I Love the Winter Classic!

Even though I am not born and raised in the snowy weather of the east, as a Canadian, you cannot help but appreciate the show the NHL has been putting on the last few years on New Year’s Day – the Winter Classic.

This year’s version of the outdoor regular season game was played at Fenway Park, the iconic home of MLB’s storied franchise, the Boston Red Sox. The home team, needless to say, was the Boston Bruins, and they squared off against their divisional rival, the Philadelphia Flyers.

While the game was not the most spectacular, and the ice condition was not ideal, it was still a game where, once you started watching, became very difficult to leave behind. The overtime finish helped made the game even more memorable, but the scenes alone were good enough for me. If you don’t believe me, check out these pictures captured from the game:

For someone who has bashed NHL commissioner Gary Bettman as much as I did, I must also give him credit for the Winter Classic. Even for someone who has not grown up playing in the backyard ice pond with my buddies on makeshift boards and rinks, the atmosphere and the fell of the game were still spectacular to me. I cannot even begin to imagine how the game must have felt for those who had more of the history than me with the sports.

Great job, commissioner! Now, let’s do the next right thing, and fold some of the teams that are playing out in markets where hockey is not cared about, and bring the NHL back to cities like Winnipeg and Quebec (for whatever reason, the Winnipeg Jets and the Quebec Nordiques were two of my favourite teams besides the Canucks growing up...).