Winter Classic blog: Alex Vlasic

Alex Vlasic of the Chicago Blackhawks will keep a blog throughout the Discover NHL Winter Classic at Wrigley Field in Chicago on Tuesday (5 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS).

In his first entry, the 23-year-old defenseman writes about anticipation of the Winter Classic, the first of his NHL career, enjoying Christmas with his family and their anticipation of the outdoor game.

It’s starting to feel a little real now with how close we’re getting to the game. All the little things about us skating, the practice and stuff, getting family out there on the ice, just the whole experience. I’m excited and looking forward to it.

I haven’t seen the latest progress they’ve made at Wrigley. The only time I saw it was last week when I went in with Blackhawks captain Nick Foligno, when former Chicago Cubs pitcher Ryan Dempster gave us a tour of the Cubs clubhouse and batting cages.

The tour of Wrigley was awesome, just seeing how a different pro sports team does it. It’s baseball, something totally different than hockey, so seeing how they treat their day-to-day lives, where they spend it and what they do and what that looks like it was really cool for me to kind of understand that and see from their perspective what it’s like to play baseball. And getting a few swings in the batting cage was great. I’ve still got it.

Christmas was good. It was a nice little break to spend some time with the family. It always comes at a good time of the year, when you’re starting to feel tired and then you get those couple of days to relax, kick up the feet. Luckily my sister’s in town and I’m only 45 minutes away from home in Wilmette, north of Chicago. It’s special for me to go home so easily.

My family’s pumped about the Winter Classic. I got them all Vlasic jerseys for Christmas, so they were excited about that. My brother Eric is looking forward to it the most. He’s a huge hockey guy so he’s fired up. I can’t wait to see what they think it’s all like and get their reactions to it. I’m sure it’ll be just as good as mine.

It's cool to be able to share this with them. They come to every home game, so they don’t have a far drive to get here. It’s special for them to be there and if I wasn’t playing here, I’d have them fly in and come to the outdoor game. It's such a big deal, a cool opportunity to play in and it happens once or twice in a really long career. It’s something really special and I think we’re all so happy about it and looking forward to it.

I’ve heard there could be some rain and snow on gameday. I mean the rain wouldn’t be good but the temperature, someone said it doesn’t look too bad. I think it’s supposed to be in the 30s or 40s, which I feel is pretty ideal. Hopefully the rain doesn’t affect the ice too much, but a little snow would be cool to play in.

Of the Blackhawks’ past outdoor games, I remember watching their Stadium Series game against the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2014. I was watching the game with my teammates. I was eight or nine years old and must’ve been with the Wilmette Braves at the time and I was watching with them at a friend’s house. That was cool, just to be watching that game with all the kids you play with and imagine yourself playing on that stadium someday. For me to be able to do that now is pretty surreal.