Sabres/Penguins to play outdoors

[Cheatachu72]

saw the badgers hockey play in lambeau field, pretty cool. nice to see the pros are trying something new too

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=3024696

[kulnet]

Hey, that's pretty neat. Kicking it old school eh?

[pdx77]

I think this is really cool and hopefully they can start doing this every year for a tradition. I'm hoping this gain some new fans for the NHL

[pdx77]

I think this is really cool and hopefully they can start doing this every year for a tradition. I'm hoping this well gain some new fans for the NHL

[tel0004]

Pretty cool, I wonder how it will affect the play, since the players are not used to being cold.

[silentbenton]

Reminds me of Mystery, Alaska.

[Cheatachu72]

Pretty cool, I wonder how it will affect the play, since the players are not used to being cold.

I played hockey growing up, and the cost of indoor ice time is crazy :scare:

most of the guys who play in the pros probably have spent a good amount of their childhood on outdoor ice.

From the front porch of the house i grew up in, i could see lights for three different outdoor rinks...that's the upper midwest for you

[Cheatachu72]

http://www.wgr550.com/fullstory.php?id=2665

the game sold out in 40 minutes!!

wowsa

[enob]

Hopefully this will show the Mr Betteman the need to continue this the Montreal/Edmonton oldtimers and regular season game was great. The Canadiens goal tender stated it was so cold he had to change his gloves at ever whistle.

[brad162]

I work at in indoor rink because here in Ohio, i know of one outdoor rink, but it wont get cold enough for it to open, but the indoor ice time is outrageous, depending on what time of day you want it, it can be as high as $350-$400 an hour, but i've also seen less desirable times go for around $100/hour. It's understandable though considering just the electric bill for the place, you've gotta run those lights on the rinks, the compressor system just to keep the ice cold is huge, it takes up a room bigger than where we keep the Zamboni, and keeping the place heated/cooled depending on where you're at with a central heating system.

I do get a little bit off of ice time if i want to rent it out, so sometimes i will set up some ice time, get a bunch of guys together and we will split the cost of the ice time if we want some sort of private drop in, although since i'm a goalie they dont have me pay anything since i got the discount and so many forwards show up. it has cost us anywhere between $4 to $12 per person depending on how many show up, it's still cheaper than what the rink would charge for a Drop In.

Outdoor games are fun to go watch, i had gotten to go to one a few years ago at the outdoor rink.

About being "cold" i don't see where i'd be much of a difference unless the wind was blowing outside considering that in our benches, it hovers between 25 and 30 degrees.

[enob]

I played in outdoor rinks most of my life during my younger days and there's nothing like it. Mostly local parks with boards and no zamboni's in Canada and NY we had to bring a couple of shovels to clean the ice. You did learn to keep moving so you would stay warm and it gave you the feeling of freedom unlike indoors where you feel like the fans are right on top you.

[enob]

Anyone see the game today?
It was great seeing the snow coming down on the boys and the shoot out....

[Dan]

Anyone see the game today?
It was great seeing the snow coming down on the boys and the shoot out....

great game (though I would have like it better had the sabres won!) 70,000+ watching a hockey game in the snow was awesome. I hope the NHL starts pushing for more games like that in the cold weather cities.

I wonder if Toronto would open sky dome (rogers center) for a real outdoor hockey game? :) I could see it happening on Montreal also. Getting an NFL stadium ready for hockey in only a week was an amazing feat, and the ice held up remarkably well.

[Cheatachu72]

I am glad this one went down to a shootout!

I know there are pros and cons for the shootout, but one of the biggest pro's to having a shootout is the excitement for the fans, and in a game used as a promotional tool for the entire league, it was nice for it to end up in a shootout.

And Crosby with the winning shot? could it have not been more scripted that one of the best young players in the world gets to shine in front of a record setting crowd?

[enob]

It sure looked like the NHL scripted it as a marketing tool but if it encourages more teams to have outdoor games it’s a good thing for both the NHL and the fans.

[knucklehead]

I got caught up watching this game! More fun to watch than any of the bowl games on yesterday...... Even though Michigan / Florida was good.

[Dan]

The league has already indicated an interest in doing it again. Obviously it needs to be a cold weather city and have a stadium that is laid out in a way to make it possible.

Maybe NY and the old Giants stadium before it meets the wrecking ball? Columbus at Ohio State's field? Imagine doing it at a college stadium that seats almost 100,000!

Their were a couple things the league could have done better (getting people out with shovels more often to clear the ice) but it was obviously a learning experience. Dealing with the 6 inch "crown" on the field was a big enough hurdle to deal with, and was the cause for most of the ice issues. I wonder if using the chemical in the water that the old "aud" had in buffalo would have helped. It made the ice "harder" at higher temps, as the aud refrigeration system was not as powerful as some of the newer ones.

I could see this becoming a yearly tradition for the NHL. The Buffalo area saw about a $5 million dollar impact from the game with hotel rooms and sales of food in area restaurants. 2 years in a row the city has benefited from sporting events with the men's NCAA basketball tournament rounds 1 and 2 last year and this game this year :)

[brad162]

The league has already indicated an interest in doing it again. Obviously it needs to be a cold weather city and have a stadium that is laid out in a way to make it possible.

Maybe NY and the old Giants stadium before it meets the wrecking ball? Columbus at Ohio State's field? Imagine doing it at a college stadium that seats almost 100,000!

Their were a couple things the league could have done better (getting people out with shovels more often to clear the ice) but it was obviously a learning experience. Dealing with the 6 inch "crown" on the field was a big enough hurdle to deal with, and was the cause for most of the ice issues. I wonder if using the chemical in the water that the old "aud" had in buffalo would have helped. It made the ice "harder" at higher temps, as the aud refrigeration system was not as powerful as some of the newer ones.

I could see this becoming a yearly tradition for the NHL. The Buffalo area saw about a $5 million dollar impact from the game with hotel rooms and sales of food in area restaurants. 2 years in a row the city has benefited from sporting events with the men's NCAA basketball tournament rounds 1 and 2 last year and this game this year :)

I would love to see a game here at Ohio State's field, but i do not see it happening just because it just cannot seem to get cold long enough for it to happen. The most time we've seen this winter with temps below 32F are usually 4-5 days, but that's only happened a few times this winter.

It would be really hard to keep the ice cold unless they had a really good refrigeration system that would be powerful enough to keep two rinks cold on indoor ice, although im not sure if it would be possible to lay the brine lines that close together without causing an issue with the system.

There's a rink about an hour from Columbus that i know started as an outdoor rink but they ended up enclosing it because the winters here were not cold enough to keep it up, there is also one out by the indoor rink in Dublin, although it looks a little old, so i do not know if it's in use at all anymore.

[wearmaize]

The game ended well, I enjoyed it.

It was a slow moving game, and I laughed at the switching sides every 10 minutes.

[pdx77]

The game ended well, I enjoyed it.

It was a slow moving game, and I laughed at the switching sides every 10 minutes.

They only switched sides in the 3rd period at the 10 minute mark (and at 2:30 in OT.)


I thought it was a great game, lots of exctement built around it, *the ice problems they were having did cause some nice long delays however that did kind of slowed the game down, but that was all part of the fun.

It was fun to watch the player's faces as it looked like they really were enjoying this, almost like being a kid again, playing hockey on the pond. *