Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Dodgers prez: Conditions ‘should be fine’ for Ducks-Kings outdoor game

Dodger Stadium

General view of Dodger Stadium as Dodger players warm up in left field and the grounds crew prepares the infield dirt and home plate area before the game between the Colorado Rockies and the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on August 27, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. (August 26, 2011 - Source: Jeff Golden/Getty Images North America)

Even though weather forecasts call for Saturday to be pretty warm, Stan Kasten isn’t worried about the ice conditions at Dodger Stadium.

“The NHL has supreme confidence in their ability to put the game on,” Kasten, the Dodgers’ president and CEO, told the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin. “I would have been concerned if the weather was going to be too cold, but in Michigan, even that’s not a problem.

“We should be fine.”

Here’s the upcoming forecast, courtesy Weather.com:

DodgerStadiumWeather

According to NHL ice guru Dan Craig, the important thing is to have temperatures at ice level stay at the 22-degree mark.

“That’s our focus, that’s what we want to be, that’s where we’ve always been,” Craig said. “The efficiency of the floor — I can tell you that it’s going to be 22, and the [ice-making] truck will be pushing at 20. Everybody says ‘well it’s 80 degrees outside.’ That’s how efficient that truck is.”

Puck drop is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. PT, which should help prevent sunlight from hitting the playing surface. The teams will also practice the evening prior to get a better feel for ice conditions, and one player -- Anaheim’s Saku Koivu -- already expressed optimism about the event being a success.

“It’s going to be even more special now with the weather,” Koivu said, per the L.A. Times. “Playing in California … I don’t think anyone ever thought it’d be possible to do here. It’s going to be a great experience.”