Morning Bag Skate: Sun glare could delay Winter Classic start time

Welcome to the final day of 2014, everyone! The Blackhawks are in the nation's capital getting ready for Thursday's big Winter Classic matchup against the Capitals at Nationals Park, and I hope everyone has a great New Year's Eve of partying before then. Seriously, the next couple days are going to be amazinggggggggg. Onto the news!

**That pesky light machine in the sky that we call the Sun could delay Thursday's Winter Classic start time due to glare (SI.com)

**So we're pretty good at filling out All-Star Game ballots, huh? (PHT)

**The Winter Classic entertainment will also include Billy Idol, Gavin DeGraw and Lee Greenwood, none of which remotely appeal to my 23-year-old self. I suppose I will have to crank the Tame Impala between periods. (Puck Daddy)

**Uh oh!!! Another informal holiday practice that wasn't approved by the league, this time in New Jersey. (Fire & Ice)

*The Panthers have agreed to a six-year, $24.6 million deal with forward Nick Bjugstad. The former first-round pick gets an AAV of $4.1 million. (Miami Herald)

**Ryan Getzlaf says he helped organized the informal skate with Ducks teammates over the holiday because he didn't want to take too long of a break (L.A. Times)

**Dany Heatley cleared waivers and was assigned to the AHL (Ducks)

**Listen to Beau Bennett, everyone: maybe the mumps aren't so bad. (NHL.com)

**The Jets will be without Evander Kane until February (Winnipeg Sun)

**The Blue Jackets have placed Cam Atkinson on IR with a shoulder injury (Columbus Dispatch)

**Just because the Lightning have increasingly turned to Andrei Vasilevskiy doesn't mean the team has lost faith in Evgeni Nabakov (Tampa Bay Times)

**Despite rumors to the contrary, the Oilers aren't planning on sending down Leon Draisaitl to the WHL yet (PHT)