Snow, wind give outdoor NHL game extra edge

0 Comments | USA TODAY, January, 2008 | by Michael Hiestand

Amid the usual wall-to-wall college football New Year's Day, NBC had something refreshingly novel: Ice hockey battling the elements.

Bad weather always makes sports events more mediagenic. With winds and snowflakes swirling as the Pittsburgh Penguins visited the Buffalo Sabres for the first outdoor NHL game played in the USA, hockey became unpredictable. Just like football can be suspenseful outside rather than indoors. NBC analyst Eddie Olczyk, for instance, had to note when pucks "were caught in a snow pile."

The game probably will get a tiny rating, partly because it aired opposite brand names Florida and Michigan in a close college bowl game and because, well, it was still hockey. But after the NHL and various networks have tried all kinds of things just...