Pominville sees how Classic evolved

NEW YORK — Jason Pominville can appreciate how much everything around the Winter Classic has changed over the years.

He was with the Sabres when they played in the first one 10 years ago in suburban Buffalo, in a 2-1 shootout loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Now, after four seasons in Minnesota, he’s back for the Sabres’ return to the NHL’s New Year’s Day game.

“Look at this, the buildup has been phenomenal,” Pominville said Sunday as he addressed reporters after the Sabres practiced at Citi Field, home of baseball’s New York Mets and the site of today’s game against the New York Rangers in the 10th Winter Classic.

“The first one was a lot of unknown, no one really knew what the turnout was going to be. Obviously the way it went, the way the fans responded, the way it looked on TV, the way the game ended, I don’t think you could’ve asked for a better scenario for the league.”

The 35-year-old right wing also played in an outdoor game for the Wild in their win over Chicago in Minneapolis in February 2016.

“And now the whole buildup around it from press conferences in the summertime, TV shows, everything around it has really been pretty amazing for us to be a part of it again,” he said.

It was 16 degrees when the Sabres hit the ice for practice at 10 am and the same when the Rangers went out 3½ hours later. The forecast for today is sunny and about the same temperature for the start of the game.

“The ice was awesome,” Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh said. “Obviously the cold temps are going to make a hard, fast ice. The only thing that’s going to be a little tricky is the wind. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow. It felt like you were definitely outside, playing some hockey outdoors the way you grew up on.”

Sunday

GOLDEN KNIGHTS 6,

MAPLE LEAFS 3: In Las Vegas, Nev., William Karlsson had the first hat trick in Vegas history and added an assist to help the streaking Golden Knights win their seventh straight.

DUCKS 5, COYOTES 2: In Anaheim, Calif., Rickard Rakell scored twice in the first period and Anaheim had a three-goal third period to pull away and beat NHL-worst Arizona. AVALANCHE 6, ISLANDERS 1: In Denver, Gabriel Landeskog scored twice in less than two minutes in the second period, and Colorado routed New York. RED WINGS 4, PENGUINS 1: In Detroit, Gustav Nyquist scored twice and Detroit beat Pittsburgh.