Workers prepare the surface of an ice rink at Ralph Wilson Stadium. The Buffalo Bill's home building will play host to the NHL Winter Classic, between the Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins, on Tuesday.

Orchard Park, N.Y. ? Playing outdoor hockey is becoming old hat for Ryan Miller.

Maybe this time it’ll be “new tuque.”

Pulling a page from the Jose Theodore playbook, the Buffalo Sabres goalie is considering wearing a tuque – a knitted ski cap – on top of his mask during the Winter Classic on Tuesday at Ralph Wilson Stadium.

The look will be a la Theodore, who made quite the fashion statement when the then-Montreal Canadiens netminder donned one during the Heritage Classic four years ago at Edmonton.

“I can’t think of a real comfortable way otherwise,” said Miller, who also played an outdoor game at Michigan State. “As a goalie, you get used to wearing your helmet a certain way. I don’t know what I’m going to wear underneath that would make it feel the same and keep warm.

“That might be a good solution, get some of that carpet tape and tape the tuque to my helmet or something.”

The temperature is expected to be about freezing Tuesday afternoon when the Sabres play the Pittsburgh Penguins at the home of the Buffalo Bills. Predicted 20 mph winds and a forecast of snow certainly will make it feel colder, but it won’t be like the subzero temps the Canadiens and Oilers faced in Edmonton under darkness.

Sunshine or not, the chill will be there, and if the game is postponed until Wednesday night, who knows how frigid it will get.

Whether they played on ponds or flooded basketball courts, or even on makeshift rinks in the backyard, for many who grew up with the game in Canada and Europe, that was as common as tossing a football in the cold winter breeze is for youngsters in the United States.

Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby did it in Nova Scotia and had more experience with it as a player in the Quebec junior league, too.

“There’s something special about being outside playing a game,” the Penguins captain said. “I can remember playing under the lights. That was the best time.”