Boston’s outdoor games

Boston’s outdoor games

[paypal_donation_button]Boston’s Outdoor Games

In Canada (and some parts of the United States) hockey began as an outdoor sport. Whether it’s played on frozen ponds in family backyards or in city-run rinks throughout the winter months, the outdoor game has a nostalgic appeal for those who spent their childhoods anxiously awaiting the season’s first freeze. The uncertainty of the weather and ice quality has traditionally kept professional games inside, however. Prior to 2003, the only games involving NHL teams that were played outdoors were exhibition matches. Two of these were back in the 1950s and saw an NHL club face off against community players. Only one of these games pitted NHL franchises against each other, taking place outside of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in September of 1991 between the New York Rangers and the Los Angeles Kings.

As technology has developed, however, and the ability to make artificial ice has improved, the NHL has added outdoor games to the regular season schedule—the Heritage Classic, played between Canadian teams, and the Winter Classic and Stadium Series, which have featured teams from across North America. The 2016 Winter Classic saw the Boston Bruins play the Montreal Canadiens. This is the third outdoor game the Bruins have played, though only two were played for points.

The first outdoor game played by the Bruins could hardly be called such. It was April 1956 and the team had just finished the 1955-56 NHL season. While in Bay Roberts, Newfoundland, the Bruins took the ice on an outdoor artificial surface in exhibition, in a game that would be even less traditional than the first outdoor exhibition between the Detroit Red Wings and the Marquette Pirates—a team formed at Marquette Branch Prison—in 1954. In that game, the teams stopped keeping score after the first period, when the Red Wings were leading the game already by a score of 18-0. In the Bruins’ case, they were following the then-tradition of playing an exhibition tour after failing to make the NHL post-season. Four local teams from Conception Bay took turns playing the Bruins in a scrimmage-style game, ending up in a free-for-all where all 23 local players took the ice to face the Bruins at the same time. In the entirety of the game, one goal was scored against the NHL club; aside from noting that tally, no score was kept.

The two Winter Classic games the Bruins have taken part in were more traditional. Both of their appearances in the Winter Classic series were home games for Boston, in the sense that they took place in the state of Massachusetts. The 2010 Winter Classic was held in Boston’s Fenway Park. Though attended by over 38,000 fans—about twice the attendance of a typical NHL game—it remains the smallest venue of a Winter Classic game through the 2015-16 NHL season. The Bruins beat the Philadelphia Flyers in overtime by a score of 2-1 thanks to a game-winning tally off the stick of left-winger Marco Sturm. They did not fare so well in the 2016 Winter Classic. Held at the New England Patriots’ Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts and attended by about 67,000 fans, the 2016 Winter Classic was the first game in the series to be decided by more than two goals, as the visiting Montreal Canadiens beat the Bruins by a score of 5-1; Matt Beleskey’s goal early in the 3rd period prevented the game from also becoming the first Winter Classic shutout.

In terms of the points earned, of course, the Winter Classic is no different than any other game. For many players and fans, however, it’s a special event with much more meaning than the two points up for grabs. It is a nostalgic and exciting game that puts hockey back out in the fresh air, at the whim of the elements like the pond hockey games from many players’ childhoods. Following the completion of the 2016 Winter Classic, the Bruins have become the sixth team to play in two of these events, joining the ranks of the Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Chicago Blackhawks, Washington Capitals, and Detroit Red Wings. The Bruins are the first team to have the home ice advantage in both of their Winter Classic appearances—only fitting for an original six team that experimented with outdoor play long before the league decided to make it a tradition.