For the second straight season, the Los Angeles Kings will be playing hockey outdoors in California. After taking on the Ducks in a Stadium Series contest last year at Dodger Stadium, the reigning Stanley Cup champs will face the San Jose Sharks at Levi’s Stadium during the upcoming season.
The NHL confirmed the rumors on Wednesday via an article on the league’s website:
The San Jose Sharks will be the home team against the Los Angeles Kings at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara on Feb. 21, 2015 at 7 p.m. PT (10 p.m. ET) as part of the 2015 Coors Light NHL Stadium Series. The game will be broadcast by NBCSN and Hockey Night in Canada.
No two teams in the NHL have played against each other more than the Sharks and Kings have since the start of the 2010-11 season. They have played 41 games, including the Stanley Cup Playoffs, in the past three seasons, highlighted by seven-game series in each of the past two postseasons.
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“The growing excitement around NHL hockey in California hockey, the intensity of last season’s playoff series between these teams and the state-of-the-art setting at Levi’s Stadium will bring a thrilling new dimension to the Kings-Sharks rivalry,” NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said. “We thank the Sharks, the Kings, Coors Light, the San Francisco 49ers, Levi’s Stadium and everyone involved in producing the next episode of our Coors Light NHL Stadium Series.”
The game will mark the first time the Sharks have played an outdoor game as well as the first time Northern California has played host to an outdoor NHL game. Levi’s Stadium, which opened just days ago, is the new $1.2 billion home of the San Francisco 49ers and seats approximately 68,500 fans.
A game between two very talented teams in a gorgeous brand new venue? Not a bad first entry into the 2015 Stadium Series. The league is reportedly eyeing a total of four outdoor contests for next year’s Series, so it will be interesting to hear which other teams & venues land a game.
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