After just one game Cheap Josh Allen Jersey , it’s already clear this Stanley Cup Final is on thin ice. Thin, patchy, slushy, rut-riddled ice.

The Vegas Golden Knights have shocked the sporting world by playing for a championship in their inaugural season. But their incredible playoff run has taken them straight into summer in the Mojave Desert, where temperatures routinely soar past 100 degrees from May to October.

With sizzling heat outside and a frenzied sellout crowd inside, T-Mobile Arena’s ice melted into an inconsistent playing surface for the Golden Knights and the Washington Capitals in the series opener.

Despite constant sprucing from attendants during timeouts Chase Edmonds Color Rush Jersey , both teams chased the puck through dozens of weird bounces and unpredictable slides while Vegas rallied for a 6-4 victory.

”It was pretty bad,” Washington forward Jay Beagle said. ”It’s so hot outside, so it’s not like it’s a surprise.”

And it’s about to get worse: The mercury on the Strip could hit triple digits Wednesday for Game 2, when the league is likely to see its hottest outdoor temperature ever recorded at a Final game.

But before any Canadians develop heatstroke at the prospect of their national game being played in a Nevada swimming pool, players on both teams were eager to make it clear the Vegas ice is absolutely playable.

”It’s the same for both teams, which is why it doesn’t matter Nathan Shepherd Color Rush Jersey ,” Vegas forward James Neal said. ”It’s still the same game for everybody. Of course, everybody would like to play on perfect ice, but that doesn’t happen at this time of year.”

Middling ice quality can be a fact of life year-round in NHL rinks, particularly for the Sun Belt teams from Anaheim to Miami, yet their players still thrive. It’s common to see ice deterioration in rinks at various latitudes when temperatures rise while the NHL playoffs roll through spring.

The Capitals are well aware they won’t skate onto a pristine Nordic pond when they return to Capital One Arena for Game 3 on Saturday – not with 85-degree temperatures and 70-percent humidity in the Washington forecast.

”It’s probably the time of the year where it’s pretty hard to keep the ice fresh,” Washington forward Evgeny Kuznetsov said. ”But both teams play on the same ice.”

Both coaches used the Vegas ice quality to emphasize points in their game plan that would probably be important on any surface. Washington’s Barry Trotz and Vegas’ Gerard Gallant want a north-south approach with crisp passes Kalen Ballage Color Rush Jersey , minimal puck-handling and no turnovers.

It’s all easier said than done when the puck refuses to behave.

”The pucks were bouncing pretty good,” Trotz said. ”Unfortunately, the ice wasn’t great. There was a lot of chaos.”

Dan Craig, the NHL official responsible for masterminding and maintaining the temporary ice sheets at outdoor games across the continent, has been working on the Vegas ice with the in-house crew. The sheet only went down one day before the series opener because T-Mobile had a Pink concert booked Saturday night – again, something that happens in playoff rinks all the time.

Gallant hopes the ice will be more consistent after two more days to set up. Most of the Capitals reported better conditions during practice at T-Mobile on Tuesday – although the arena also wasn’t filled with more than 18 http://www.brownsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-chad-thomas-jersey ,575 screaming, sweating people.

”I don’t know if it was the empty building or – just like everything – it needs to cure a bit, but I thought it was really good (at practice),” Trotz said. ”So hopefully, that will help both teams.”

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More Stanley Cup coverage:

Carlos Santana says this is the era of prolonged excellence, which is why these NBA Finals featuring LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers against Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors is so appealing to him.

The 10-time Grammy winner and three-time Latin Grammy winner appeared on the “PodcastOne Sports Now” show to talk about how he enjoys being part of the NBA Finals. Santana and his wife Cindy Blackman Santana spoke to guest host Tim Reynolds before they performed ”The Star-Spangled Banner” at Game 2 of the series.

There’s a ton of talk about the intersection between sports and politics http://www.chargersauthorizedshops.com/authentic-derwin-james-jersey , especially after the Philadelphia Eagles’ trip to the White House was called off. Skidmore College coach and former Navy assistant Joe Burke joins the show to break down what it means to players to represent the flag the right way.


Warriors center JaVale McGee also stops by the show, talking about how being part of Golden State has changed him as both a player and a person.

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