How outdoor hockey at Soldier Field rattled my son's brain

Photo: Chris Sweda, Chicago Tribune

My 8-year-old son is slowly becoming a sports fan. 

We live in a rural part of the country where there are no absolute local sports teams to root for, so he’s picked the Penguins – he loves penguins – and Bears as his respective NHL and NFL teams.

So, it sort of blew his mind Saturday night when I flicked the TV over to the Penguins v. Blackhawks Stadium Series game being played at Soldier Field.

“Wait, the Penguins are playing hockey in the Bears’ football stadium?” my son asked, trying to grasp that whole "what-tha…" concept.

“Yep,” I replied.

“Ok,” he said. “Change it back to Sponge Bob.”

Anyway, the Soldier Field game turned out to be another one of those NHL outdoor weather classics, at least in terms of the stunning visuals as we watched snow flow down to the ice. Not many sporting events can look better.

Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville, whose team won 5-1, said it was “probably the greatest setting you could want. With how hard it was snowing it was like, 'Wow, these are amazing conditions.’ I think everybody went back to when they were kids."

We always hear the line – the one about going back to your childhood – from coaches and players when they speak about playing in the outdoor games.

As for the playing conditions, Blackhawks forward Patrick Sharp said the ice was “very good, but that first period it was tough to see and handle the puck. It really felt like a real outdoor game. There were no real systems or structure. We were just kind of hoisting the puck, slapping it around and having fun."

The Chicago Tribune’s website has an excellent gallery from the game.

-- snow --

Chicago Wants Hockey At Soldier Field

The Chicago Blackhawks, like a lot of NHL teams and the cities that call those teams home, really, really want to host an outdoor hockey in Soldier Field next year. Why wouldn't they? The Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins packed 71,000 fans into Ralph Wilson Stadium on Jan. 1 and attracted a decent TV rating on a day that's long been reserved for college football bowl games. According to this story, those involved, and those who could potentially be involved, would also like to include a college hockey game on the docket and a way to allow the public to skate on the outdoor rink during the week leading up to those games. The NHL has not yet announced whether an outdoor game will be played next season.

Instant (Winter) Classic

Winter is not a good time to take holiday from a sports weather blog. So much happened while I was away, but hey, you can't spend all you precious time blogging, right? Right? By far the coolest sports weather event over the holidays was the NHL's Winter Classic outdoor game in Buffalo. By now you've all read and seen highlights of what was a hugely successful show for a league in deep need of some positive publicity. So, I'm not going to bore you with any of my asinine observations. But, isn't that what blogs are for? Anyway, as you know, the Winter Classic visuals, on television and in photographs, were and are spectacular. The snow element kicked the drama into overdrive. Let's hope the NHL decides to stage the event annually – at least do it every two years – and spread it around to different cities. I hear NBC had originally wanted the game to be in Yankees Stadium with the Rangers playing the Bruins. That would have been great, too, but Buffalo turned out to be a majestic venue for the inaugural outdoor game. Maybe next year the game can be played in either the old or new Yankees Stadium. Oh, and wouldn't you love to see the Blackhawks host the Red Wings in Soldier Field? Lambeau Field already has hosted a college outdoor game, so the folks there know the logistics of staging such an event. The question is: What two teams would play there? Minnesota Wild versus…who?

One more thing: I didn't realize until reading the Uniwatch Blog yesterday that snow now has fallen on NHL, NFL and Major League Baseball games in the past nine months. Remember Jacobs Field in April? Now, how can we cause a snow storm inside an NBA arena? I bet some Chinese meteorologists would know how.