ESPN

The NHL announced Wednesday the Chicago Blackhawks and Pittsburgh Penguins will play at Soldier Field on March 1, 2014.

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The NHL is in the final planning stages of its much-anticipated series of outdoor stadium games next season with six outdoor contests set to take place in football and baseball stadiums across North America, sources familiar with the plan confirmed to ESPN.com Tuesday.

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CHICAGO -- Chicago Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said Saturday he hoped his team would get the chance to play an outdoor game at Soldier Field in the future.

Quenneville and the Blackhawks skated Saturday with the USA Warriors Ice Hockey Program on the rink at Soldier Field. The experience stirred memories for Quenneville and his team of playing in the NHL Winter Classic at Wrigley Field in 2009.

“That was the coolest experience in all my hockey games or career playing, coaching – the Winter Classic,” Quenneville said. “Being outside again gives you that feeling. I see that (Hockey City) Classic sign on the wall. It’d be nice to see that again.

“It’d be great (to play at Soldier Field.) This is a great venue. Coming to Bears games here, the crowd, it’s perfect.”

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CHICAGO – Notre Dame junior defenseman Stephen Johns feels as if some of his classmates from Chicago treat him differently because he’s a Chicago Blackhawks prospect.

“I tend to get a little more attention from some of my buddies who are from Chicago because a lot of kids from Chicago go to Notre Dame,” said Johns, who is from Pennsylvania. “It’s kind of fun to talk to them about it. But they don’t understand the whole thing about it and how much work it takes to play at that level.”

Since being drafted in the second round by the Blackhawks in 2010, Johns has learned some of the realities of professional hockey. For one, he knows he still has a lot to prove before he’s skating for the Blackhawks at the United Center.

“Hopefully, I can play there one day,” Johns said. “I know it’s a long ways away. I try not to focus on that too much. I’m focused on what I have to do at Notre Dame first.”

While the Hawks are taking on the Los Angeles Kings at the United Center on Sunday, Johns will be skating not too far from Madison Avenue. He and Notre Dame face Miami (Ohio) as part of the Hockey City Classic college hockey doubleheader at Soldier Field on Sunday afternoon.

Johns was excited for the opportunity.

“Since they started playing the outdoor games in the NHL, it’s always been something you watch every year,” Johns said. “You think to yourself of how incredible it would be to experience something like that. We’re fortunate enough to be at a university where they’re giving us the opportunity to play in that and play in an environment like that. It’s going to be a huge game for the standings, but it’s going to be something special we’ll remember for the rest of our lives.”

Just as there’s a balance to that, Johns has tried to find the proper mix between being a college student-athlete and being a Blackhawks prospect. On the one hand, he wants to enjoy himself in college. But on the other, he knows the Blackhawks have invested in him, and he doesn’t allow himself to forget that.

Blackhawks management does pop by occasionally and remind him, too.

“They’re here once in a while for games and tell me what areas I need to work on,” said Johns, who likes to pattern his game after Blackhawks defenseman Brent Seabrook. “I’ve sat down with them and gone over video of specific games. They tell me different pointers. They’re telling me stuff my coaching is pointing out, but they’re going into more depth because they want me to progress as much as possible and be a big factor for them in the future.”

The understanding of Johns’ responsibilities has been part of his maturity on the ice since being drafted. Johns has especially tried to control his emotions and not overreact to situations in games.

Notre Dame coach Jeff Jackson said he has seen Johns make strides in that area.

“He’s an emotional kid,” Jackson said. “He plays with his heart on his sleeve. Sometimes that creates a problem for him. That sometimes shows up for him. He wants to win. He wants to do well so often that sometimes it gets in the way of him doing well.

“It’s been a maturity process with him. He’s made improvements in certain parts of his game. He has to keep in control. As time goes on, I’m sure he’ll get better and better at it.”

Johns has been one of Notre Dame’s top defensemen the past few seasons. He has one goal and 12 assists, a plus/minus rating of plus-eight and 34 blocks in 30 games this season.

The Blackhawks took a liking to Johns originally because of his frame, which is now 6-foot-3 and 230 pounds, and his defensive skills. Blackhawks assistant Norm Maciver said the organization feels good about where he’s headed.

