Ice Hockey As God Intended

[Kace]

Penguins Vs. Sabres in the snow and ice of Orchard Park, outdoors. Oh, it's lovely. :)

[Ralphie the buffalo]

Some of the sightlines for the fans must be awful.

[Consider This]

I guess God didn't intend for anyone to be able to follow the puck. It's even harder to see than on telecasts of regular games.

[Kace]

Don't blame me for your lack of vision. ;) I had fun watchin' it. Sure beat those meaningless football games that were on today.

[Brooklyn]

I enjoyed it immensely as well, Kace. They did this several years back in Edmonton and, on the college level, in 2001 between Michigan State and Michigan. I hope they find a way to continue this every year in some cold weather venue (US or Canada) or another.

Definitely exciting to see it end the way it did as well. :cheers:

[Randy Steinman]

My favorite part was that the Buffalo goalie (Ryan Miller) wore different toques over his helmet/mask throughout the game.

He'll now auction off all the toques, with proceeds to charity.

Cool. :thumbsup:

[Brooklyn]

Yep. Very cool. While not going to charity, jerseys and such from the game are going to be on auction as well...

"The NHL-MeiGray Game-Worn Authentication Program is proud to announce that MeiGray will be authenticating the four sets of game jerseys, goal-scored and game-used pucks, and one set of pants shells that will be worn by the Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2008 AMP Energy Winter Classic at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Buffalo, N.Y, on New Year’s Day.

The Penguins and Sabres will be wearing retro style jerseys in this, the first outdoor NHL game ever played in the United States. Pittsburgh will be wearing powder blue jerseys with white and navy trim and circular Penguins crest that replicate the style the team wore in the early 1970s. Buffalo will be wearing white jerseys with blue and gold trim and the circular crossed swords and buffalo crest that replicate the style the Sabres wore from their inception in 1970-71 through 1995-96.

The teams will wear one set of jerseys in the pre-game warmup, and one set of jerseys in each of the three periods. All jerseys and pants shells worn in the game will be affixed with an individually numbered NHL-MGG Authentication Program security tag.

The jerseys worn in the second period, the pants shells worn throughout the game, and the game-used and goal-scored pucks collected and authenticated by an NHL-MGG authenticator at the game will be up for bid at auction.nhl.com (http://auction.nhl.com) beginning Thursday, Jan. 3 and ending Thursday, Jan. 17."

[Y2J]

I didn't care for the game stopping 10 minutes into the period to brush off the ice. If it snows, that's just part of the game (unless it was like an inch an hour or something crazy). Then again, I didn't watch much of the game because there was an important Michigan vs. Florida football game on.

Speaking of which, who's the brilliant scheduler who made this huge outdoor hockey game on the same day as all the bowl games? Someone needs to fire that guy. Not that the NHL gets big ratings to begin with, but really, when you're doing a big stunt like this to draw attention, do it on a weekend you can have the whole audience watching, huh?

I went to the Michigan vs. Michigan State "Cold War" and had a blast. Had like 15th row seats in the lower bowl. Same with the Ohio State vs. Wisconsin game at Lambeau Field. Neither of those games stopped midway through the period. Of course, it didn't snow at either, but still.

Not an outdoor game, but there are very preliminary talks of doing a double header at Ford Field in Detroit next December between Michigan vs. Michigan State and the Red Wings vs. Maple Leafs.

[Brooklyn]

Speaking of which, who's the brilliant scheduler who made this huge outdoor hockey game on the same day as all the bowl games? Someone needs to fire that guy. Not that the NHL gets big ratings to begin with, but really, when you're doing a big stunt like this to draw attention, do it on a weekend you can have the whole audience watching, huh?

I want to say that the NHL schedule was released first and then the idea, as well as the participants identified, came later.

Perhaps if they do make this an annual event in the NHL, it will be incorporated at the same time the schedule is drawn up. Get the teams and location first, then set the date.

My thought is that they figured New Year's Day would be good because, at the time they announced it back in September, I believe, it would have been at a time where the venue would have been open for use (setup and takedown as well) had the Bills ended up making the playoffs.

[Kace]

It also meant that somethin' worth watching would be on this afternoon, so it's all good. I really hope that they make it a New Year's Annual event.

[cinehead]

It's really cool. For any kid that's ever played hockey on a frozen pond, Kace is right, that's the way God intended hockey to be played. More cities should pick up on the trend for at least one game a year.

[New York'rr]

It was kinda clunky to play 4 periods (2 long, 2 short) instead of the standard three long ones. Had to make it fair.

[Kace]

That fairness surely backfired on the desperate sabs. ;)

[Lenticular]

Loved this game but...

...anybody else annoyed by the issues NBC had with their HD signal and occasional audio gaffs. At one point they lost the signal entirely and had to go with just telephone audio.

I've noticed this problem during cold NFL games. Is the equipment sensitive to the extreme cold?

[The Thrill]

Hell, Wisconsin and Ohio State did this last year...

...at Lambeau Field. Bucky Badger even did the Lambeau Leap. (http://youtube.com/watch?v=ACbUBnRSyq0)

[WalMartNation]

I didn't care for the game stopping 10 minutes into the period to brush off the ice. If it snows, that's just part of the game (unless it was like an inch an hour or something crazy). Then again, I didn't watch much of the game because there was an important Michigan vs. Florida football game on.

Speaking of which, who's the brilliant scheduler who made this huge outdoor hockey game on the same day as all the bowl games? Someone needs to fire that guy. Not that the NHL gets big ratings to begin with, but really, when you're doing a big stunt like this to draw attention, do it on a weekend you can have the whole audience watching, huh?

What? Were they supposed to schedule this on just another weekday night against the rest of the NHL schedule or NBA games? New Years Day morning is a perfect time to schedule this every year. College Bowl games don't mean crap anymore outside of the BCS games (even that's debatable) and they're both at night, the next day, the day after that, and the week after that.

I'd rather watch an outdoor NHL game than some crappy bowl game... a lot of viewers would too. That game had the best ratings for an NHL game since 1996 when Fox had the glowing puck! Don't fire that guy, promote him!