Here's why the NHL is coming to Tahoe in the middle of a pandemic

In the winter, the Tahoe region is known more for its skiing than its ice. The lake is more than 1,600 feet deep and never freezes over. Occasionally, conditions might line up — with temperatures below freezing but high pressure to keep the mountains dry — that smaller alpine lakes in the mountains freeze for backcountry ice skating adventures. In most years, though, all the frozen lakes are buried beneath feet of snow. It’s just rare to see anything resembling hockey in Tahoe, beyond the local broomball league.

CJ Storey is one of those hockey fans stowing away in Tahoe. He works at the ice skating rink at Edgewood, the hotel and resort in South Tahoe that’s hosting the two NHL games scheduled for Feb. 20 and Feb. 21. Storey told SFGATE he’s played hockey for 15 years. He first heard about the NHL coming to his workplace on social media, when a couple friends tagged him in posts.

“I was like, dang,” Storey says, a bit deadpan. “It’s pretty sweet.”

Siobhan Fajayan, director of marketing and sales for Edgewood, said the arrangement to host the NHL took shape quickly. Edgewood is a luxury resort on the Nevada side of South Lake Tahoe with a lakefront golf course that in theory makes for an ideal hockey rink location. But Edgewood has never before hosted a professional hockey game.

“Our team is definitely honored to be selected to be the host property,” Fajayan said.

The outdoor games are part of a longstanding NHL tradition.

Normally, these games are held in big stadiums, said Steve Mayer, chief content officer for the NHL. Because of the pandemic, fans will not be allowed at the two outdoor games, which showcase the Colorado Avalanche against the Las Vegas Golden Knights and the Philadelphia Flyers against the Boston Bruins.

Without the need to seat thousands of fans, the NHL took the opportunity to consider unusual locations. Other spots were considered, but Tahoe rose to the top.

“When we were looking at where would be the best fit for a game like this, you close your eyes and you see a breathtaking vista that involves trees and forest and a lake and mountains, and the beautiful picturesque area that surrounds all of that,” Mayer said in an interview with SFGATE. “We really narrowed it down. There aren’t too many places that check all those boxes. Tahoe was one of them.”

Edgewood has the views of the mountains and the lake. It has the pine trees that surround an ideal spot to build an ice rink. For more than 30 years, Edgewood has hosted a celebrity golf tournament called the American Century Classic on its lakefront golf course. At the 18th hole, golfers take their swing against a backdrop of blue mountains and water.

In February, pro hockey players will be skating up to the center of a rink built on that same 18th hole.

“We desperately want our fans back. We miss them terribly. It’s different without fans. But in the world we’re living in, the goal is to be as secure and as safe as possible,” Mayer said. “The Edgewood resort allows us to do that.”

The building of the rink will start in the early part of February. According to the NHL, a “mobile refrigeration unit and rink system” will be hauled onto the golf course to make a sheet of ice. The NHL uses glycol coolant to regulate the rink’s surface temperature. Water is added slowly, until the ice is 1 to 2 inches thick. Each inch of ice requires about 10,000 gallons of water.

Although Tahoe is a land of weather extremes — it could be 60 degrees, it could be snowing 10 feet — Mayer said the NHL is ready for all of the elements.

“We’ve seen it all. Sun, rain, snow, blizzards,” Mayer said. Last year, the NHL ice crew built a rink in Dallas, Texas, when temperatures were in the 60s and 70s and the rink melted. Days before the game, the ice crew rebuilt the rink. Mayer is confident they’ll be able to do whatever it takes to make the rink perfect in Tahoe, too. “I don’t think there’s really anything that scares them,” he continued. “We are very, very aware of what’s going on in Lake Tahoe and what is to come in the next month. We’ll work around it no problem.”

Tahoe has hosted its share of large sporting events, from the 1960 Winter Olympics to the more recent Amgen Tour of California. The NHL, though, was not something Tahoe tourism officials had really considered, says Carol Chaplin, president and CEO of the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority. But when the opportunity presented itself, they jumped at the chance to make it happen.

“Suddenly, the NHL is coming to Lake Tahoe,” Chaplin says. “We couldn’t have made that up, actually.”

Hosting the NHL gives Tahoe the kind of exposure you simply can’t pay for, Chaplin said. NBC’s coverage will beam Tahoe onto televisions in completely new markets that could plant the seed for future destination visitors, a demographic that typically stays longer and spends more money.

Still, local residents in Tahoe have been overwhelmed by tourism in the pandemic, and some aren’t happy to see the NHL come.

“It’s not the act of playing hockey,” says Aaron Maffitt, a South Lake Tahoe resident. “It’s all the support that surrounds it, the transportation, the employees, the people traveling from out of town, again possibly bringing more infection to our town, you know?”

Court Leve, who lives in Truckee, says a hockey game in Tahoe could be a good thing — if we weren’t in a pandemic. He pointed out that state health officials have been telling Californians and Nevadans for months to stay at home and shut down businesses as COVID cases surge in both states.

“I think it has good intentions,” Leve says, “but I think a lot of people are really, really sick and tired of the inequity and hypocrisy of what’s going on.”

When the NHL announcement was made, the California side of Lake Tahoe was in a shutdown as part of the greater Sacramento region. Now, the region is in the purple tier of the state's reopening plan, with restrictions still in place for lodging, hotels, retailers and virtually every other business in the tourism industry. In Nevada, the rules for the pandemic are different, which is causing lots of confusion and frustration. Still, Nevada hotels, restaurants, bars and shops are all supposed to be limited to 25% capacity.

Mayer said the NHL has “stringent, strict protocol” in place for COVID-19.

“We’re going to have some very, very strong rules,” he said. “The safety and the health of everyone working this event is first and foremost. More than even the game. We realize the world we’re living in right now. We don’t see the numbers getting better, so we’re going to do everything we can to protect our environment.”

In Tahoe, the NHL bubble won’t be as consolidated as the league’s postseason “bubbles” from summer 2020. Players and staff with the NHL will not be staying at Edgewood, where the games will be played. Instead, they will be staying nearby at Harvey’s Lake Tahoe, a casino and hotel at Stateline. The NHL has blocked off one of the hotel’s towers, which will be closed to the public. The casino itself, however, will remain fully open — or as open as Nevada COVID standards allow.