Nathan MacKinnon magic, 90s fashion, highlights from Lake Tahoe bonanza

From Nathan MacKinnon doing his thing to some great fashion throwbacks, it was quite the weekend for the NHL at the stunning Lake Tahoe.

Wow, what a couple of days outdoors it was for the NHL, who navigated some adversity in order to put on two pretty decent games on a beautiful outside rink with Lake Tahoe and its mountains providing a breathtaking backdrop. And we also got to witness some more brilliance from Nathan MacKinnon.

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Of course, a lot of the headlines concerning this weekend will focus on the fact that the league had to move the final two periods of the game between the Vegas Golden Knights and the Colorado Avalanche to midnight Eastern Time after the sun caused havoc with the ice, while the Boston Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers matchup was also pushed back a couple of times on Sunday.

However, those ragging on the NHL a lot are being a little bit too harsh. I mean, the forecast just got the better of them on Saturday but they adapted, they got the Avs and Golden Knights showdown finished, the game looked great under lights and the Bruins – Flyers contest on Sunday went incredibly smoothly on pretty decent ice while the scenery was stunning.

So, while some will choose to remember the NHL’s bold decision to stage two outdoor games at Lake Tahoe as a failure, I prefer to look back on this weekend as the league attempting to do something different and it largely paying off given some of the spectacles we were treated to.

I mean, we got two brilliant matchups, some sublime moments in both games and some jaw-dropping images that will last forever. It was a memorable weekend for sure, and we’re going to go over our favorite highlights and moments from the two days at Lake Tahoe. Let’s dive right in…

Nathan MacKinnon’s magic, highlights from the NHL’s weekend at Lake Tahoe

Bruins raise the fashion stakes

We were treated to great looks in the NHL all weekend with all four teams wearing their Reverse Retro uniforms, but the Boston Bruins took fashion to a whole new level when they arrived at the rink on Sunday.

Led by Captain Patrice Bergeron, the B’s decided to throw it back to the late 80’s and the early 90’s with their pre-game look and, boy, were the results something else. From neon track suits to fanny packs and David Pastrnak‘s pink goggles that he donned during warmups, the Bruins know how to go all in on a look.

I mean, the images of the players arriving in the brightest 90’s clothing imaginable will live on forever, and there wasn’t a bad look with players wearing rolled up jeans, retro Mighty Ducks jerseys and multi-colored ski jackets. Brad Marchand also took it to the next level with his own personal walkman.

This whole weekend was meant to be about giving the fans something different, something fun in what has been a tough and weird year, and the Boston Bruins certainly embraced that with their pre-game look, which was nearly as electric as their performance on the ice against the Philadelphia Flyers.

NHL deserves a lot of credit

As we delved into in the previous slide, the NHL took a lot of heat over the weekend for the chaos that unfolded on Saturday with the game between the Vegas Golden Knights and the Colorado Avalanche being delayed due to ice issues. The bright sun caused ruts to form in the ice and, with players and officials falling over, the decision was made to postpone the game until the evening.

That resulted in a more than eight hour wait between the first and second periods and, while the game was completed and it looked great under the lights at night, there are those who still continue to bash the NHL like it is a sport.

Now, going after the NHL can be easy sometimes given some of the mistakes they have committed, but they don’t deserve negative backlash for this weekend. I mean, we all know weather forecasts can change and you can argue that maybe the games should have been played at night anyway, but the whole point of this weekend was to put on a scenic and breathtaking two days of hockey.

The league certainly achieved that mission even with the problems they encountered on Saturday, and they managed to repair the ice, get the necessary lighting and finish the game between the Avs and the Golden Knights and it was a pretty good spectacle.

They also moved the Boston Bruins and the Philadelphia Flyers game a few times on Sunday and it turned out to be perfect, with the two teams battling it out against a beautiful backdrop with the sunlight glaring off the lake in the first period, the sky a beautiful shade of yellow, orange and blue in the second and the third being played under the lights in a romantic throwback to when you would play hockey with your friends out on a frozen lake at night.

So, while the weekend didn’t go smoothly and there were problems along the way, the two games were still pretty impressive spectacles and the overall quality of the matchups were very entertaining, especially Sunday’s, and I would say these were the most breathtaking outdoor events put on by the NHL, who at least showed some initiative to try something different this year and they deserve credit for that.

Special Moment for Trent Frederic

There is never a bad time to score your first career goal in the National Hockey League, but you couldn’t have timed it any more perfectly than Boston Bruins forward Trent Frederic did on Sunday night.

The 23-year-old has skated in 16 games for the B’s in 2020-21 but only had one point prior to Sunday, and had yet to record a goal in 33 career games in the NHL. However, all that changed yesterday and it was beautiful.

Skating in his first outdoors game would have been a pretty special moment for Frederic anyway, but he managed to pull something off that ensured this weekend at the beautiful Lake Tahoe will be a time he will never ever forget.

With the Boston Bruins leading 4-2 in the second period, it appeared to be pretty much game over and it almost was at 16:47 when Frederic got the puck, spun and then unleashed an absolute bomb of a shot past Philadelphia Flyers goalie Carter Hart to put the B’s firmly in the driving seat if they were not already.

It was one hell of way to record your first career goal in the National Hockey League, and it was even better considering that it came in a game the Boston Bruins absolutely dominated against an absolutely stunning and breathtaking backdrop. Sunday is a day that will be spoken about in the Frederic household for quite some time, that’s for sure.

Avalanche, Bruins the real deal

If there’s one thing we learned over the weekend at Lake Tahoe it was that the Colorado Avalanche and the Boston Bruins look the real deal in 2020-21. Okay, so saying we only discovered that this weekend is a bit of a stretch given how elite those two teams are, but you also have to consider who they were playing.

Let’s start with the Avs who absolutely dominated the Vegas Golden Knights from start to finish in Saturday’s game, outshooting them 39-29, and 17-8 in the first period, and the game never seemed that close.

Colorado just looked more ready to go from the first drop of the puck, and they also seemed more equipped once the game resumed more than eight hours later, and they have outplayed the Golden Knights in all three of their meetings so far this season.

Many hockey experts feel as though the Golden Knights, who are an absolutely loaded team in their own right, and the Avalanche will be the two heavyweights in the Western Conference for the foreseeable future, and the Avs proved on Saturday that, for now at least, they may well just have the edge given the abundance of talent they have at their disposal, led by elite stars in Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar.

Maybe Sunday’s outcome wasn’t as much of a surprise given that the Boston Bruins have been an elite team for years now, coupled with the fact that they had already beaten the Philadelphia Flyers in their previous four meetings prior to Sunday, dominating their East Division rivals in the majority of those games.

It was the same story on Sunday night despite it being a different venue as the B’s flexed their attacking muscles once again, with David Pastrnak’s 10th career hat trick, and his second of the year against the Flyers, spearheading the Bruins to a big, big 7-3 win.

They also got contributions from up and down the lineup with rising star defenseman Charlie McAvoy recording his second goal of the year, while Charlie Coyle, Trent Frederic and Nick Ritchie also lighting the lamp and the 11-3-2 Bruins look an absolute juggernaut right now.

And, while the Vegas Golden Knights are an elite team that will be a dangerous outfit in the postseason and the Philadelphia Flyers were missing six key players from their lineup, there is no doubt that we were treated to a tantalizing glimpse of just how dangerous the Colorado Avalanche and the Boston Bruins are when they are at the peak of their powers, which they both were on what was a memorable weekend in a beautiful location at Lake Tahoe.