Avs game in Tahoe postponed ’til 10 p.m.

My colleague, Scott “Mac Daddy” MacDonald is running on fumes, after getting no sleep en route to Lake Tahoe, and facing likely another sleepless night and quick turnaround to Denver in the morning. If you missed his entertaining first travel diary, it’s here. So, I’m going to make a quick post here and remind Avs fans: the game with Vegas today completed the first period before officials, including Gary Bettman on the scene, decided to continue the game at 10 p.m. mountain tonight because of poor ice conditions.

The Avs will go into the second period with a 1-0 lead on the strength of Sam Girard’s first-period goal – his second in outdoor games since last year.

The Avs will have three seconds left on a 5-on-3 power-play advantage to start the second. They frittered away a lengthy 5-on-3 before the whistle blew after the first. That’s what has me most worried about the actual game. If you blow a chance on a 5-on-3, it always seems to come back and bite you in the end.

The Avs really played well otherwise in the period, vastly outshooting the Golden Knights and limiting chances at the other end. Not only did Girard return to the lineup, but so did Cale Makar, Gabe Landeskog, Tyson Jost and Matt Calvert.

The scenery was/is just spectacular, but the ice just was too choppy and slushy to keep playing. It is hoped the cooler night time temperatures and continued ice maintenance from now ’til 10 will allow the game to finish. The game will be considered official, no matter what, after two periods. If there is a tie, it will go to a shootout – no OT.

The league is taking a lot of cheap and easy potshots from some holier-than-thou media. Screw them. It’s an outdoor game, stuff happens. The hockey media is very weird. If they’re not bashing the league for being too stale and staid in their approaches to everything, they are whining up a storm about something going wrong in an OUTDOOR GAME, where weather can affect anything at any time.

See you at 10…

More from the league on the decision to delay here.