Chew on this: Wrigleyville ready to be Hockeyville

CHICAGO -- To some, installing lights at Wrigley Field a couple of decades ago seemed blasphemous, but the idea of playing a hockey game there in the dead of winter hasn't raised any eyebrows

In fact, the nationally televised New Year's Day matchup between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Detroit Red Wings in the second of what now figures to be an annual Winter Classic event actually has warmed the cockles of folks' hearts in these chilly parts.

"Everybody I know is talking about it, I think this is going to be spectacular," said Jack Pirelli, a 40ish self-described lifelong Blackhawks fan, as he checked out the souvenir merchandise outside the stadium. "First of all you have the Blackhawks playing great and looking for real and it's against the Red Wings. And this is Wrigley. What more could you ask for?"

Well decent weather probably, although the forecast for the event calls for temperatures around the freezing mark with light snow flurries, which should make for acceptable conditions. Truth is the NHL is much better prepared now than it was in Buffalo last January when the league's operations crew had only eight days to create the ice surface after the Bills ended their season.

With Wrigley sitting idle since October, the league has had nearly three weeks to get things up to standard, and more important, it has new state-of-the-art ice-making equipment

"What we had in Buffalo was a mat system and a very limited timeframe to work," said Dan Craig, the NHL's facilities operation manager, which in layman's terms means he's an ice-making guru. "We had a big crown in the field in Buffalo so there was a whole different set of parameters that we had to work with. The NHL went out and purchased the equipment and purchased this aluminum floor for the very reason that it is a quick reacting floor."

In essence that means the technology has advanced enough to forestall just about any potential weather condition. And Craig's crew has seen several different ones since it started building the surface on Dec. 15.

"We've had everything: minus five, minus six degrees Fahrenheit, then 58 and the day before was pouring rain so I felt like I was in a typhoon," Craig said. "We had six inches of snow on the ice about eight days before that, so I think Mother Nature has tested us as good as she can test us. But the team that we put together is still standing and smiling and ready to go."

Chicago's Cristobal Huet wears a Wrigley Field facemask during practice on its ice Wednesday. (AP)

Good thing, too, because the game between the two Central Division rivals is critical. Chicago trails the first-place Red Wings by six points despite playing two fewer games. The teams have already met three times, with the Red Wings winning each, including Tuesday night's scene setter in Detroit 4-0.

That was a statement victory for the reigning Stanley Cup champs, and it snapped a nine-game winning streak for Chicago, but it didn't diminish the fact that the upstart Blackhawks have been one of the feel-good stories of the season. Chicago's dynamic and talented young lineup is led by superstars in the making Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, and along with a forward-thinking new administration, they have combined to make a franchise that has just about fallen off the local sports radar relevant again.

Chicago has sold out all its home games, and more than 240,000 people entered a lottery for the right to buy the 41,000 tickets that were available for the Winter Classic. It was such a tough get that even legendary former Blackhawk Stan Mikita had trouble scrounging up some. He managed to get a few -- at $225 a pop -- for some family members but no one else.

"I got a lot of phone calls regarding tickets," said Mikita, who along with Canadian born former Cubs pitcher Ferguson Jenkins will be among local sports legends honored before the game. "When a thing like this comes along, you never know how many friends you have."

Mikita didn't specify where his seats would be, but the most expensive tickets are in the upper deck, which will provide better viewing angles since the surface is being set up between the third-base and first-base lines, with the center ice dot approximately where second base would be. Still, a quick tour of the stadium suggested that no one will be disappointed by being at a historic event for the Blackhawks organization.

"There are going to be a lot of new viewers on that day and maybe they're going to trip and see the Blackhawks playing at Wrigley Field and that's going to be their hockey baptism," said team president John McDonough. "We think it's going to be a watershed moment for this franchise."