Ice capades

 Maybe they shouldn't have waited so long. Or maybe they should have waited longer.

Both are correct now that the National Hockey League has tied NASCAR for Most Dragged-Out Sporting Event of 2021, although the NHL probably doesn't see that as any sort of achievement. But, hey. You take what you can get these days.

And so six days after NASCAR stubbornly refused to bow to the weather, waiting out six hours of rainstorms and finishing the Daytona 500, which began on Sunday, on Monday, the NHL followed suit. Its outdoor game at Lake Tahoe -- a gorgeous setting to be sure -- was delayed eight hours, on account of ice melts in direct sunlight.

There was plenty of the latter when the game got underway a little after noon local time, and so the ice, well, melted. Turned to soft rut-carved slush as players and game officials tripped and stumbled and went sprawling in a comic opera whose appropriate score could only have been "Yakety Sax."

After one period of this, NHL commish Gary Bettman pulled the plug. The Las Vegas Golden Knights and Colorado Avalanche left the ice and didn't return until night had fallen, after which the Avalanche won 3-2.

So, yes, they should have waited for nightfall to start the game to begin with, And that's because they shouldn't have waited so long to play their outdoor games.

You can begin to see why every day now, as winter leans toward its last month. It's not yet spring, but on a sunny late-February afternoon, you can to hear its whispers. The sun's subtly different, more direct. There is more punch to it. In Indiana, you walk outside at 7 p.m. and there's still light in the sky.

That's when you know spring is coming, no matter how deep in the icebox we remain.

I've seen this for a week now, looking out at a landscape buried under 15 or so inches of snow. If there is a film of snow or frost on the driveway, it's gone as soon as the sun rises high enough to find it. By mid-afternoon or so, even if  it's in the low 20s, it's gone and the pavement is dry.

First thing I thought of when I saw the news from Tahoe. How could they wait so late in the winter to play an outdoor game?

The Blob has long believed no NHL outdoor game should be played in or around cities that don't actually have winter, and it sticks with it. In fact, if the Blob ran the world, no outdoor game would be played anywhere but an Original Six city. If you're going to give a throwback nod to the origins of the game, then go all the way with it. Hell, play on an actual pond, for that matter.

Of course, I'm well aware this is 2021 and product promotion is all for professional sports, so the aforementioned is never going to happen. So file it under Old Man Shouts At Clouds Again.

Still ... hockey in late February at an elevation where the sun's light is more intense is not the sort of idea anyone with an ounce of sense thinks is a winning play. Then again ...

Then again, it is the NHL. Ounces of sense are a rare commodity there.