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 --

Did pregame hibernation doom Cowboys?

Associated Press

When ESPN sideline reporter Lisa Salters told us how much extra clothing the Dallas Cowboys had packed for Monday night’s bitter cold contest in Chicago, you knew the ‘Boys may have been thinking a little too much about the -9 wind chills they were facing at Soldier Field.

Brandon Marshall agrees. The Bears wide receiver told Chicago’s ESPN 1000 Tuesday he knew his team had the contest won when he saw only a few Dallas players on the field preparing before the game.

“There was only a handful of Dallas players,” Marshall said. “I looked around and I said, ‘Man, we’ve got these guys.’”

The temperature at kickoff Monday was 7 degrees Fahrenheit in Chicago, but it felt like -9 with the wind.

“The elements were already in their heads,” Marshall continued in his radio interview. “So pregame, I believe that we won. I’m pretty sure there [would have been] more guys out there if it wasn’t colder, but they weren’t out there. For us, once you start putting on sleeves and start doing things differently, you buy into the elements and the game is over.”

The Cowboys came out of the locker room hot, running all over the Bears defense for a quick score and a 7-0 lead. Dallas kept the game close for a while, but the Bears eventually ran off to 45-28 win.

-- cold --

Chicago Soaker

Photo: Chicago Tribune

If you're a fan of old-school-looking football played on natural grass out in pouring rain – oh, and low scoring – Sunday night's Texans-Bears clash at Soldier Field mostly likely was directly in your wheelhouse.

Today, the Chicago Tribune has an excellent photo gallery highlighting the rain-soaked action.

By the way, Houston scored a 13-6 win over the Bears. Jay Cutler left the game in the first half after suffering a concussion, which no doubt has left the quarterback feeling a bit cloudy today.

Cutler not only missed the second half of the game, is questionable for the Bears' showdown Monday night in San Francisco, but he also was forced to cancel his Monday radio show with "Waddle & Silvy Show" on Chicago's WMVP-AM.

Bears Heat Up in Record Cold

How cold was it in Chicago last night? Cold enough to be the coldest Bears home game since the NFL began keeping such statistics in 1963. The cold, hard facts about Monday’s night’s weather says the temperature was 2 degrees, and the wind chill made Soldier Field patrons feel as if it were minus 13 degrees as they watched the Bears slip past the Packers in overtime. The Chicago Sun-Times web site has a list today of the Bears top 5 coldest games. The Packers have been the opponent in four of those games.

Bear Weather

From today's Chicago Sun-Times:

Bear weather / BARE weh THUR / n. / Popular -- and much-overused -- term to describe miserably cold conditions for Chicago Bears games at Soldier Field, conditions that die-hard fans can attest don't necessarily help the home team. Bear weather is marked by: steam coming off Brian Urlacher's head, snot frozen to fans' faces, a wicked wind off the lake that sends field goal attempts awry and, perhaps, snow: e.g., tonight's game conditions.

The forecast for tonight's Monday nighter at Soldier Field calls for low temperatures at 11 degrees with windchill at minus 2.

Polar Bears Welcome Brees

The Bears and Saints go toe-to-toe Thursday night in Chicago, and while both teams will be fighting to remain in the playoff hunt, the story of the night will be the Windy City weather.

Forecasters are calling for temperatures to dip to the lower teens with wind gusts as high as 20 mph. That’s not good news for Saints quarterback Drew Brees, whose passer efficiency rating at Soldier Field is 16 points below his career average. Bears linebacker Lance Briggs thinks Brees may be a bit too soft to play in the Chicago cold after Brees has spent his pro career playing in a warm city and indoors.

"Drew Brees has been in San Diego and in New Orleans in a dome,” Briggs said. "So when he comes out here, and he's got his hand-warmer fanny pack, it's a whole different ballgame. He's freezing; his blood is real thin."

In their past two trips to Chicago, the Saints have moved the ball well, but also have committed seven turnovers. The Bears defense also sacked the QB six times.

Last week, Chicago defeated Jacksonville 23-10 in 19-degree temperatures – minus 1 degree if you factor in wind chill. It was the coldest game ever in Jaguars history.

“If you talk to teams that aren’t from Chicago, believe me, they don’t want to come to Chicago this time of the year to play football,” Bears coach Lovie Smith said. “For us, it’s a part of our everyday life. It’s no issue with us.”

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.

Frozen Indentity

In addition to athletics and weather, I have a fondness for sports uniforms. So, naturally I'm a frequent reader of the Uniwatch blog. A couple of days ago a few comments appeared on the Uniwatch message board about the Chicago Bears are having trouble with logos staying attached to helmets. Someone suggested that the cold weather in the Windy City could make the sticker logo brittle, thus causing them to break off. Good point. Another comment informed us that temperatures in Chicago had not been so cold during Bears games at Soldier Field. Also, the photo above, which was posted on Uniwatch, is from the Bears game at Washington last week. So, what gives? I don't know, but one of the commenters vowed to get to the bottom of the issue. This news appeared Tuesday, I think, and so far no one that I've seen has posted any updates. Perhaps I could do a little leg work on this myself, but I'm too lazy, I mean busy.

(The above photo was posted on Uniwatch.)

Almost As If It Never Happened

I give up. Late last night I sort of promised to make mention today of the 13th anniversary of the Monday Night Football game on Halloween, 1994 in which the Packers blew past the Bears 33-6 in monsoon-like conditions at Soldier Field. And after days of searching, I can't find a single photo of the game online. As you know, a sports weather blog is useless without the visuals to drive it. I'm not sure this Internet thing is all it's cracked up to be. I do have the game on VHS tape, but it's probably still in my parents' basement. But you do remember the game, right? The weather, with gales up to 36 mph, seemed to affect the home team more than the visitors. The Bears had only 95 yards of offense through the first three quarters and didn't score until the fourth when the Packers, who had the wind at their backs for the first and third frames, had put the game out of reach. Green Bay and the driving rain also forced five turnovers out of the Bears, while the Pack had none. More than 19,000 fans who had tickets to the game opted to stay away from Soldier Field that Monday night and settle for watching from the dry cozy confines of the own living rooms – or man caves, right Ty? I wonder how many kids went trick-and-or-treating in the driving rain that night in Chicago.

Staying Alive

Wow, the clock on the wall says it’s about a half an hour from midnight, and I just realized I had not posted here today, jeopardizing my consecutive week days posting streak. It’s been a slow day, but there could be a few stories on the horizon worth keeping our weather-watching eyes open for. Tropical Storm Noel could cause some soggy conditions on college football games this weekend depending on which path she chooses to take. Also, tomorrow is Halloween and the 13th anniversary of a very soggy and windy Monday Night Football game at Soldier Field in which the Packers, wearing throwback unis, sloshed past the Bears, 33-6. I may write something about that tomorrow to commemorate the anniversary. But for today, well, this is it. I guess you could call this a throw-away post done for the sole purpose of keeping my streak live. This is the equivalent of putting Cal Ripken Jr. into a couple of innings so he could keep his games played record alive and kicking, right? Right! Good night America. You too, Istanbul (not Constantinople).