More NHL Playoffs: | | | | |Outdoor hockey in Los Angeles is about as good an idea as expanding the NHL by putting a team in Mexico City. They just don't seem to fit. After all, ice and the sunny warmth of Southern California don't seem very compatible.However, the NHL wouldn't be dumb enough to have an outdoor game in LA if it weren't confident it could be pulled off. At least I don't think the NHL is that dumb.The trick to being able to have the host the at Dodger Shaun Anderson Jersey Stadium will . Normally used to keep things warm, these insulated blankets will be used to keep the ice cold during the day while the rink is being built. They are designed to reflect the sun's rays. When the sun goes down the blankets come off, and the ice is made. Even though the heat is obviously still an i sue. At night, though, the temps drop quite a bit when the sun goes down, so that's when all the work will be done. A little unusual but a nece sity, and a minor inconvenience for Dan Craig and his ice-making staff."What I'm anticipating to happen now is we would probably arrive at the stadium at 5 because I'm anticipating the sun will be off the rink by that time," Craig said ( ). "We will remove the blankets, which will probably take about an hour, and we will start our flooding or spraying the water and building ice probably around 6 o'clock at night and work until 6 o'clock in the morning. It will take an hour for the last spray to set and then we'll put the blankets back on and everybody will go to bed. We can't risk doing it any other way."It will create some awkward sleeping schedules for the ice-makers, but all in all, it shouldn't be a logistical nightmare unle s there is rain. Thankfully, LA doesn't get much of that, so things have the potential to go relatively smoothly -- smooth referring to the entire operation and the final ice as well.As long as the weather isn't unseasonably hot in the evening, the ice should hold up fine during the game. Think about the temperature an average NHL arena is kept at during a game. It's not in the 30s, that's for sure. If the temps are in the low 50s or the 40s, that should be more than adequate enough since they will be able to build a good sheet the days before with the help of these blankets and graveyard shift hours. If it goes off without a hitch the way they hope, you can expect that the outdoor craze will continue and not be limited to just teams in cold cities. Graham Pauley Jersey