Americans are unaccustomed to outdoor ice hockey.

Street hockey is one thing. However, arctic winters, a necessary evil for outdoor ponds, are few and far between — this year being an exception. Unless you live in a Canada-bordering state or Massachusetts, the weather is generally too warm to play ice hockey outside.

It’s unfortunate, because we Americans love our sports outdoors, no matter the weather. Some of the NFL’s greatest games have been outdoors in frigid temps, and this year’s Super Bowl in New Jersey could be another.

In the buildup to our first Super Bowl, we in the New York-Metro area are going to get two more exciting outdoor events. On Sunday, iconic Yankee Stadium finally gets to host an outdoor hockey game — the first of two in a four-day stretch. The New York Rangers — the area’s most legendary hockey franchise — will meet the New Jersey Devils Sunday, then intrastate rival New York Islanders on Wednesday.

Colour me tickled.

But why should we stop there? Let’s have more outdoor games.

The Winter Classic has been such a boon for NBC and the NHL that it was only a matter of time before they’d expand the outdoor schedule. I know there are critics — the matchups are slightly bizarre and having two games at Yankee Stadium seems awkward — but the Stadium Series is an exciting time for fans like me in New York, or those in Los Angeles, who have not had the good fortune of seeing an outdoor game live.

And the players are pumped, too.

“It’s going to be a fun environment to be around,” Devils goalie Martin Brodeur told me Tuesday. “Just that we’re talking about it… it’s definitely going to be exciting for a lot of people to be a part of that.”

Brodeur was asked if he had memories of great outdoor moments growing up in Quebec, and it sounds like most Canadian stories of playing on ponds — or on the litany of city rinks in Montreal.

“Every local park had their own ice rink,” Brodeur recalled. “For me, it was skating every single day, twice a day sometimes, come back for dinner, go back at night under the lights… that’s all we did when we were growing up.

“I wasn’t a goalie. It was too cold to be a goalie. Now, I may have no choice.”

If there’s an event that can turn professional athletes — some of the most stoic and unimpressionable people on earth — into children over a regular-season game, it is a great thing.

The idea was the two outdoor games would serve as a build-up to next Sunday’s Super Bowl. Why shouldn’t the NHL piggyback the NFL every year? Next year’s Super Bowl is in Glendale, Ariz., on Feb. 1. Why shouldn’t the NHL schedule Kings vs. Coyotes for Jan. 25 in Tempe – or, dare I say, Las Vegas?

Does playing outdoors get old for the players? Maybe for a few. But in the interest of eyeballs, this weekend is huge for the NHL. If the ratings and attendance are there in New York and Dodger Stadium for the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks, we should see a spike in outdoor games in the near future.

I understand the argument that too many spoils the novelty of outdoor hockey, but is it really worse than seeing the same showcased in outdoor games every year? Ice conditions are bad in warm-weather climates? The ice conditions have been borderline treacherous in the Winter Classics.

The schedule gets monotonous, especially this time of the year, even with the Olympics looming. Break up the monotony, and let the locals have some fun, and let’s hope that we get some diversity next year.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to start bundling up for Sunday.