Chicago’s United Center is one of the NHL’s oldest buildings. And no different than any home or office, things can go wonky as an arena ages.

This might explain a brief blackout Monday night when the Blackhawks played the Utah Mammoth in Chicago.

The United Center went dark for about four seconds of real time late in the opening period. The outage occurred with 5:57 remaining in the first period, as Chicago forward Jason Dickinson gained control of the puck in his team’s zone. Play was whistled dead at 5:56, but it resumed once the lights were restored.

The Blackhawks did not respond to a request for comment about the cause of the outage.

The lights went out mid-play at the United Center 😂🔦 pic.twitter.com/ZuSEckGDcQ

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) October 14, 2025

Power outages are not uncommon in NHL games. There was a malfunction inside Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center last season in a game between the Flyers and Tampa Bay Lightning on March 13.

“During the first period, we had a transformer on the event level that burned up. Don’t know why,” Wells Fargo Center president Phil Laws said then. “External, something inside the building. Electrical crews have removed that from the system that allows us to turn the power on that we lost briefly, and right now, going around restoring the systems, starting with the game-critical ones.”

Like the United Center in Chicago, Philadelphia’s arena opened in the 1990s. Ageism isn’t really a thing when it comes to arenas, but it’s also true that the most well-known blackout in NHL history occurred in what was at the time one of the league’s oldest buildings.

The most infamous example of an in-game blackout dates to the 1988 Stanley Cup Final. Holding a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series, the Edmonton Oilers and Boston Bruins were tied, 3-3, in Game 4 at Boston Garden. The building went dark in the second period; play was halted, then suspended.

A blown transformer was blamed for the incident.

The NHL did not replay the game. Instead, the series shifted to Edmonton for Game 5, as the NHL decided only to stage a Game 4 in Boston at the end of the Cup Final if the Oilers dropped the next three games. Almost four decades later, the decision still confounds. This is how then-NHL president John Ziegler rationalized it:

“If for any cause, beyond the control of the club, a playoff game should be unfinished, such game shall be replayed in its entirety at the end of the series, if necessary,” he said to reporters at the time.

“And it shall be played in the rink in which the unfinished game occurred.”

The Oilers clinched the series in the next game in Edmonton, giving them a sweep in five games because Game 4 was deemed canceled. That was the Oilers’ fourth Cup win of the 1980s and Wayne Gretzky’s last game with Edmonton. He was traded to the Los Angeles Kings in the ensuing offseason.

Gretzky’s shocking departure did not turn out the lights on the Oilers’ dynasty, though déjà vu was the feeling a couple of years later when Boston Garden went dark during Game 1 of a Cup Final rematch between the Bruins and Oilers. Play was halted for 25 minutes with the score tied 2-2 in the third overtime. Once power was restored, the game finished on a goal from Edmonton’s Petr Klima. The Oilers won that series to claim their fifth and most recent Stanley Cup title.

After action resumed in Chicago on Monday night, the Blackhawks delivered new coach Jeff Blashill his first victory with the franchise. André Burakovsky’s power-play goal in the third period was the difference in a 3-1 win over the Mammoth.