Sabres to host Penguins in outdoor game

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. – Sidney Crosby will show off his passing skills at the same place Jim Kelly did for years – in front of shivering fans at Buffalo’s Ralph Wilson Stadium.

It’ll be pucks instead of footballs, and the home team will be the Sabres and not the Bills.

Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins will face Buffalo on New Year’s Day in the first outdoor NHL game in the United States. It will be the second time the league staged such an event in the regular season, coming more than four years after the Montreal Canadiens faced the Oilers outside on a frigid November day in Edmonton.

The official announcement was made Monday at the 74,000-seat stadium, where the league attendance record is expected to be broken.

“I’m excited,” said Crosby, the 20-year-old reigning MVP. “I think it’s going to be a great experience for everyone. We all watched the Edmonton-Montreal game. We’ve all prepared for this at some point in our careers, playing outside, so I think it’s going to be a lot of fun for us and for the fans.”

Preparations for the historic game are expected to begin on Christmas Eve, the day after the Bills play the New York Giants in Buffalo’s final regular-season home game. A refrigeration system will be installed to make the ice.

“There is something very special about taking hockey out into the elements, back to its roots, back to the place where so many boys and girls first learned to love the game,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said on the stadium’s bright green turf, which will be transformed into an ice rink.

Buffalo was chosen for its dependably cold winters and proximity to Pittsburgh, from where fans are expected to make the 225-mile trip in droves.

The game will be televised by NBC against college football bowls.