Hockey fans dawning St. Louis Blues and Minnesota Wild sweaters brought downtown Minneapolis streets to life Saturday afternoon as they took in several pregame events ahead of the 2022 NHL Winter Classic at Target Field.
This year's winter classic has a little different feel to it because of the extreme cold barreling down on Minnesota. The National Weather Service in the Twin Cities said that the temperature at puck drop would be around 4 or 5 degrees below zero.
"Wind chill will be around 20 below zero, and it will only get colder as the night goes on," said National Weather Service meteorologist Nick Carletta.
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Carletta added that the cold is something to take seriously.
"This is going to be something where you need to make sure you have multiple layers on, sources of heat, and any kind of interior area where you can warm up is a good way to keeping going out there."
The cold weather didn't stop John Messmer and his son Lou from traveling to Minneapolis from St. Louis to watch the Blues take on the Wild.
"We were at the Winter Classic five years ago in St. Louis and thought that was cold," John said with a laugh. "It was 46 degrees."
Lou said he and his dad were prepared for the Minnesota cold.
"Three layers of pants, three layers of clothing, feet and hand warmers, two pairs of gloves, and keep thinking warm thoughts."
John said the thrill of the Winter Classic is what drew them to Minneapolis and Target Field on New Year's Day.
"It's just such a wild idea to have hockey in front of 40,000 or 50,000 fans instead of 20,000 fans," Messmer said. "It's just a unique element that if you're a hockey fan you just can't avoid wanting to be apart of it."