Their outside game is great

The Detroit Red Wings, world-class athletes who have won every reward hockey can offer, were as giddy as little kids for a few moments Thursday and didn’t care who knew it.

Lined up before the NHL’s Winter Classic, wearing uniforms modeled on a style their forbearers wore in 1926-27 -- and facing the Chicago Blackhawks in a version of their 1936-37 uniforms -- they shed any pretense of being blase while soaking up sounds and sights they had never expected to experience.

There they were on a hockey rink plopped down in the middle of Wrigley Field, surrounded by a roaring crowd in the venerable stadium and hundreds of fans perched on rooftop seats across Waveland and Sheffield avenues.

Skies were gray but dropped no snow. Temperatures were in the 20s, almost made to order for outdoor hockey.

It was surreal. It was stunning.

It was too much to digest with a straight face.

“I looked around with my mouth open at the beginning,” Detroit forward Jiri Hudler said. “We’re standing during the national anthems looking at each other like, wow, this is awesome.”

And it was.

A tad less awesome, maybe, for the Blackhawks than for the Red Wings, who scored five straight goals and rallied for a 6-4 victory that deflated the crowd of 40,818.

But the Blackhawks, despite losing to the defending Stanley Cup champions for the second time in three days, appreciated what they had done to promote a league that has rarely marketed itself effectively in the United States.

The sense of occasion that prevailed, the historical references contributed by the stadium and the participation of Chicago sports greats Stan Mikita, Bobby Hull, Tony Esposito, Denis Savard, Ferguson Jenkins, Ryne Sandberg and Billy Williams and a laughable rendition of a hockey-oriented version of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” combined with the weather to make this uniquely enjoyable.

Playing outdoors was a romantic return to the game’s roots that didn’t make a mockery of this particular game. The NHL sold some souvenirs and some lucrative sponsorships -- no small feat in this economy -- without selling out the players, who were enthusiastic participants.

“It’s probably a once-in-a-lifetime thing for some of us,” said Chicago forward Patrick Kane, who played despite a sore shoulder, “and I definitely cherished it.”

There were many wonderful sights, starting with the mini-rink set up in short center field for kids to use during the intermissions and pregame flyover and fireworks.

Detroit’s coaches sported broad-brimmed black hats, but Chicago’s Joel Quenneville stood bareheaded in the cold.

Detroit’s Marian Hossa wore a neck warmer and teammate Henrik Zetterberg applied eye black, but the sun didn’t peek through until the third period.

“It was a little different,” Zetterberg said. “It was nice to have fresh air in your face all the time.”

The spectacle of millionaire hockey players wearing woolly hats in the warmups and becoming red-cheeked from the wind humanized them and the game like little else before it.

The closest comparisons are the previous two outdoor cold-weather games, in Edmonton in 2003 and Buffalo last New Year’s Day. Those were played in frigid conditions and on ice not nearly as good as the rink set up between third base and first base at Wrigley Field and groomed to excellent standards Thursday.

“You’ve got to sell the game,” said Blackhawks forward Kris Versteeg, who scored the first goal, added an assist and leads all NHL rookies with 31 points.

“You see hockey now -- I think it’s booming back in the States.

“You see Chicago -- I think it’s going to be right up there as the biggest sport in Chicago again. It’s got to be. The Blackhawks are back and we’re ready to take charge.”

Not on Thursday they weren’t.

The Red Wings overcame their early penchant for visiting the penalty box -- located where second base is normally found -- and subdued the pro-Hawks crowd by dissecting the Blackhawks’ defense and beating goaltender Cristobal Huet to the five hole.

It was a feisty, physical game. A few goals, like Versteeg’s backhand pass to Martin Havlat for a 2-1 Chicago lead, were great collaborations. Pavel Datsyuk’s dance past two defensemen to put the Red Wings ahead for good at 17:17 of the second period stood out as a marvelous solo feat.

Altogether, it was grand entertainment.

“It’s going to be pretty hard to top,” said Detroit defenseman Chris Chelios, who grew up in Chicago and spent nine seasons with the Blackhawks.

That doesn’t mean the NHL shouldn’t try to match or surpass this.

Commissioner Gary Bettman said he has received “expressions of thought” from many markets, though he wouldn’t name them and said he had no idea when or where the next outdoor game might be.

“It’s not something you can do every week,” he said. “It’s not something that I think you can do many, many times a year.

“But it’s something that we know can be a special part of our game if we do it right.”

They did it right Thursday, and for now, that’s enough.

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helene.elliott@latimes.com