Pittsburgh Penguins(20-16-2) vs Buffalo Sabres (19-16-2)
In Buffalo, outdoors at Ralph Wilson Stadium at 1pm
Watch on NBC or listen live at WXDX.com
Bob Costas, Craig Simpson, Eddie Olczyk, Mike Emrick and Mike Millbury will be on hand to share stories and call the action
In case you've been living under a rock all this time, today's game is outside. And, in case you were wondering whether Mother Nature likes hockey or not, the answer appears to be "no."
According to weather.com it's currently snowing in Buffalo with a chance of up to four inches of snow accumulating. The highest the temperature plans to rise is 32 degrees, with a low of 27. 100% chance of precipitation I might add.
As the crew at the Winter Classic explained yesterday - snow is workable, rain is not. So let's hope the snow is the worst of it, as the crew plans to literally shovel/sweep the ice in between commercial breaks.
This outside game carries with it a few concerns of mine.
- It's cold. Football players may be conditioned for it, but hockey players don't often do this outside thing. Therefore the risk of 2-3 game injuries (IE hamstring, groin and calf pulls) is certainly highly than normal.
- The game is being broadcast nationally. A big chance for the NHL to gain some fans with a flattering display of athleticism. At the same time, if random people at the New Year's party I attended last night are any evidence to the average viewer's interest today, than college bowl games will be the Winter Classic's biggest enemy.
- If the last meeting between these two teams is any indication of the play that may follow in today's game, then I sure hope the non-typical hockey viewer has an amazing level of patience. Frankly, even as an overly regular hockey fan, Saturday's 2-0 game was a true test of patience.
David from Die By The Blade has been kind enough to host the open thread for today's game. With the holidays and people going out of town and such I figured some of you may not have made the switch over just yet. Bad timing on my part I suppose. But, should you be interested in participating in the live thread, don't hesitate to log-in over there and rep your Pens. Pensburgh will host its first official open thread on January 3rd against the Maple Leafs. So, if you haven't already done so, create a username now and post a diary to let me know you're here. For more information on everything Pensburgh offers, read this, or click the link entitled "Attention New Users" in the upper right corner of the screen under the title box labeled Recent Diaries.
FYI - Right now you have to make a new log-in for every specific team blog part of the SB network. However, by the end of January and/or first week of February this will all change to the use of one universal username. Luckily it's not a lengthy process to sign up, so just take the same username you have here on Pensburgh and use it over at Die By The Blade.