The 2011 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic, the NHL’s annual outdoor game, will now start at 8 p.m. EST on Saturday, amid rain in the Pittsburgh area, the NHL announced on its website.
NHL weather consultant Jim Cantore with the Weather Channel told the hockey league that there will be “steady rain in the afternoon” on Saturday in the Steel City.
The match, which will pit the hometown Pittsburgh Penguins against the Washington Capitals, will see its puck drop at 8:12 p.m. and will still be broadcast on NBC.
NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly told NHL.com that the league has been “monitoring the weather reports all week long” and said the NHL is doing everything in its power to “minimize the inconvenience of the fans [and] also for the rightsholders and for all the other stakeholders in the game.”
Parking lots at Heinz Field, the football stadium that the Pittsburgh Steelers call home, will open at 2:30 p.m., while gates will open at 5:30 p.m. The pregame show will start at 7:30 p.m.
Representatives for both teams said they weren’t deterred by the rain and hoped they would get the game in despite the weather.
“I don’t care if they play at midnight,” Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau said, according to USA Today. “Let’s get going.”
Penguins owner Mario Lemieux said that it would be “a shame not to have a game this weekend,” according to the newspaper.
Players didn’t seem to be too upset over the time change, either.
“You can sleep, you can eat normal food like, you know, steaks, spaghetti, and just take a nap before the game. If it’s going to be at 8, you can celebrate New Year’s, too,” Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin told NHL.com.
Penguins captain Sidney Crosby added that he didn’t “see anything wrong with playing underneath the lights here” and that he thinks the experience could be “pretty nice.”
NHL weather consultant Jim Cantore with the Weather Channel told the hockey league that there will be “steady rain in the afternoon” on Saturday in the Steel City.
The match, which will pit the hometown Pittsburgh Penguins against the Washington Capitals, will see its puck drop at 8:12 p.m. and will still be broadcast on NBC.
NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly told NHL.com that the league has been “monitoring the weather reports all week long” and said the NHL is doing everything in its power to “minimize the inconvenience of the fans [and] also for the rightsholders and for all the other stakeholders in the game.”
Parking lots at Heinz Field, the football stadium that the Pittsburgh Steelers call home, will open at 2:30 p.m., while gates will open at 5:30 p.m. The pregame show will start at 7:30 p.m.
Representatives for both teams said they weren’t deterred by the rain and hoped they would get the game in despite the weather.
“I don’t care if they play at midnight,” Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau said, according to USA Today. “Let’s get going.”
Penguins owner Mario Lemieux said that it would be “a shame not to have a game this weekend,” according to the newspaper.
Players didn’t seem to be too upset over the time change, either.
“You can sleep, you can eat normal food like, you know, steaks, spaghetti, and just take a nap before the game. If it’s going to be at 8, you can celebrate New Year’s, too,” Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin told NHL.com.
Penguins captain Sidney Crosby added that he didn’t “see anything wrong with playing underneath the lights here” and that he thinks the experience could be “pretty nice.”
