You don’t often wonder how the weather will affect a hockey game at TD Garden, but it’s not often that the Bruins are playing hockey in late June.
With temperatures in Boston exceeding 90 degrees on Monday (and the humidity making it feel about 500 degrees), the Bruins and Blackhawks are preparing to play on what’s expected to be a soft and chippy ice surface during Game 6. During morning skate, the teams worked out through a layer of fog on the surface, reminding many New England hockey fans of the B’s 1988 Stanley Cup Final at the old Boston Garden.
“It wasn’t bad. We’ll skate around it if it gets foggy,” center Chris Kelly said. “I don’t think the ice works in anyone’s favor when it gets bad.”
“I thought the ice this morning was in pretty good shape, and they’ve done a good job,” head coach Claude Julien told the press on Monday. “Walking in here [Sunday] with 90-plus degrees it was nice and cool in the arena. But those doors are going to open I would imagine and some of the heat will come in. But those are conditions that you have to play with at this time of year. Everybody has been through it, and two teams are going through the same conditions. Both teams are going to tell you the same truth; keep the game simple and try and avoid those mistakes from overhandling pucks in those kind of ice conditions.”
Check out a video of the foggy morning skate by clicking here.
