By Ty Anderson, 985TheSportsHub.com
The nationally-televised Feb. 21 game between the Boston Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers will be more than an NHL on NBC tilt.
In fact, it’ll be yet another outdoor tilt between the Bruins and Flyers, according to a new report from Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. But it will not be at Fenway Park like it was when these teams took things outside in 2010. Or at Gillette Stadium or Harvard Stadium. Or in Massachusetts or Pennsylvania for that matter.
The venue? Lake Tahoe.
“According to multiple sources, the NHL is beginning its Mystery, Alaska experiment, with four teams as part of a unique two-game, two-day ‘Outdoor Weekend’ showcase at Lake Tahoe,” Friedman wrote. “Edgewood Tahoe Resort, home of the popular celebrity golf tournament, is hosting these games, which will be played around the 16th, 17th and 18th holes.”
The showcase will begin with an Avalanche-Golden Knights head-to-head the day before Boston’s meeting with the Flyers, per Friedman.
Well, that’s certainly an off the board pick for the league.
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, NEVADA – JULY 12: Aerial view over Edgewood Tahoe South course during the final round of the American Century Championship on July 12, 2020 in South Lake Tahoe, Nevada. (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
According to Friedman, this game will not have fans in attendance, but will have about 400 people on-site in total. Friedman described that crowd as “the teams’ traveling parties and whoever is needed to work.” He also noted that the venue will allow the league to take a dip into some unusual perspectives from a broadcast standpoint via drone cameras.
This is obviously more designed for TV than the fans, of course, and with this being a made-for-TV event, you’d have to think that the financial burden on the teams involved is minimal, which was an issue when it came to hosting outdoor games in Boston this season, according to Bruins president Cam Neely.
“We looked at it and really unless you can get a certain number of fans in a building it didn’t really seem to make sense financially,” Neely said last month. “It’s a big undertaking getting the system outdoors to play on, so we looked at it hard, but it looked like it was the best course for us to stick to playing at the TD Garden for now.”
That was until the league came calling and dropped the Bruins for a one-off in Lake Tahoe, anyway.
This will be the B’s fourth outdoor game since 2010, and first since the 2019 Winter Classic at Notre Dame Stadium.
