Ice officially being removed from NHL arenas

This just in courtesy of Los Angeles Kings insider John Hoven, the Kings have reportedly removed the ice from their home rink at Staples Center.

Check it out:

For what it’s worth, several other NHL teams have followed the Kings’ lead in removing their ice. Is this a sign of things to come? Could we be on the precipice of a cancelled 2019-20 NHL season? Well… maybe.

The fact is that NHL arena workers can produce NHL quality ice in a pretty condensed time-frame so it makes sense for arenas to have their ice removed at this time. With speculation that the NHL will be off for AT LEAST another month, it makes no sense for teams to pay for facilities that they won’t be using. If an ice crew can get a rink ready in a weekend, why have the ice sitting around unused for a month and a half?

Then again… maybe there’s more than meets the eye here. After all, it’s expected that NHL players will have some sort of “mini-camp” to participate in before jumping back into games, so they’ll need ice. 

Things that make you go, “Hmmmm….”