The skate outdoors
Chicago's venerable Wrigley Field hosts NHL showcase
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CHICAGO - The NHL is back at it, staging its outdoor game in the great outdoors for a third time, and the setting this New Year's Day is Wrigley Field. When the clock strikes noon here today (Channel 7, 1 p.m., in the Hub of Hockey), the much-improved Blackhawks and Cup-defending Red Wings will face off in the Winter Classic, the puck to drop exactly 112 feet straight out from home plate at the Wrigley Wrink.
For a day, it's so long, Ernie Banks, and praise be to snowbanks.
As Mr. Cub might say, let's play three (periods), in the cold (expected to be about 30 degrees), in the wind (20 miles per hour, out of the south), but most likely without much snow (albeit with a 60 percent chance of snow showers later in the afternoon).
"Once you get a little bit frostbitten out there," said Blackhawks defenseman Brian Campbell, fresh from a late-morning practice yesterday on a field that has snakebitten the Cubs since 1916, "then you are fine."
Sunshine rather than wintry chill could be the day's greatest nuisance, a twist from Jan. 1, 2008, when the Sabres and Penguins played in near-perpetual snowfall in front of 71,217 snow angels at Orchard Park, N.Y.
Many Blackhawk and Red Wing players practiced at Wrigley yesterday with small strips of black tape under their eyes to minimize bothersome solar glare. A few wore oh-so-trendy tinted visors. Black hawks defenseman Brent Seabrook briefly sported sunglasses. "Otherwise," he said, "I couldn't see a thing without them."
It should be quality hockey, provided the ice holds up, and the NHL this time around invested $1 million-plus to upgrade its ice-making machinery. That doesn't guarantee the potholes that persistently cratered all over the ice at Ralph Wilson Stadium a year ago will be eradicated. But Dan Craig, the league's svengali of surfaces, is confident that this sheet, 2 inches thick, will be firmer and better able to withstand the unique outdoor elements and the standard grind of steel blades and Zamboni tracks that test all 30 of the NHL's indoor surfaces.
"You better put your seatbelt on," said the usually understated Craig. In his eyes, there is no bad ice, just ice that behaves badly. "You are going to have one fast, tough game."
The NHL first went alfresco in November 2003, when the Oilers and Canadiens played in the Frost Bowl at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, with the temperature near zero. Many fans in the crowd of 57,000 arrived with sleeping bags tucked under their arms and slipped into them like hot dogs in rolls before taking their seats. The event was more a reality series: "Survival: Game Day, Edmonton." One veteran Canadian-based scribe watched from the press box, a bottle of Chivas Regal at his side as potable (and unfrozen) medicine.
Far more memorable, though, was last year's Snow Bowl staged just south of Buffalo, where the fluffy white snow (original patent, Western New York) made a near fairy tale out of NBC's broadcast. Casual viewers, deep in college football bowl fatigue, stumbled across it with their remote controls and got hooked. The NHL, long the weakest sister of national TV ratings, really had its day to shine in the snow, logging a 2.6 rating (the cherished "overnight" number), the best mark for an NHL regular-season game on national television in more than a decade. It was engaging and fabulous TV, not so much for the level of play, which was often bogged down by the snow, but for the obvious enthusiasm among the players and the enchanting tableau of snow.
"It showed all sports fans the elements of hockey that make the game so special," said John Collins, the NHL's chief operating officer, who added that Buffalo was "magical and challenged."
The challenges came most of all from the weather and the surface's fragility, but not fan interest. When the 70,000-plus tickets went on sale in late 2007, they sold out in 20 minutes. On game day, the Sabres opened the doors to
According to the NHL, a ticket lottery held for today's game, with prices ranging from $25 to $325, brought 240,000 requests for some 41,000 seats. Figuring a pair of seats per request, that would have required a venue large enough to hold upward of a half-million fans. Yesterday afternoon on
But then again, it is just a regular-season game, No. 554 on the league's slate of 1,230 in 2008-09. There are four more NHL games scheduled for this evening, including in Boston, where the sizzling Bruins, winners of nine straight, will host the Penguins.
With three outdoor games now to be logged on its r??sum??, the NHL will have to figure out just how these events fit into its overall business plan. Novelties, by definition, wear off quickly. Is this hockey's version of the hula hoop, or can it be fashioned into a marketing legacy piece?
"For this to have legs," said Collins, "and to decide whether it's a gimmick, it had to cut muster with GMs, players, and hockey [operations] guys."
Provided the hallowed North Side grounds don't open up and swallow the show whole, all parties will leave here satisfied. Across the board, players enjoy playing in these contests, noted Paul Kelly, the union's executive director, who spent time in both locker rooms. In both the Edmonton and Buffalo games, players wore ever-present grins, smiles that were neither forced nor a product of frostbite.
According to Kelly, the Players Association will keep its hand up when asked to participate each Jan. 1. As for places interested in staging the event, the ones he hears most frequently are Boston, New York, Happy Valley (home to Penn State football), and Denver. Fenway Park, a logical stage, has been rumored for the last two to three years, but Kelly's belief is that construction work is scheduled there for at least one more offseason, which likely knocks the emerald bandbox out of contention as a hockey icebox until 2011 or '12.
An alternate site for the Boston market could be the venerable and ancient Harvard Stadium.
"I can't speak to all the particulars of staging this kind of event," said Kelly, long a season ticket-holder at Fenway. "Football fields, if they have a crown, can make it difficult to put down a surface. I would think Harvard Stadium could be ideal. The first row of seating there is raised about 10 feet off the ground, so that would be one advantage."
Mike Milbury, the Bruins' ex-defenseman, coach, and assistant general manager, will be on the field/rink again as an NBC commentator. He'll be the big fish on a small pond, working the game introduction from a small patch of ice at the side of the rink. Viewers aren't expected to see any bare ground or green grass. The game's work crew stood prepared last night to manufacture snow, a la Loon Mountain, to cover up all outfield and infield grass.
"They said something like 4 million people watched the last one," said Milbury. "Seems to me it had to be more. Everyone I talked to said they watched it, how much they liked it. I think it's a great attraction, bringing new eyeballs to our sport, and the ultimate in how we present ourselves as a culture."
As for the park's signature ivy-covered outfield walls, obviously they've lost their foliage at this point on the hockey calendar. But fear not, the rusty bricks and dormant vines have been fronted by a temporary wall, one covered with what amounts to wallpaper depicting clean brick and vibrant, green ivy. Au naturale is great and all, but when it comes to TV, reality doesn't always provide the best look.
Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at dupont@globe.com.
