'Road to NHL Winter Classic' puts Rangers, Sabres on biggest stage

This is New York. This is the 2018 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic. This is big.
Or as narrator Bill Camp says in the opening of "Road to the NHL Winter Classic presented by Honda," the four-part behind-the-scenes docuseries which premiers Wednesday on NBCSN (11:30 p.m.) immediately following the game between the Detroit Red Wings and the Boston Bruins, "The whole point of getting to the biggest stage of any walk of life is all that the biggest stage offers you: the attention, the pressure, the magnitude. So, then, welcome. Welcome to the biggest stage in the world."

It's even bigger this season. For the first time in the Road to the NHL Winter Classic's six-year history, the NHL will distribute the weekly series on social platforms. Full episodes will be available on YouTube.com/NHL and short-form versions of the 30-minute, four-week series will run on Facebook Watch via the NHL's Show Page at Facebook.com/BestoftheNHL every Friday. The first episdoe will also air on Canada on Sportsnet on Thursday at 7 p.m. and on NHL Network on 10 p.m. on Sunday.
There are the stars: Henrik Lundqvist, Jack Eichel, the biggest names on the New York Rangers and Buffalo Sabres. There is the setting: Citi Field, home of the New York Mets. There is the concept of New York on New York, one part of the state matching up with the city that overshadows everything on Jan. 1 (1 p.m. ET; NBC, SN, TVA Sports). And, now, the concept of it all playing out on the ice.
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But while the big moments are there, fully covered in the first episode, it's in the smaller moments that the teams and the players reveal themselves -- in the dream setup that Jason Pominville has created in the basement for his hockey- and gymnastic-fanatic kids, in the story of the chance meeting between Rick Nash and his wife that led them to a New York apartment and knee hockey with his son and daughter, in the intensity written all over Eichel's face as he contemplates what he's trying to do in Buffalo.
This is both the same Rangers team of recent years, and different, but it remains one with its sights set on bigger things, one that has made it to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for seven straight seasons and is attempting to get back to the Stanley Cup Final, which it reached in the 2013-2014 season.
It is different for the Sabres, a team trying to find its footing with a new coach in Phil Housley and a budding star in Eichel. For Housley, and for the Sabres, it's about building -- a strong team, a leadership core, a group that can take Buffalo back to the playoffs, where it has not been since 2011.

"So far this year this group of Sabres is struggling to find their way," Camp says. "At best, a work in progress."
That's what Housley is trying to change, what he's trying to create, as the Sabres themselves try to focus on the future and what's to come.
For the Rangers, it's not about the future, it's all about the now, something that Kevin Shattenkirk is familiar with. He knows what the city is like, having grown up just outside in New Rochelle, New York, and now finds himself back in town after spending the last seven years playing for the St. Louis Blues and Washington Capitals.
"Growing up as a young hockey player in Westchester, you always were a Rangers fan," Shattenkirk says. "I think for me having those chances to go to the Garden as a kid and experience it firsthand forces you to fall in love with the game even more. A lot of players get to play long careers and successful careers, but not many guys have a chance to play for their hometown team."
It might not be his hometown team, but for Pominville and his wife, Buffalo feels like home. Pominville, the only current member of the Sabres to have played in the first Winter Classi in Buffalo 10 years ago, was a member of the Sabres from 2003-2013, and has now returned.
"I started my career here, scored my first goal here, always a place that I really enjoyed living in and playing in. Great city," Pominville said. "We were definitely excited when we found out about the news that we were coming back. It's nice to have a chance to put the jersey on again, for sure."
Even if the Sabres' fortunes aren't exactly what he -- or any of them -- would have hoped.

For now, they have something else to focus on, something coming in the future. They have the Winter Classic and all it means and all it brings with it. It's an event that some have experienced, like Pominville, and that some have not, like Nash.
Nash, who remembers his days skating outside in Ontario as a kid, played in two Stadium Series games with the Rangers at Yankee Stadium in 2014, but has yet to experience the Winter Classic.
"Being an older guy on the team, not having a chance to play in a Winter Classic, this is truly a dream," Nash, 33, said. "Something that you'll always remember."
Especially this Winter Classic. Especially in New York.