It is January 1st. And while we are in the middle of a fluke warm snap and it is raining, that means the day of the Winter Classic is also upon us. Although the start time has been moved to 8 PM, to avoid the rain, the game will apparently still go on at Heinz Field here in Pittsburgh.
It will be the second game of the season between the Washington Capitals and the Penguins when the puck drops this evening. It will be the second meeting of the season between His Sidness and Ovechkin once the blades of the skates dig in and players start to grind for the puck.
Sidney Crosby leads the league in goals (32) and points (65) and unlike previous years, Ovechin is not right there with him. Ovechkin has just 14 goals and 42 points this so far this season and although the Capitals are 22-12-5 and 5th in the East, they are getting it done without riding Ovechkin as hard as in the past.
This Winter Classic, unlike those in the past, will not feature snow which will undoubtedly have some crying foul. Some people have thought, and complained loudly, that Pittsburgh was too far south to hold this event. This was mostly because they wanted to keep it in their own cities almost exclusively (such as Boston, Buffalo, Detroit, etc.) But the fact is that according to weather forecasts for today many northern hockey cities would be in the same predicament.
Buffalo – 51 and rainy
Boston – 49 with rain moving into the evening
Detroit – 49 and rainy
New York – 44 with rain later in the day
Yeah, none of these cities would have been better so unless you want to keep the game in Canada where you will be pretty much guaranteed snow every New Year’s Day, complaining about the weather is just bad sport.
None-the-less the game will go on. And most of the complainers will go away at 8 PM as we watch two of the league’s best teams take to the ice.
