CITI PUT ON ICE
The Rangers will host the Sabres today in the first NHL game ever played at Citi Field
KEVIN Shattenkirk says he grew up a Mets fan, still is, and used to go to Shea Stadium from New Rochelle as a kid when one of his good friends had season tickets.
“In those days,” Shattenkirk says, “Mike Piazza was my guy.”
Shea (not Skjei) was finished after 2008, but Shattenkirk has been to several games at Citi Field, which currently looks nothing like he’s used to seeing. Today’s Winter Classic will be special for everyone, but there probably isn’t a player who will have more on-site support than Shattenkirk, who estimates there will be more than 100 friends and family members in attendance for the Rangers’ New Year’s Day clash with Buffalo.
Thirty-five of those tickets were organized by Shattenkirk, who purchased 10.
“I’m fortunate I think where I’ve kind of laid the law down,” Shattenkirk said regarding family and friends asking for tickets. “Everyone kind of knows the rules now. I think people had jumped on this — for a long time now they’ve had tickets.”
Both teams practiced there Sunday in the frigid cold, taking in the immense scenery while some conjured up images of their childhood pond-hockey days. The rink runs from third-to-first base. A huge NHL logo that will serve as a musical stage is near where home plate usually is. Oldschool checker cabs are scattered about on mock streets pit in the outfield. They even slapped a Winter Classic logo on the home run apple.
Though the Rangers are technically the road team, they scored the home clubhouse. The room is cut in half, so nobody is occupying Matt Harvey’s stall, but fourth-liner Paul Carey was
RANGERS vs. SABRES 1 p.m. on Ch. 4
stationed where David Wright resides. “What an honor,” Carey said, smiling.
The temperature was in the teens, felt like closer to five degrees, and the conditions likely will be similar today. “I remember in my youth going out with my friends and putting the skate blades on,” Alain Vigneault said, “but I don’t remember it being this cold.”
Shattenkirk — dubbed Sunday a “work in progress” by Vigneault — played in last year’s Winter Classic at Busch Stadium with the Blues. Citi Field has a different feel.
“The vantage point from the baseball field looking out into the stands is crazy to me,” he said. “Every time you get out there, it’s just so big. Citi Field for whatever reason seems like it’s more on top of you, too.”
The spectacle will be one to remember, but just being there isn’t good enough for the Rangers.
“It’s always hard to look back at any type of game if you don’t win the game,” said Henrik Lundqvist, 3-0 in outdoor games. “If it’s playoffs, Olympics, or outdoor games, if you don’t win the game you don’t look back on it with a smile on your face. But if you have a good game and you win, it’s easier to go there mentally.”
Some players took batting practice in the indoor cages before practice. Lundqvist, who will wear his normal pads after he felt he couldn’t properly break in his new Metsinspired pads, didn’t get the chance. “Maybe I’ll do some (this) morning to get warmed up,” he said. Warmed, of course, being a relative term.
KREIDER REPORT: Vigneault said Chris Kreider (blood clot) went to the Rangers’ practice facility Saturday and was in “good spirits.”