NHL Winter Classic Takes It Outside
Sidney Crosby by Jim Rogash/WireImage.com
If you're the National Hockey League, the smallest of the "big four" sports leagues, you have to think outside the rink - literally - to attract some attention. On New Year's Day, the Buffalo Sabres host the Pittsburgh Penguins in an
outdoor game. The
"NHL Winter Classic" (Jan. 1, 1 pm/ET, NBC) has sold out 73,000 seats at Ralph Wilson Stadium, home of the NFL's Bills, and, on a day synonymous with college football, hopes to make an impact on TV, too.
Bob Costas, who will be anchoring NBC's coverage from Buffalo, thinks the unique nature of the game will be a real draw. "It really is an event," he says. "I don't think you have to be somebody who follows the NHL day in and day out to enjoy it as an event."
It helps that the NHL's "Next One" - the Penguins 20-year-old center
Sidney Crosby - will be on the ice. Crosby won last year's Hart Memorial Trophy as the league's MVP and the Art Ross Trophy for leading the NHL in regular-season scoring, becoming the youngest player ever to accomplish that. Already a giant in his sport, the NHL hopes the Winter Classic will be the next step in making him a household name beyond the world of hockey.
Given
Buffalo's frigid conditions this time of year, the game will certainly be unorthodox. "There's something about playing the game free form, free flowing when it's that cold," says Mike Milbury, a former Boston Bruins defenseman and New York Islanders head coach, now a studio analyst for NBC. "It feels like in the right moment you're skating at 40 miles per hour."
