It's going to be a damp one at Heinz Field on Saturday, folks.
With all eyes on the National Hockey League and it's signature event between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals currently scheduled for 1:00 PM on Saturday afternoon at Heinz Field, the websites of The Weather Channel and Accuweather, among others, are on overdrive.
As of right now, the forecast for almost all of Saturday looks -- in a word -- terrible.
The temperatures are supposed to be surprisingly fantastic (in the 50's), but there is a 100% chance of rain, and it's expected to add up to about an inch before the day is over.
Meanwhile, the NHL seems hell-bent on making a mistake -- er, playing this game on Saturday sometime -- at all costs, even if it involves baseball-style rain delays.
Obviously, there's a lot that goes into the decision of when to play the game, including television considerations, ice conditions, and player safety, among others.
What doesn't seem to -- BUT SHOULD BE -- a consideration is fan enjoyment.
The Winter Classic has become the NHL's signature crossover event to try and grow the game, and with the league seemingly less interested in setting up ideal conditions for it than they are keeping it on New Year's Day -- whether just to be able to say it was played sometime that day, or avoid conflicts with interest in NFL games the day after -- I'm not sure how they're going to do that this year.
The right thing for the league to do is examine the forecast tonight or first thing tomorrow morning -- there shouldn't be any problem doing that, because at this point, so much rain is at stake, variations in the degree or time of it probably won't matter much -- and make a call to officially push the game back to later in the evening Saturday. They could even push it back to Sunday when, by the way, the weather is expected to be clear and dry, albeit about 20 degrees colder.
I don't know about you, but I'd take 20 degrees colder in dry weather 11 times out of 10 for this one.
Moving the game like that would continue to let the hype build without all the uncertainty that comes with it for everyone involved -- players, league officials, local students performing in the band, musical acts performing between periods, the fans, etc.
Whether the league actually shows some brains and does that or not remains to be seen. The league has not set a drop-dead time for announcing any changes to the schedule. Instead, they've said simply that they'll get word out at "the appropriate time" if there are any changes.
It seems likely that the league is going to leave the 1 PM start time in place and instead delay the game, keeping everyone hanging around @ Heinz field for hour after hour after hour just waiting.
Leave it to the NHL to find a way to jack this event up for everyone.
Okay, enough ranting. Let's change gears for a minute and talk about the players.
Of course, a discussion about the players involved in this tilt leads everyone to talk about Pens' Captain Sidney Crosby and Capitals' Captain Alexander Ovechkin, but there's already been enough written about those two, so the guy I want to talk about is Pittsburgh center Jordan Staal.
As most people know, Staal hasn't played a game this season after missing the first 6 weeks while still recovering from several offseason surgerys to correct a torn foot tendon and the infection that followed, then suffering a broken hand in practice on his verge of returning to the lineup in early November.
One day before the Classic, there's still no word as to whether or not Gronk may suit up in the team's baby blues for the contest. He's been skating and stickhandling and participating in all drills with his teammates in practice all week.
Staal also had a repeat x-ray this week that seemed to show no problems and proper healing.
As I've said, if #11 can deal with the contact and otherwise show little or no limitation out there, he deserves the opportunity to play in this special event simply because he's had a miserable year being on the shelf the whole season.
Now, if risk of re-injury is there, then he obviously shouldn't go, because the Penguins have longer-term goals in mind this year.
As it is, though, it appears any risk of re-injury is low or non-existent.
There's been no word from the team or staff (although that may come today) about Staal's status for tomorrow, so I'm hoping that's just because the Penguins are planning on surprising the hockey world with his return.
Finally, with nice weather fortunately scheduled TODAY, there's going to be a little preliminary event over at Heinz Field this morning @ 9:30 AM when the Penguins' alumni face-off against the Capitals' alumni.
The headliner of this game is undoubtedly the Pens' owner, Mario Lemieux, who will be suiting up with many of his former champion star and Hall-of-Fame teammates, including Paul Coffey, Ron Francis, Larry Murphy and Brian Trottier, among others.
Sniper Peter Bondra and former 60-goal scorer Denis Maruk headline a Washington lineup that really pales in comparison to the local club's alumni.
In fact, I look at the rosters of both clubs and it's obvious why one team's franchise has 3 Stanley Cup Championships and the other has a grand total of ZERO.
Still, it's going to be great to see the magnificent one on skates again. In the pre-game practice sessions this week, he's looked fantastic.
Forgetting for a moment the fact that he still seems to have the hands and wizardry to do damage in today's league even at 45, he's been smiling ear-to-ear on the ice and has appeared to genuinely enjoy himself and the stage that he's helped build for his franchise.
Good for Lemieux. It's going to be great to see him wearing #66 again.
That's all for now, dear readers.
Enjoy the Classic tomorrow wherever you are, and celebrate a safe and enjoyable New Year.
Let's Go Pens!
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