Outdoor hockey not a problem

Cold weather is not expected to bother the Blackhawks and Red Wings Thursday.

CHICAGO (AP) — Adam Burish was dressed in layers nearly two years ago, ready for any type of cold when he took the ice in a college hockey game at Green Bay’s Lambeau Field. He learned quickly that no extra insulation was needed.

Instincts take over once you start skating, no matter the conditions.

The Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings are expecting the same reaction Thursday when they play outdoors at Wrigley Field in the second Winter Classic.

“You’re so excited about the atmosphere and where you’re at, the cold’s not going to bother you,” said Burish, formerly at the University of Wisconsin and now a forward with the Blackhawks.

In that college game between the Badgers and Ohio State, the temperature was 28 degrees.

“I wore a T-shirt like I normally wore and some long pants, and that was it,” Burish recalled. “They gave us a bunch of undergear like football players wear. I wore it for warmups and said the heck with it. You’re so revved up, so excited, you’re not going to be cold.”

Chicago’s winter has already been wacky, with about a half-dozen snowfalls, ice, wicked winds, wind chills way into double figures below zero and then a major melting day when temperatures climbed into the low 60s.

The forecast for Thursday is for temperatures in the low 30s and cloudy.

The challenge for Dan Craig, the NHL’s facilities operations manager in charge of putting down the rink and creating the ice, is to make sure the playing surface at the home of the Chicago Cubs is of NHL-caliber.

“What they’re going to feel underneath their feet skating will be as close to what they have for an NHL facility and that’s going to depend on the day outside,” Craig said.

After last year’s game in Orchard Park, N.Y., when there were some problems with rough patches of ice that caused some delays for repairs, the NHL had a portable rink and refrigeration unit custom made. It was shipped to Wrigley Field by trailer.

And in contrast to a year ago when the rink was hastily assembled at the Buffalo Bills’ Ralph Wilson Stadium in eight days, workers will have had more than two weeks to fine tune.

“We’re hoping for 26-, 27-, 28-degree weather and then our machines just sit there in cruise because the temperature we want on the surface is 22,” Craig said.