NHL Winter Classic (that outdoor hockey game in a football stadium)

Link to the Ice Rink being put together.


I know a lot of us here at clutchfans are HUGE HUGE HUGE NHL hockey fans, but this is pretty neat. They did this before in Edmonton, and it was chilly. They played at night, so that kinda sucked. It wasn't even aired on American television.

My take on this is at the bottom of the two articles.



Penguins at Sabres

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. - Brian Campbell gingerly stuck his skate onto the ice like a swimmer dipping his toe into a cold pool.

The Buffalo Sabres defenseman led his teammates onto the makeshift hockey rink for practice Monday and was none the worse for wear. The anticipation and the trepidation seemed to be gone after the team’s hourlong spin.

All that remained after months of hype is for the Sabres to play the Pittsburgh Penguins on New Year’s Day in the Winter Classic, the NHL’s first outdoor game in the United States.

“Once your face gets a little numb you feel fine,” Campbell said. “The ears were cold a little bit, maybe a little frostbite on them, but that’s all right.”

The Sabres and Penguins tried various methods — such as hand and feet warmers — and pieces of gear to combat the temperatures that hovered around freezing during each club’s only practice on a rink built in the middle of 70,000-plus seat Ralph Wilson Stadium, home to the NFL’s Buffalo Bills.

Sabres goalies Ryan Miller and Jocelyn Thibault each wore hats fashioned out of hockey socks on top of their masks. Penguins captain Sidney Crosby and several others went for hooded shirts that fit snugly over their ears and heads.

“I am still toying with the idea,” said Penguins forward Adam Hall, who along with Miller played an outdoor game while at Michigan State. “I don’t know if you ever get used to this stuff. It’s such a great event to be part of. There are so many factors, like the weather and the ice surface. You have to take each one as it comes.”

Thibault was happy with what he went out with and will be wearing his sock-hat again when his sits on the heated bench Tuesday, backing up Miller.

“It kept everything warm,” Thibault said. “It kept my thoughts warm. I need that.”

Any talk about the ice surface was positive, with many saying it was better than expected. Wind and sun glare also didn’t pose much of an issue, and players and NHL officials openly hoped for a bit of snow overnight and something light during the game.

The forecast called for a high temperature of 36 with an 80 percent chance of precipitation, whether it be rain or snow. A weather station inside the stadium showed a window should exist to get the game in once the puck drops shortly after 1 p.m.

Hopefully we’ll have roughly 80,000 people here, and hopefully a lot of people watching on TV,” Miller said. “Hopefully we’re all just kind of not aware of what’s going on. There’s a puck on the ice and you get to play.

“That’s the sign of a good hockey player, when you can go out there and be in the moment and play.”

The third period will be split in half to give each team equal time on both sides of the rink. Any wind that cropped up Monday seemed to blow toward the south end of the stadium, where the tunnel that leads to the dressing rooms is located.

As cold as it might be, it doesn’t compare to the brutal conditions of four years ago when the Montreal Canadiens beat the host Oilers in the Heritage Classic at Edmonton.

If a postponement is necessary, the game will be shifted to Wednesday and will be played under the lights.

“Once you’re out there, you bundle up and go out and play,” Penguins forward Ryan Malone said. “There’s nothing else to do but go out and play. That’s the best part. I can’t wait to get going.”

The sun peeked through the clouds at times, and was replaced by spurts of snow flurries. Professional players felt like they were kids again, skating around as their visible breath filled the chilly air.

None seemed too concerned or out of their element as they flew around and shot pucks into the brand new nets that were whiter than the snow that surrounded the outside of the boards.

Steam rose from the head of Penguins goalie Ty Conklin after he shifted from the ice to the warm dressing room.

“As a kid, you don’t really realize how cold you really are. You just go out there and play,” said Buffalo forward Jason Pominville, a Quebec native. “As you get older, the cold kind of gets to you.

“I’m not soft, I’m just trying to keep myself warm.”

Only a snowball’s throw away, Marv Levy stepped down as general manager of the Bills. Inside the stadium where he enjoyed his greatest coaching success, the Sabres and Penguins made sports feel like a game again instead of business.

“We’ve all played outside at some point and had a great time doing it,” Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said. “It brings you back a bit when you’re out there. It is a big stage. It is a big game. It’s a regular-season game, but at the same time, you don’t get this chance very often so you want to enjoy it.”

The Sabres come in on a three-game skid (0-2-1), including a 2-0 loss at Pittsburgh on Saturday in the first half of this most unusual home-and-home series. Buffalo, an Eastern Conference finalist the past two seasons, has 40 points through 37 games and is currently below the playoff cutoff.

The Penguins have played 38 games and have 42 points, good for seventh in the East and a third-place tie in the Atlantic Division.

“I know there is a lot of attention on this game,” Penguins coach Michel Therrien said, “but from our standpoint, we’ve got to win.”
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Scott Burnside from ESPN.com

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- As reporters got their first glimpse Sunday of the newly planted ice rink inside Ralph Wilson Stadium, they asked NHL ice guru Dan Craig and Don Renzulli, the NHL's senior vice president of events and entertainment, if there was a chance to relax a bit now that everything seemed on target for Tuesday.


