The outdoor hockey game craze is about to hit a fever pitch.  Buffalo sold all 42,000 tickets made available for thier new years day outdoor extravaganza.  There is no doubt that there is alot riding on the success of this game, its one thing for this to work in Canada but no one could of envisioned this much hype in the states.

Outdoor games are seriously the best thing for the NHL, better than any marketing stunt a New York marketing genius can thinink of. There is nothing better than seen the game played in its natural element infront of massive amounts of fans.  The Heritage Classic in Edmonton was an amazing spectacle, unlike anything seen before.  If the NHL can duplicate this feeling in cities across the U.S.A. it will bring life back to many hurting markets.

Now many losers have many complaints about outdoor games.  I will now address those one by one:

1. Its too cold for the players!  Thats just too damn bad for them, no one really cares if thier cold beacause they are rich.  As proven in Edmonton no one will die of hypothermia or freeze thier balls off. 
2. Its too cold for fans!  Anyone who says this really does not understand NHL fans at all.  Football fans sit through freezing temps every week, I know NHL fans won't care about doing it for one night.
3. Its unfair because two valuable playoff points that Buffalo and Pittsburgh need are involved!  If either of these teams miss the playoffs by two points it will not because they played outside one night.  It will be because they suck.
4. Players could get hurt!  Thats why they make millions of dollars, if something happens they will be compensated.  Players are meant to be sacrificed for our entertainment.

Basically if anyone tells you they don't like outdoor games you should slap them in the face and tell them not to be so stupid. 

Think of an NHL that played outdoors in 80,000 seat arenas.  There would only be 16 games, so every game would matter.  Markets like Florida would not be able to have teams due to thier inability to produce an outdoor ice rink.  People in America might actually watch games on T.V.

Think it will never happen, Canada's up for it, and appareantly so is Buffalo.