NHL Winter Classic Live Blog

For only the second time in NHL history, the league is holding a regular season game outdoors. Join FanHouse all afternoon long as we live blog the game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Buffalo Sabres.

4:31 P.M.EST: SHOOTOUT. We start with Ales Kotalik vs Ty Conklin. Wrist shot, iron, score! 1-0, Sabres.

Ryan Christensen vs. Ryan Miller: Deke, to his backhand, he loses the handle, 1-0, Sabres.

Tim Connolly vs. Conklin: Wrister to stick side, save Conklin. 1-0, Sabres.

Kris Letang vs. Miller: Backhand to stickside, SCORE, 1-1. Simply an unbelievable goal.

Maxim Afinogenov vs. Conklin: Backhand in deep, SAVE, 1-1. Conklin makes the stop on his belly.

Sidney Crosby vs. Miller: Crosby stutter-steps. Miller goes for the poke, but Crosby puts the puck right between Miller's legs, 2-1 Penguins win the shootout and the game. Unreal ending. Pens steal two points they have no business winning. No business at all.

4:27 P.M. EST: END OT. We'll have a scrape and then a shootout. Somewhere, Gary Bettman is smiling.

4:25 P.M. EST: Is the ice tilted? Buffalo has been dominating the run of play in this game ever since the start of the second period. That's a real tribute to Lindy Ruff and Darcy Reiger, the head coach and GM who put this team together. I know Buffalo has had some bumps in the wake of losing Daniel Briere and Chris Drury, but I think this team makes the playoffs and gives a high seed a real headache in the first round.

4:21 P.M. EST: The Buffalo pressure is relentless, but Conklin is up to the task as the power play expires. At 2:30, the teams change ends.

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4:16 P.M. EST, WAITING FOR OT: These stoppages in play, necessary as they are, are killing this television broadcast. Here comes the Buffalo power play ...

4:10 P.M. EST, END OF THE THIRD PERIOD: The Sabres put together quite a flurry in the last minute, but Ty Conklin comes up with a glove save with just 6.4 seconds to go. But the refs do the unthinkable, they call hooking on Colby Armstrong, which will send the Pens into OT down a man. Looking at the replays, it seems like a soft call.

4:06 P.M. EST: Malkin feeds the puck out front to Crosby, but his shot goes wide. Buffalo ices the puck to ease the pressure and Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff calls timeout -- a wrinkle I do not like. Note to the competition committee, it's time to change that rule to outlaw calling timeout after an icing.



4:00 P.M. EST: Sidney Crosby goes sprawling to the ice while trying to split the Buffalo defense. Crosby looks to the ref for a penalty, but he's not getting any help.

3:57 P.M. EST: We're stopped yet again, and it's the same spot on the ice by one of the faceoff circles. The snow continues to fall ...

3:50 P.M. EST: Another stoppage for ice repair. These guys are working their tails off.

3:41 P.M. EST: Only 18 minutes to go until the broadcast window ends at 4:00 p.m. EST. Unless we get a goal quick, and we're still waiting for the ice to be resurfaced, we're going to go to OT and past 4:00 p.m.

3:35 P.M. EST: We're having another stoppage in play to fix the ice around the Pittsburgh net. Only seconds before we switch ends for the second half of the third period ...

3:28 P.M. EST: Nice spin-o-rama by Sidney Crosby, but Miller, who hasn't been worked too hard today, takes it in the chest.



3:25 P.M. EST: Here's a suggestion -- those blue Pens unis kick ass. The team should ditch the black and gold look for them ASAP. Ditto on the Sabres throwbacks. That was a uni that should have never been retired. Here's one minor quibble: For the Heritage Classic, the CBC had a rail cam. NBC doesn't have one today, and that's too bad.

3:20 P.M. EST: The weatherman is forecasting more snow at the end of the third period. Uh-oh.

3:19 P.M. EST: The puck drops on the third period. Remember, both goals in the game came early in the period, when the ice surface was at its best.

3:12 P.M. EST: Looks like we've got a few friends riding shotgun with us today. Be sure to check out Barry Melrose Rocks, Jerseys and Hockey Love and American Arena (in German).



3:00 P.M. EST: That's the end of the second period, one where the Sabres thoroughly dominated play though they only put one goal on the board. For the period, Pittsburgh only managed a measly two shots on goal.

