The NHL held 32 recent games outdoors, but Saturday’s game between the Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues may be the coldest yet, with sub-zero temperatures expected.
Saturday’s high should only be -2 degrees, but it will be much cooler when the game starts at 7 PM EST with a freezing temperature of -5 degrees and cold winds hovering around -20 degrees.
So much so that the National Hockey League says that even the ice will need to be heated up.
“When the air temperature is above the optimum ice temperature, the glycol and aluminum pools transfer heat away from the ice. But when the air temperature is below the optimum ice temperature, they transfer heat to the ice,” NHL.com said.
“The NHL used a custom-made indoor heater before to heat the glycol in the tubes on the way to the floor, but here it will use two inline heaters for the first time, one in the refrigerated truck and one outside. The crew can calibrate the temperature to half a degree.”
The NHL says it plans to reschedule those games for later in the season when “canada attendance restrictions may be relaxed or lifted.”
The NHL also postponed the New Yorkers’ road game against the Seattle Kraken scheduled for January 4 after the three Canadian stations on the Islanders’ road trip were scratched.
A total of 91 NHL games have been postponed this season due to Covid-19 issues.
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