Not normally does this situation happen, but with 9:12 left in the second period of the game between the New Jersey Devils and Tampa Bay Lightning, the lights in the Prudential Center in Newark went out. The game was subsequentially postponed and according to the NHL will be rescheduled to resume where it left off. This is the first time a game has been postponed to be played at a later date since the Nashville Predators/Detroit Red Wings game on November 22, 2005.
Tampa Bay vs. New Jersey: The Lights Go Out In Newark
Our Devils site In Lou We Trust has great coverage of the whole situation. Writer John Fischer was at the game and had this to say about how the Devils organization handled the situation inside the Prudential Center:
I can’t blame the Devils for what happened with the lights. I can and will blame them for is keeping the fans at the Rock totally in the dark on the situation. Only two announcements were made: first for the players going to the locker room until the issue was resolved and the one for the postponement, which everyone who stayed figured out when the staff removed the goals and sticks from the benches. Those who stayed for the whole two hours were understandably upset. The many who left prior to that were understandably upset. Even a few morons threw their free hats (and one plastic bottle) on the ice to the only cheers within those hours. I heard some of them say they won’t come back. With garbage like that, I won’t miss them (Aside: Do they throw trash on a baseball field of rain postpones a game? Whatever).The total delay for the situation was around two hours and John is right in this situation that two announcements in two hours is not right for the fans at the Rock. While those fans will most likely get to see the end of the game at a later date, keeping fans there for two hours without much of an update is brutal for an organization.
Both of these teams have to travel for Saturday night games as New Jersey will head up to Montreal and Tampa Bay will head up Philadelphia. NHL Network’s On The Fly show mentioned that the two best dates for a reschedule would most likely be January 11th and April 5th.
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