2:50 P.M. EST: The Pens are having a tougher time this period, as they've yet to record a shot. If it keeps up like this, OT and a shooutout have to be considered a real possibility.

2:45 P.M. EST: We're in yet another stoppage to clear the ice. Here's a question: What happens if we start running up against 4:00 p.m. EST, when the game's television window is scheduled to end?

2:27 P.M. EST: We've dropped the puck to start the second period, and while the snow has stopped, it's now sleeting. But that mattered little to Brian Campbell, who wired a wrist shot past Ty Conklin to tie the game, 1-1. Credit Tim Connoly, who found Campbell alone at the opposite point.

2:14 P.M. EST: Bob Costas is spending the time between periods talking about his one run-in with Bill "Harpo" Goldthorpe, the actual minor league hockey player who inspired the the character of Ogie Oglethorpe in Slap Shot. As others have noted, Costas was once the play-by-play voice of the Syracuse Blazers of the North American Hockey League, and apparently Goldthorpe wasn't a fan, something that led to an episode where Goldthorpe nearly throttled Costas on the team bus during a road trip.

Why do I not find that surprising?



2:10 P.M. EST: Wow, what a first period. I'm sold for good, let's do this every year, no exceptions.

2:08 P.M. EST: Boy, it's pretty easy to see how the snow and the cold simplifies the game. The puck gets slowed way down, so both teams are going back to basics, keeping the passes short and moving slowly between zones. Of course, that goes for everyone except Crosby. NBC is showing a clip of Crosby bouncing the puck off his stick, Tiger Woods-style, to avoid having to deal with the snow building up on the ice.



2:05 P.M. EST: That rut inside the Sabres zone continues to be a problem, as we've had yet another stoppage. Something tells me the crew can't wait to get between periods to take care of this.

2:00 P.M. EST: With the expiration of the Sabres power play, the teams trade great chances as Pittsburgh's Ryan Malone rings one off the post, while Ty Conklin robs Derek Roy at the opposite side of the ice.

1:57 P.M. EST: We're back to live action with the Pittsburgh power play, but we're soon to 4-on-4 after Colby Armstrong gets rung up for goaltender interference.

1:52 P.M. EST: We're in another stoppage, as the Sabres game crew is repairing a rut in the ice. We've been stopped for a couple of minutes now, as the team of three works to patch the surface at the right point inside the Buffalo zone.

1:45 P.M. EST: We've got a break in the action so the Zambonis can clear the ice of snow. Once we resume, it's clear the game is settling into a pretty normal tempo. And we've got another penalty, as Maxim Afinogenov goes off for hooking.

1:40 P.M. EST: Buffalo's Tim Connoly got tagged for hooking, the game's first penalty, but Buffalo kills it off.

One big thumbs up for the new AMP Energy Drink commercial starring Ryan Miller staring down an LA Kings goalie in a duel of Yo Mamma jokes. Probably the best commercial involving an NHL player going these days. If anyone has a link, send it our way.

1:25 P.M. EST PUCK DROP: Pens win opening faceoff. GOAL!!! Sidney Crosby drives down the left wing, as he lost the handle in close, Colby Armstrong bangs the puck home, 1-0 only 21 seconds into the game.

PRE-GAME, 1:15 P.M.: The fans in Buffalo are great. NBC's Mike Emrick is reporting that Sabres fans pelted the Penguins bus with snowballs when they arrived at Ralph Wilson Stadium this morning.

A couple of readers have asked if the refs are going to wear vintage uniforms. The answer is NO.

The teams have just left the locker room and are stepping into the stadium to the sound of thunderous applause. There isn't an empty seat to be seen in the stadium as the team's begin to step onto the ice surface.

BROADCAST START 1:00 P.M. EST: WE HAVE SNOW IN BUFFALO. Dear God, could it be any more perfect?

First bad sign: We have a Mike Milbury sighting, as he's part of the NBC Sports team covering the league tis season. To be fair, Milbury was always at his best on television, rather than in the front office. I can't imagine what it's going to be like out there having to skate face first into a snow squall. My only regret today, short of not being out there myself, is that I'm still about 10 days short of getting my new HD set delivered.

Here's one mild surprise: Bob Costas is playing this event as straight as possible. No snide or smarmy remarks so far about the sports insignificance on the American scene.

