the Kings have performed an outside recreation. They hosted Anaheim within the first Stadium Collection recreation at Dodger Stadium on Jan. 25, 2014. By then outside video games had turn out to be a typical with the NHL’s Heritage Basic and Winter Basic collection.
There have been 27 outside video games, beginning when Montreal and Edmonton performed within the first Heritage Basic on Nov. 22, 2003. Three extra outside video games are scheduled for this season. Winnipeg will host Calgary in a Heritage Basic recreation on Oct. 26 and Nashville and Dallas will play within the Winter Basic on the Cotton Bowl in Dallas on Jan. 1.
“These marquee occasions, when your group is part of it, you are feeling prefer it’s one thing very particular,” Robitaille mentioned.
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