NHL will warm ice at Winter Classic due to sub-zero temperatures

The NHL Winter Classic in Minneapolis, MN between the Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues has a chance to be the coldest game in league history with temperatures so low that even the ice itself will need to be heated.

"Once we get too cold, we can have some issues with it being brittle or skate marks where it does chip away, so we really try to control that temperature," NHL senior manager of facilities operations Mike Craig said, via NHL.com.

The NHL says the optimum ice temperature is between 22 and 24 degrees, much higher than the forecasted temperatures in Minneapolis which are expected to be well into the negatives. The coldest game in NHL history was the 2003 Heritage Classic in Edmonton, Ontario, Canada where it was zero degrees at puck drop.

"The cold weather is awesome," Blues coach Craig Berube said, via NHL.com. "Just to have an outdoor game in this kind of weather is going to be special, it really is. I know it's cold, but it's just something different. But I think once you drop that puck it's all going to go away and you go play."

The Blues and Wild are first and second place in the Central Division with 41 and 40 points, respectively.

The game is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET and will air on TNT.