In the fall of 1991, the NHL held its first-ever outdoor game.
Not in Canada. Not in Minnesota. Not in Michigan.
It was in Las Vegas, of all places, right in a parking lot outside a casino.
Caesars World sports executive Rich Rose had been floating the concept for several years, first proposing an outdoor NHL game in the city in the late 1980s. Rose wanted to prove his casino could stage a major-league event nobody would expect to see in the desert, and the league’s marketing side saw the upside in a made-for-TV ratings spectacle.
As one would expect, many were skeptical of the idea, even after discussions with the league became serious. How do you keep ice frozen outside in the desert?
Nevertheless, the league was confident it could happen.
The game was scheduled for September 27, 1991, with the New York Rangers taking on Wayne Gretzky‘s Los Angeles Kings for a preseason exhibition game. The league’s two largest markets (and its biggest star) are playing outdoors in Las Vegas. Who wouldn’t be tuning in?
All that was left was actually pulling it off. “I just remember how hot it was outside and we are all just standing there thinking, ‘how is this going to be possible?’” Gretzky told The Athletic in 2018.
With temperatures typically hovering around 30°C (85°F), making it work needed some serious equipment. Roughly 300 tons of portable refrigeration were brought in, about three times what would usually be required. Crews sprayed approximately 20,000 to 25,000 gallons of water onto a base of insulation, vapour barriers, and refrigeration tubing laid directly over the parking lot. The surface was finished only days before the game.
Just a few hours before the game, a heat-reflecting shield that had been installed above the rink fell onto the ice, necessitating a refreeze of the entire surface. The blue line was laid into the ice using fabric rather than paint and began to separate during the game; crews patched it using liquid nitrogen. Still, the rink was able to pass inspection in time, and the game was given the green light to get underway only ten minutes later than originally scheduled.
“I do remember coming in early and seeing that they had a tarp about twenty feet above the ice,” Kings player Luc Robitaille said years later to LAKingsInsider.com. “They dropped the tarps on the ice. Those were black, and in that kind of weather, it started to melt it a little bit. Everybody panicked.”
Gretzky suited up while still working his way back from a back injury suffered during the off-season. “Had the game been in Los Angeles, I probably wouldn’t have played,” Gretzky said to The Athletic. “It was early in preseason, and there was [still the regular season and playoffs], so yeah, I probably wouldn’t have played that night if it hadn’t been in Las Vegas.”
As for the actual game, the Rangers were the first to the scoreboard with rookies Tony Amonte and Doug Weight each scoring, giving them a 2-0 lead after the first period.
No locker rooms in the parking lot meant players had to spend intermissions inside temporary tents behind the rink. With little separation between the two, players reported they could actually overhear the other team’s discussions from their own tent.
In the second period, the Kings stormed back with goals from Tony Granato, Brian Benning, and Sylvain Couturier to take a 3-2 lead into the second intermission.
And then, things took a turn nobody could’ve expected.
“I’ve been skating since I was four [years old] and I thought I’d seen everything on the ice until tonight,” Gretzky remarked during the post-game press conference.
“Well, what did you see?” followed up one of the reporters.
“Grasshoppers,” Gretzky responded.
Yes, grasshoppers.
The massive temporary lights around the rink did what bright lights in the desert night tend to do: they attracted curious winged locals.
At first, it wasn’t too bad, just a few grasshoppers hopping around the boards. But as the third period got underway, suddenly they were everywhere. Clinging to the ice. Fluttering through the air in players’ faces. Some of the more unlucky bugs ended up frozen to the surface, while others even drowned in small puddles of melted ice.
Rangers enforcer Tie Domi later joked that he tripped over one while on a breakaway.
“The bugs would literally go where it was white and do two jumps, and then they’d freeze,” Robitaille remembered.
Despite the insect invasion, the Kings kept scoring. Hall of Famers Jari Kurri, as well as Gretzky himself, capped the night off, sealing a 5-2 Los Angeles win. Rangers goalie John Vanbiesbrouck stayed in the net for the entire game, later mentioning how dehydration in the hot, dry conditions had forced him to watch his energy levels much more than usual.
When the final horn sounded, players walked off to their hotels still in uniform, with grasshoppers scattered across the ice behind them. Vegas, baby.
“We were a little stunned, and I’m sure the Rangers were too,” said Gretzky after the game. “We kept looking at each other and couldn’t believe we were playing hockey in 30-degree weather. But it was a lot of fun.”
“We loved it in Vegas,” Robitaille recalled. “When we played the game, I remember there was such a vibe in the stands. It was loud. It was a fun game to play.”
For over a decade, this was it. The NHL didn’t schedule another outdoor game until the Edmonton Oilers met the Montreal Canadiens for the inaugural Heritage Classic at Edmonton a dozen years later in 2003. The Winter Classic became an annual outdoor event starting in 2008, and the Stadium Series joined the party in 2014.
Las Vegas, meanwhile, stayed on the league’s radar. The Kings began hosting the Frozen Fury preseason series there in 1997. The NHL moved its awards show to the city in 2009. In 2017, the league made it official with the expansion Vegas Golden Knights. The Washington Capitals clinched the Stanley Cup in Las Vegas in 2018. The Golden Knights won their own in 2023.
Thirty-five years later, the Rangers are heading back outside yet again, their sixth outdoor game since their trip to Las Vegas. This time, they’ll be outside in Miami for a Winter Classic showdown with the Florida Panthers. Much like Vegas, the palm trees are still there, the setting is perhaps a little unusual, but the ice (and hopefully the insects) should be much better.
