Kings, Ducks to play at Dodger Stadium in January
The Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks will faceoff at Dodger Stadium Jan. 25 in the first outdoor hockey game in California,the National Hockey League announced today.
The game will also be the first outdoor regular-season NHL game playedin the United States west of the Mississippi River and the southern-most NHLoutdoor game ever, according to the league.
“This will be a sporting event like no other that has ever been seen inSouthern California,” said Kings President, Business Operations LucRobitaille.
Ticket information for season ticket holders of both teams will bereleased shortly. Fans interested in receiving more information on ticketing,news and special offers around the game should register at NHL.com/2014LosAngeles.
The rink will be laid out from first base to third base, like inprevious outdoor games at baseball stadiums, according to Dan Craig, the NHL’ssenior director of facilities operations.
To accommodate its outdoor games, the NHL designed and built a one-of-a-kind mobile refrigeration unit and rink system, which includes custom-made aluminum trays that are configured on the field of the stadium.
Conventional tap water is used for the ice, which is 2 inches thick,compared to approximately 1-1.25 inches for arenas, to help withstand theelements, Craig said.
Hockey will join motocross racing, a 1963 boxing card best rememberedfor the death of former featherweight champion Davey Moore, a 1964 HarlemGlobetrotters basketball game and a 1963 ski jumping exhibition as other sportsbesides baseball to have been played at Dodger Stadium.
The game will be part of the previously announced 2014 Coors Light NHLStadium Series, a group of games planned for outdoor locations next season,including Soldier Field in Chicago.
The first NHL regular-season outdoor game was played in 2003, when theEdmonton Oilers played host to the Montreal Canadiens at Commonwealth Stadium.
Since 2008, the NHL has annually played its Winter Classic on New Year’sDay — or Jan. 2 when New Year’s Day fell on a Sunday — in such outdoorvenues as Boston’s Fenway Park and Chicago’s Wrigley Field.
The first Winter Classic, played on New Year’s Day 2008 in Ralph WilsonStadium in Orchard Park, N.Y., drew 71,217 fans, the most for an NHL game.
The Kings defeated New York Rangers, 5-2, in an exhibition game playedon a temporary rink in the parking lot of Caesars Palace hotel in Las Vegas onSept. 27, 1991, in 85-degree weather.