“What attracted us to Johns was the size and physical presence he brought to the game,” Maciver said. “Since we drafted him, he has been at Notre Dame for three years, and we are very pleased with his progress. He is an important part of their team.”

Jackson thought Johns had the potential to be a defenseman for the Blackhawks one day.

“He’s a real solid kid,” Jackson said. “He’s physically built. He has a great body for professional hockey some day. He has a physical presence. He’s not afraid to hit or get hit. He has the skill set that kids at that size don’t have. His skating is improving. He’s not a bad skater. He can make decisions with the puck, pretty good hands, good shot.

“It’s almost like getting him to finishing school and improve in those areas and help be a real solid defenseman.”

CHICAGO -- U.S. Army Capt. Mark Little was advised to create a goal for himself after losing both of his legs to an explosive device in Baghdad in 2007.

Playing hockey again, something he had done since childhood, was his first thought, but he quickly dismissed it as soon as the idea came out of his mouth.

“[My physical therapist] said, ‘You know what? Let’s talk tomorrow,’” the 29-year-old Little recalled. “And she brought in a double amputee, and he brought his pair of Rollerblade prosthetics that they just made, first pair ever the week before. He showed them to me. He said, ‘Dude, you can do whatever you want.’ That was it. Fine, I’m playing.”

On Saturday, Little, along with about 20 other players from the USA Warriors Ice Hockey Program, an organization that gives wounded veterans a chance to play hockey in ways fitted to their physical needs, joined the Chicago Blackhawks for a morning skate and loose scrimmage on the outdoor rink at Soldier Field.

For Little and his teammates, the opportunity to skate alongside professional players was a dream come true. For the Blackhawks, it was the least they could do.

“It’s definitely really special for us,” Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews said. “We look up to them. We appreciate everything they’ve done for us. To us, they’re the real heroes. To share the ice and have them out for practice with us is a pretty big honor for the guys.”

Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane couldn’t get over seeing players without arms or legs playing hockey and them not thinking of themselves as unique.

“It’s pretty crazy that they’re out here skating around,” Kane said. “You try to talk to a few of them as much as you can. They don’t seem to complain about anything. Those things just kind of happen. It’s pretty crazy their outlook on life. They’re tough people, got to give them credit.”

As Little explained, he never allowed his injury to affect who he was as a person or his love for hockey.

“It’s who you are before the injury that leads into afterward,” Little said. “The injury is an event in time. That’s it. Who you are before, that’s who you are after. Now I come into three pieces instead of one.

“People say we’re heroes or whatever have you, but we hardly see ourselves that way. We are just lucky to be here. A lot of our brothers and sisters are not, and we’re so fortunate to get these experience. Middle of Soldier Field. You can’t say anything more about it. It’s Soldier Field. And that’s what we are; we’re soldiers in the end. Marines, sailors, airmen out here playing hockey, the sport we love. I said a lot, but I’m pretty much speechless.”

Marine Lance Cpl. Josh Misiewicz left Soldier Field with a similar feeling.

Misiewicz grew up in La Grange, Ill., and has been a Blackhawks fan since his youth. He joined the USA Warriors after losing both of his legs when he stepped on a bomb in Afghanistan in 2011.

“One of the guys involved with the Warriors got me out here,” the 24-year-old Misiewicz said. “From there on, I just played more hockey. It’s been good. It’s good therapy, good everything.

"It was cool to be out on the ice with [the Blackhawks]. They’re so fast. You think they’re fast when you’re watching them in the stands. At the ice level, it’s unbelievable. I’m definitely taking some memories from this -- that’s for sure.”

Both teams felt they were leaving with something.

“It definitely gives you some perspective,” Blackhawks forward Patrick Sharp said. “Sometimes when things aren’t going well at the rink, in your personal life, to take a look at what some of these guys have sacrificed and what they’re going through, it’ll definitely put things in perspective.”

Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said, "It’s special here. It’s Soldier Field and getting to play with the Warriors here today. They invited us to have a little pregame skate with them. They got a big game tonight. It was fun having a game with them as well. Our guys enjoyed it. It was a great day. I think we enjoyed it all.”