Now an MSU hockey (3-4-1 overall, 2-2-0 CCHA) player, Darnell headed into the 2012-13 season ready to finally get the opportunity to take an outdoor pond on a much bigger stage with much more at stake, but now that opportunity has been snatched from him.

With the National Hockey League’s, or NHL, cancellation of the Winter Classic comes the cancellation of the outdoor Great Lakes Invitational, or GLI, at Comerica Park, which was scheduled as a part of the Hockeytown Winter Festival.

The GLI now will take place at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit on Dec. 29-30.

“It’s just unfortunate that them not coming to an agreement affects us in a way, even though we have no association with them,” Darnell said of the NHL’s failure to come to a new collective bargaining agreement with the NHL Players’ Association.

“I know there’s more than just our college games being canceled there. All the people who were supposed to work the games and stuff like that, you kind of feel for them because they have jobs and they have families to support. They can’t do that with the NHL not going on.”

The Hockeytown Winter Festival was going to kick off with amateur games, open skates and entertainment performances. The GLI, featuring MSU, Michigan, Western Michigan and Michigan Tech, originally was slated to take place Dec. 27-28 but now is moved to Dec. 29-30.

The Ontario Hockey League and American Hockey League had games planned for the days after the GLI. The festival was slated to conclude with the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs playing an alumni game, then the two actual teams playing at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor.

“I haven’t had a ton of reaction from our players,” MSU head coach Tom Anastos said. “(I’m disappointed) for the seniors that they won’t get that opportunity to play outdoors. We probably all assume that, at some point, they’ll resume playing and that they’ll reschedule that at Comerica so we can play in that at some point in the future.”

Darnell pointed out that although the seniors won’t be able to play outdoors this winter, they were a part of the team when MSU took on Michigan for the Big Chill, an outdoor hockey event at Michigan Stadium in 2010.

He added that he hopes a possible game at Comerica Park and the opportunity to once again step on an outdoor pond lies ahead in the rest of his MSU years.

“I go to Tigers games all the time,” Darnell said. “If they can do that next year, it’d be sweet, whether it’s the GLI or it’s not. I would love to be able to play an outdoor game, or maybe two, in my remaining years here.”