12-28-2007, 10:28 PM
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 Sabres Penguins New Year's Day Outdoor Game
Quote:
Outdoor hockey celebrates Buffalo's culture 12/28/2007 12:17 AM
By Erik Brady, USA TODAY (USA TODAY) -- Buffalo has two seasons, an old vaudeville gag goes.
Winter and the Fourth of July.
The outdoor game between the Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins on New Year's Day (NBC, 1 p.m. ET) honors both of Buffalo's vaudevillian seasons: It will be a wintry mix of fireworks and thermal underwear.
The game is billed by the NHL as the "Winter Classic" but is better known by locals as the "Ice Bowl." More than 73,000 will watch at Ralph Wilson Stadium, home of the NFL's Bills. The Sabres say they could sell 50,000 tickets more.
That's because in Buffalo this game is more than a mere event. It is a celebration of the city, its hockey culture and its Northernness.
In much of the USA, hockey doesn't matter. Here, where mothers lace their kids' skates in the dark at dawn on chilly winter mornings, little matters more.
| Outdoor hockey celebrates Buffalo's culture  |