“The winters of my childhood were long, long seasons. We lived in three places – the school, the church, and the skating rink, but our real life was on the skating-rink. Real battles were won on the skating-rink. Real strength appeared on the skating-rink. The real leaders showed themselves on the skating-rink.” – Roch Carrier, “The Hockey Sweater”
A synonym for the word “classic” is “simple”. The amount of work that goes into planning and executing an event like today may steer us from believing that this is just a simple old game of hockey, played outdoors, like it was in the beginning. For today, we should try to believe it.
The Canadiens get a chance to find some inspiration after a long, dark month of December that they would sooner forget as quickly as possible. With the return of Brendan Gallagher to the lineup it is an immediate possibility given the stage of today’s game.
It was all smiles yesterday, as both teams got acquainted with the ice surface. Conditions in Boston for an outdoor game are near-to-perfect, with the temperature hovering around freezing. The festival atmosphere surrounding this game will soon be concentrated completely onto that ice surface, where the Canadiens will be seeking just their fourth win in fifteen games, and the Boston Bruins will be looking to follow up a 7-3 victory on Tuesday night with another one against the Canadiens.
The Habs have have a 1-1 record in outdoor games, winning the first ever outdoor NHL regular season game in 2003 in Edmonton, and losing in 2011 in Calgary. The Bruins won their only ever outdoor game before today, beating the Philadelphia Flyers in a memorable 2-1 victory.
While the two points and notch in the victory column do matter, it’s hard to pass up a moment like this. I hope you all enjoy the game, and Happy New Year!
The puck drops at 1:00 PM EST.
How To Watch:
In Canada (French): TVA
In Canada (English): Sportsnet
In the Bruins’ region: NBC
Elsewhere: NHL GameCenter, NHL Center Ice
In the United States you can stream the game over at NBC Sports.
| Left Wing |
Center |
Right Wing |
| Max Pacioretty | Tomas Plekanec | Brendan Gallagher |
| Lars Eller | Alex Galchenyuk | Daniel Carr |
| Tomas Fleischmann | David Desharnais | Dale Weise |
| Brian Flynn | Torrey Mitchell | Paul Byron |
| Left Defense |
Right Defense |
| Nathan Beaulieu | P.K. Subban |
| Andrei Markov | Jeff Petry |
| Alexei Emelin | Mark Barberio |
| Goaltenders |
| Mike Condon |
| Ben Scrivens |
Scratched: Devante Smith-Pelly, Greg Pateryn, Jarred Tinordi
Injuries: Carey Price (lower body), Tom Gilbert (lower body)
| Left Wing |
Center |
Right Wing |
| Loui Eriksson | Patrice Bergeron | Seth Griffith |
| Matt Beleksey | Ryan Spooner | Brett Connolly |
| Frank Vatrano | Landon Ferraro | Alexander Khokhlachev |
| Zac Rinaldo | Maxime Talbot | Jimmy Hayes |
| Left Defense |
Right Defense |
| Zdeno Chara | Dennis Seidenberg |
| Torey Krug | Adam McQuaid |
| Joe Morrow | Kevan Miller |
| Goaltenders |
| Tuuka Rask |
| Jonas Gustavsson |
Scratched: Collin Miller, Tyler Randell, Zach Trotman
Injuries: Chris Kelly (fractured femur), Joonas Kemppainen (upper body), David Krejci (upper body)
Suspended: Brad Marchand
Check out the enemy over at Stanley Cup of Chowder.
