Weather has really changed things up for tonight's Winter Classic. The new 8pm starting time could give the NHL a big time boost. As a matter of fact this could not have worked out better for both NBC or the NHL having the game in primetime where more casual fans can see it will likely boost the ratings well beyond the 1pm start time where the game faced strong college bowl competition.

 Tonight the Winter Classic on NBC faces the Fiesta Bowl with UConn and Oklahoma. The game is a good but not a great game on ESPN.

The primetime game for the NHL and NBC really has a nice opening to boost ratings with the the lights shinning brightly on the the two biggest stars in hockey. The Caps own  ALEX OVECHKIN and the Pens  SIDNEY CROSBY.        

Locally at 6pm CSN SportsNetCentral will have pregame reports. You can also expect live reports from NBC4, ABC7 and WUSA9 on their Saturday night 6pm newscasts.

Radio wise 106.7FM did an early pregame show with  Danny Rouhier and Liz Drabick. who did a fine job getting the hockey fans going this morning.

The flagship station of Caps Radio WFED AM 1500AM will do the pregame at 7:30PM live from Heinz Field in Pittsburgh and then at 8PM . As always Steve Kolbe will be doing the play by play with color man Ken Sabourin as his broadcast partner.  

Tonight's Winter Classic will be seen on NBC4 and WBAL11 locall with  Bob Costas  as the host for NBC Sports’  being joined on site by Mike Milbury (studio analyst), Mike “Doc” Emrick (play-by-play), Eddie Olczyk (analyst), Pierre McGuire (inside-the-glass reporter), Darren Pang (inside-the glass-reporter), and The Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore (meteorologist.

Post game will be handled radio wise on WFED as well as on 106.7 The Fan with Holden Kushner. CSN will have complete coverage on their SportsNet Central show at 10pm. Also there will be plenty of reports from Pittsburgh on NBC4,, FOX5, ABC7 and WUSA 9 on their local newscast.,