Power outage at HP Pavilion cancels morning skates

The Detroit Red Wings and San Jose Sharks are on schedule to play Tuesday at HP Pavilion (10:30 p.m. ET, NHLN-US, NHLN-CA), despite a power outage that kept both teams from their scheduled morning skates.

A loss of power about 8:15 a.m. PT kept both teams off the ice for any formal practices, as the only lighting in the building was from limited auxiliary power.

The Sharks players certainly weren't disappointed to miss the skate. Dan Boyle jokingly told the team's website that he "needed a morning off so I had my buddies come in early and take care of business. And everybody loves me now."

Red Wings coach Mike Babcock told reporters Pavel Datsyuk believes Nicklas Lidstrom took a cue from baseball movie "Bull Durham" and caused the delay. In the film, Kevin Costner's character turned on the sprinklers at an opposing field, which ran overnight and caused a rain delay the next day.

"Pavel is convinced that just like in 'Bull Durham,' Nick (Lidstrom) got into the building and got the skate canceled and he couldn't be happier," Babcock said. "So every once in a while you get lucky as a player. You win the lottery, you don't have to get out there."

The NHL expects the game will be played, and David Pollak of the San Jose Mercury News reported the only way the ice could be affected is if the power remained completely out for 6-8 hours. Emergency power is keeping the arena dimly lit as crews work to solve the problem.

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