Winter Classic has grown into an outdoor hockey festival
FOXBOROUGH, MASS. » Since the NHL first experimented with outdoor games more than a decade ago, the Winter Classic has grown into a festival of fresh air hockey that this year included for the first time a professional women’s game.
As part of the buildup to the New Year’s Day game between the archrival Bruins and Canadiens, the Boston Pride played the Montreal Canadiennes at the home of the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots. The two leagues that participated hope it will be a turning point in their effort to gain a footing on the professional women’s sports scene.
“What great exposure,” Pride defenseman Marissa Gedman said. “Especially to have the NHL backing us. That’s huge.”
But there is still a way to go: The women’s teams played two, 15-minute periods with running time and a friends-and-family crowd of a few hundred people. The game ended in a 1-1 tie.
Asked what more she could have hoped for, Pride defenseman Blake Bolden said: “a third period.”
“I couldn’t get enough,” said Gedman, who is from the suburb of Framingham and grew up rooting for the Patriots and other Boston teams. “It was so amazing. I could do that for the rest of my life.”
The first period ended when a Pride player, Denna Laing of Marblehead, crashed into the boards and was taken off on a stretcher. The league said she was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital. No further information on her condition was immediately available.
The women’s game was followed by a matchup of NHL old-timers from the Bruins and Canadiens. Outside, a free spectator plaza with live music, familyfriendly games and a public skating rink completed the festival atmosphere that has come to surround the Winter Classic and make it the league’s signature regular-season event.
Fans booed the Canadiens alumni, but mostly good-naturedly, and the style of play was more reminiscent of a no-defense AllStar game than one of the bone-crunching battles the teams have waged through their history.
Friday’s game is not expected to be so genteel — not with the teams separated by one point in the Eastern Conference standings.
“Playing on a stage like this is something you’ll remember for the rest of your life,” Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban said. “It goes beyond just the game of hockey. We know that everybody’s got their family and friends here. ... The one thing you want to stress in the dressing room ... is to enjoy it, take it in, drink it in. We want to get the win and the two points. But en- joy the experience because it is just that, it’s a once-ina-lifetime experience.”