Winter Classic blog: Jason Pominville

The Buffalo Sabres and New York Rangers take it outside to play in the 2018 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic at Citi Field on Monday. Sabres forward Jason Pominville, who played for Buffalo in the first NHL Winter Classic on Jan. 1, 2008, agreed to write about his Winter Classic experience as a guest blogger for NHL.com .
Here is Pominville's first entry, from before the Sabres' 4-3 win at the New Jersey Devils in overtime Friday:

NEWARK, N.J. -- I know someone who is pumped about outdoor hockey.
I'm talking about my son, Jaden, who is 8.
Jaden was with his hockey team at New Era Field on Friday for the United States vs. Canada game in the 2018 IIHF World Junior Championship. He's coming to New York on Saturday and will be outside again at Citi Field on Sunday for our family skate after practice, and then again Monday for our game, the 2018 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic against the New York Rangers (1 p.m. ET; NBC, SN, TVA Sports, NHL.TV).
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You can imagine how excited he is.
Then again, he's kind of like all of us players are now. We are all pumped for the Winter Classic.
I have felt a buzz around our team for a little while now. An excitement has been creeping in and as we get closer and closer you hear more guys talking about tickets, where they are going for dinner, trying to set things up for their families to be comfortable, what they're going to do.
It's hard not to love the experience we're going to get Sunday and Monday. I don't know anybody who doesn't love it.
I had the experience 10 years ago, when I was with the Sabres and we played against the Penguins in the first NHL Winter Classic in Buffalo. I was lucky enough to have it again almost two years ago, when I played with the Minnesota Wild in the 2016 Coors Light NHL Stadium Series against the Chicago Blackhawks at TCF Bank Stadium on Feb. 21, 2016.
I remember when I was traded here to Buffalo this past summer, a friend of mine got in touch with me and told me I'd have the chance to play in another outdoor game, another Winter Classic. I didn't even realize it at the time I was traded because you're focused on so many other things, but when he told me I just thought it was so cool. I started to get excited for it then.
That first one, though, that's the one that started it all off.
I remember the buzz was there leading up to it, but the all-access show that the League pushes now, all the promotion, that wasn't there. The whole thing of what it was going to be like, what it can become, it was all unknown.
The memories from that experience are still vivid for me.
Walking out toward the ice, looking around at the 71,000-plus in the stands, just amazing.
Arriving at the stadium earlier that day and seeing the parking lot full of people, it was just a perfect, perfect scenario.

A snowy day and the way it ends, Sidney Crosby, the best player in the world, against Ryan Miller, the best goalie in the world at the time, to decide the game, it was unreal. I can't imagine how awesome it must have been to watch on TV. That's why it's become what it has become.
The Winter Classic and really the outdoor-game experience has become way bigger and better than what I thought it was going to be before playing in that first one, that's for sure.
The NHL has done a great job with it. Every team wants to have a chance to play in one of these. Every player wants the opportunity. Some of my younger teammates are fortunate to have a chance early in their career to play in one, so they might get another chance down the road.
I've had questions asked to me about what you wear because of the cold, but the biggest thing is just enjoy it because you really never know if you're going to have a chance to do it again.
Obviously, our season so far hasn't gone the way we want it to go. We're getting there, we're not that far off, but this is a time to just forget about everything and just go out there and play, go out there and have fun, like we did as kids playing outside, and hopefully get the result that we want.