Conditions will be a factor in outdoor game as Canada faces US at world juniors
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — A 30-minute practice was enough to convince Canadian defenceman Dante Fabbro that there’s no way to prepare for the cold of an outdoor hockey game.
“I don’t think there’s any strategy for staying warm out there, it’s pretty cold,” Fabbro said after a skate on the rink at NewEra Field, eyeblack still on his cheeks. “First five minutes it was freezing, I couldn’t even feel my face. But after the first five it was a lot better, kinda got warm. That’s all you can really do.”
Fabbro and his teammates had the practice at the home of the NFL’s Buffalo Bills to try and get used to the conditions a day before Friday’s big game against the rival United States in the preliminary round of the world junior hockey championship.
It was -10 Celsius — without windchill — when Canada stepped on the ice in the mid-afternoon. Head coach Dominique Ducharme had chosen a time close to the 3 p.m. start of Friday’s game so his team could get used to the glare reflecting off the ice at that time of day.