On the weather: 30 degrees with a lake effect snow over the stadium. The snow is expected to last through the first period, with the wind gusts picking up in the 2nd period. The crowd doesn't seem to mind.



PRE-GAME, 12:45 P.M. EST: We're about 15 minutes out from the drop of the puck, and I just picked up an idea from the crew at the NHL Network. They just posed an interesting set of questions: Just how often should the league hold an outdoor game, when should they hold it, and what other cities should be in line to host the next game?

For the league, I think the answer is pretty straightforward: They'll keep doing it as long as they can haul in tremendous bags of cash and supplementary media. And as the NHL Network crew suggested, if the NFL can make Thanksgiving Day synonymous with football, there's no reason the NHL can't find a niche of its own on New Year's Day.

For me, I'd be comfortable with seeing something like this once every three or four years. If we saw something like this every single season, I'm afraid that the fans -- and let's not forget the media and perhaps more importantly, advertisers -- might tire of the format eventually.

As for other cities, there are simply a multitude of places that could host this event. The NHL Network crew mentioned Chicago first, and with Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews lifting that franchise, it makes a lot of sense to showcase them and their city. The rest of the "Original Six" teams all ought to have an opportunity to host something like this, but we shouldn't discount just what kind of a marketing home run the league could hit if it held an outdoor game in Ottawa or Quebec City. How about NHL players on the Rideau Canal in the dead of Winter. Even better, how about holding the NHL All-Star Game outdoors in Quebec City in the midst of the annual Winter Carnival?

PRE-GAME, 12:05 P.M. EST: As I noted up top, this is not the first time that the NHL has held a regular season game outdoors. The first time the league pulled this off came in November 2003, when more than 50,000 people filled Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton for the Heritage Classic. Though it caused barely a ripple here in the U.S., the Heritage Classic was a roaring success North of the border, and I count myself lucky to have been able to watch it live thanks to NHL Center Ice.

Rather than just a regular season game, the Heritage Classic was an all-day celebration of hockey. The event kicked off with the "Megastars" game, matching squads of oldtimers from the Edmonton Oilers and the Montreal Canadiens. That's right, for about an hour, you had a reunion of some of the greatest players in the history of the game -- Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier -- who had special permission from the Rangers to play, and even Guy Lafleur. After two 15-minute halves, the Oilers squad won, 2-0.

What came next was the main course, as the Oilers and Canadiens took to the ice for an actual game. To say the least, the CBC did it right, pulling out all the stops for a 4-3 Montreal win. If there was an iconic image from that day, it had to be this one of then-Montreal goalie Jose Theodore, who donned a tuque atop his goalie mask. Safe to say, it's been all downhill for Theodore since that day, as his career rapidly headed South before being exiled to the Colorado Avalanche.

PRE-GAME, 11:30 A.M. EST: We're a little less than two hours before game time in Buffalo, and I've already got reason to be cheered: We have a Bill Clement sighting. Over at NHL.TV (note to Mac users, no audio, NBC Sports is also hosting their own live in-game stream), the league is running an online pre-game show on a 15-minute loop that's co-hosted by Clement and MSG's Sam Rosen. Here in the U.S., we haven't seen Clement on television since last June when he was still hosting the studio show on Versus.

During the offseason, Clement was replaced by talking head Bill Patrick. But while Clement might not have been the best studio host, it was always pretty clear that he was the best color man covering hockey on American television, and I'm stunned that nobody has found a way to get him a job doing what he's best at. Though he now works on XM Radio, it's good to see him back on television. Perhaps he's waiting for ESPN to get back in the game. If so, they should snap him up as their top color man right now.

Some special wrinkles about today's game: Because of concerns about the wind, the thrid period will be broken into two segments. In addition, if the game goes to a shooutout, the goalies will have the opportunity to choose which net they want to defend. Neither of today's goalies is unfamiliar with playing outdoors. Buffalo's Ryan Miller played outdoors at Michigan State against Michigan while he was in college in 2001, while Conklin was the starting goalie for the Edmonton Oilers during the NHL Heritage Classic back in 2003.

Yesterday, the NHL Network aired a two-and-and-a-half hour preview show about today's game that they're currently re-running. My favorite clip had to be the moment when at the end of one segment, former Buffalo Bills quarterback Jim Kelly tried to scam an NHL Winter Classic tuque from the NHL Network's Brian Duff.