"You want me to answer that?" Craig said. "There's no relaxing for the next 48 hours. None. Zero."


The same might be said for the entire league as it waits to see what will unfold in the coming hours heading into Tuesday's Winter Classic between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Buffalo Sabres, the first outdoor NHL regular-season game to be held in the United States.


Back in November 2003, when the NHL first held an outdoor regular-season game in Edmonton, the temperature plummeted as the evening game time approached, prompting some discussion about whether the game between the Canadiens and Oilers should have been played at all.


Players were so cold, some wore toques (then-Montreal netminder Jose Theodore being the most notable of the toque crowd). Trainers had hot soup and tea on the bench and players changed their long underwear between periods.


Montreal captain Saku Koivu recalled broiling on the bench (thanks to heaters installed behind the players), but then feeling frozen the instant he went over the boards, his eyes tearing up at the instant change in temperature. The coldness produced fogging visors that couldn't be rectified. Equipment that absorbed pucks and hits under normal conditions became brittle and unyielding in the cold.


Is that too much to ask for players to occasionally endure to produce the kind of spectacle that the Heritage Classic became and Tuesday's game aspires to be?


"Afterward, I only have great memories. But at the same time, I'm not sure I would want to do it again," Koivu told ESPN.com this week. "I think the experience was great, but it wasn't really an actual game. Thank goodness nobody got hurt in the game."


And that's what confronts the NHL in Round 2 of the outdoor extravaganza -- creating the carnival without seeing it devolve into a circus.


Coldness isn't likely to be an issue in Buffalo as it was in Edmonton, but there are other challenges and potential pitfalls.


The game is in the afternoon (1 p.m. ET pregame with puck drop at about 1:18), so the sun could be an issue with glare. Snow and/or rain could affect playing conditions. NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said on-ice officials will confer with league and players' association officials (new executive director Paul Kelly will be on site) during the game to determine if unscheduled stoppages in play need to be called to remove snow or excess water.



The NHL already has altered some of its procedures to ensure no team is unduly affected by the elements. Teams will switch ends at the midpoint of the third period to ensure no team has to play more against the wind. Overtime will likewise be split. If the game goes to a shootout, the goalies will have the choice of which end they will defend, so both netminders could share the same net.


Beyond that, the NHL has pulled out all the stops in ensuring the game gets maximum exposure.


NBC will broadcast the game and veteran broadcaster Bob Costas will host the show. The NHL also will stream live programming for the first time, including a pregame show from Ralph Wilson Stadium. The Sports Business Journal estimated that sales of Winter Classic gear could top $1 million at the game. Even The Weather Channel referred to the game this weekend when it was doing its national weather forecast and will broadcast live from the stadium Tuesday at 11 a.m.


The lead-up to the game suggests the stakes at play here for the league.


When the Heritage Classic was held in Edmonton, it was a gimmie. No American channel aired the game in the U.S.; so, even if it had been a flop, the public relations damage would have been minimal. The game was a huge hit in Canada and is considered a memorable moment for the sport and league, even if the game itself wasn't the stuff of legend.


This time around, though, the NHL will be trying to put its best face on a national stage against the possibility of chaos that is simply beyond human control.


At its best, with Sidney Crosby and Thomas Vanek and Maxim Afinogenov and Evgeni Malkin streaking down the ice with their breath hanging in the air and the noise of 73,000 fans rising into the winter skies, it should be breathtaking.


At its best, the game will pay homage to every kid who ever slid onto a frozen pond, prairie slough or backyard rink and imagined playing in the NHL.


At its best, the game will disprove the long-held notion that the NHL is run by closed-minded traditionalists who can't think outside the box and pave the way for more such events down the road.


"Well, it would be nice, certainly [if the game came off without a hitch]," Daly said. "Whenever you undertake an initiative like this, you do so knowing that there are variables that you can't control.


"Weather is always a big variable that you can't predict with any certainty, and at least 48 hours away, it looks like the weather is going to cooperate," Daly added. "So, we're hoping that things continue to go as well as we could have expected and hoped. I think people are pretty interested in the game, in the event, and that's good for hockey."


At its worst, if it pours rain, if there is a blizzard, if a player gets injured as a result of playing the game outdoors instead of down the road at HSBC Arena, then it will be the kind of black eye that will reinforce the widely held notion the NHL isn't quite "big league."


At its worst, the Winter Classic will make it difficult, if not impossible, to justify hosting such an event ever again.
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It's the Sabres vs the Penguins. I am not familiar with the people on the Sabres. I know the Penguins have Sidney Crosby who is suppose to be real talented. He is suppose to be the one carrying the Torch for the NHL.

I think it would be a neat spectacle. It's New Years Day, a holiday, Network tv on NBC. This is a chance for the NHL to step it up and maybe see if they can have the right to be called the big four again.

Too bad no one will watch it cause they are watching college football.

 

I'll watch too just for the curiosity level.


I think they also did this in Wisconsin and either Michigan or Michigan State did it.

 

I don't think anyone is on the move.

I wish we could have stolen the Penguins.


Sid Crosby is suppose to be the real deal, and I don't feel like watching shiity hockey. I have ****ty pro football, and ****ty nba basketball, and ****ty mlb baseball to watch.