Today’s picture of the day comes courtesy of the revamped Ralph Wilson Stadium which is finally ready for the second ever NHL Hockey Heritage Outdoor Classic. Here, a few Sabres get in some practice time to familiarize themselves with the created ice rink.

They’re supposed to faceoff against rating Hart Trophy winner Sidney Crosby and the Penguins on New Year’s Day with the activities set to get underway at 1 ET/10 PT tomorrow on NBC.

It is expected to snow up in Buffalo. Hopefully it will be of light variety so the festivities aren’t delayed which would be a complete debacle for the league.

More than 73,000 spectators are expected to be there for this exciting event.

“Today was fun, (Tuesday) will be a lot more serious, get down to business,” Buffalo defenseman Brian Campbell told the Associated Press.

“We’re privileged to be part of this,” Pens’ coach Michel Therrien stated. “But in the meantime we’ve got to understand this is a regular-season game, and I’m sure Lindy Ruff (is saying) the same thing. He wants to have those two points and we want to have those two points.” 

While today’s weather conditions were picture perfect, that’s not expected to be the case tomorrow where they’re forecasting temperatures to drop into the mid-20’s and maybe reach 32 degrees with a 90 percent chance of snow.

“I think we were kind of spoiled with the weather,” the 20 year-old Crosby pointed out. “Everything seemed pretty perfect. Have to see tomorrow how it is. If it’s a little bit colder maybe you adjust.”

“Things that we can’t control – the weather – we can adjust for it,” Sabres’ netminder Ryan Miller noted. “But it’s going to do what it’s going to do.”

If they do get snow, there’d be nothing better than seeing players fight through some light flakes with windy conditions.

Pond hockey. For now, just wait and see.