NHL Winter Classic update

[BigEd76]

Scott Burnside says it shouldn't be a regular thing

[DelayedPenalty]

Blackhawks v Red Wings at Comerica Park or Solider Field.

Nuh uh! Blackhawks vs. Red Wings @ Michigan Stadium!

Also, Scott Burnside can suck my left...over Christmas turkey!

[BigEd76]

Pens v Flyers at Beaver Stadium in State College, would draw over 100,000 fans.

It's been discussed (at least on the Flyers side)

[Axis_of_Weasel]

why not the all-star game?... it's a one time a season fluff event anyways

Money. They combine the two the league can only make money off of one big event. If there is a winter classic and all-star game they can make more money off of both events.

plus the ASG isnt necessarily in a cold weather-venue. or a city with a open air stadium for that matter.

[The_Admiral]

I don't think I saw this mentioned in here--I'm sure it was and I missed it, but I'll bring it up again--I really liked the Sabres jacket that Lindy Ruff was wearing behind the bench. It's very coach-like. I might prefer to see coaches in team-themed coats like that rather than just tired dull suits. If nothing else, give them the option to wear team apparel. For some reason, Denis Savard looks like he should be wearing a tracksuit at all times.

[myartsaywhat]

I really enjoyed watching this game and I was hoping for a shoot out. It was perfect, I was I could have been there. The black/gold goalie pads with the blue jersey wasn't great, but oh well.

[Mac the Knife]

Let's have the next outdoor one in Dallas or Phoenix... give the folks in charge of maintaining the ice a real challenge, and give the snowbirds a novelty.

[averyj]

Let's have the next outdoor one in Dallas or Phoenix... give the folks in charge of maintaining the ice a real challenge, and give the snowbirds a novelty.

..errgh... snowbirds....

I have them in my neck of the woods-err.. desert.

"If it's The Season, then why can't we shoot them?"

[Luigi74]

Blackhawks v Red Wings at Comerica Park or Solider Field.

Nuh uh! Blackhawks vs. Red Wings @ Michigan Stadium!

Also, Scott Burnside can suck my left...over Christmas turkey!

That will never happen first off Wings owner Mike Illitch owns Comerica Park and all of the surrounding parking lots, bars and restaurants, so he would make a killing from all of that stuff, and the University of Michigan would most likely have a Michigan v Michigan State game if they ever did a game at Michigan Stadium.

[NYBadshah1]

Blackhawks v Red Wings at Comerica Park or Solider Field.

Nuh uh! Blackhawks vs. Red Wings @ Michigan Stadium!

Also, Scott Burnside can suck my left...over Christmas turkey!

That will never happen first off Wings owner Mike Illitch owns Comerica Park and all of the surrounding parking lots, bars and restaurants, so he would make a killing from all of that stuff, and the University of Michigan would most likely have a Michigan v Michigan State game if they ever did a game at Michigan Stadium.

I think I read this somewhere a while ago (don't remember where or when), but rumor around here is that they are trying to do Cold War II (UM vs. MSU), and a Red Wings-Maple Leafs game, in a doubleheader. If someone else can confirm this, that'd be great.

[CJR]

I think I read this somewhere a while ago (don't remember where or when), but rumor around here is that they are trying to do Cold War II (UM vs. MSU), and a Red Wings-Maple Leafs game, in a doubleheader. If someone else can confirm this, that'd be great.

That one will be at Ford Field as a warmup for the 2010 Frozen Four. Not outdoors. IIRC, the UM-MSU game is confirmed but Wings-Leafs is just in discussions.

[Ted Cunningham]

As a football fan, I find Burnside's article fairly ridiculous. Granted, football players run on a field of grass, and hockey players skate on ice, so the dynamics of the movement is probably quite different. However, Burnside makes hockey players sound like a bunch of wusses simply because conditions aren't 100%. If there's some variation in the ice or a little wind with some snow, hockey players can't play? They're athletes, they'll adapt. Burside states, "At one point during the game, Buffalo defenseman Henrik Tallinder appeared to stumble over a hole in the ice. Luckily, he didn't hurt himself, but what if he had?" Then he'd have hurt himself. Suck it up and move on. All athletes play in games that involve risk. It's part of the attraction for the fans of the sports they play. Burnside goes on, "[brian] Campbell has a patented spin move he employs during games, but he admitted he was fearful of attempting it Tuesday. 'I would have killed myself if I'd have tried to spin out there,' he said." Then he writes, "Passes meant to be soft, or touch passes, had to be delivered with more force." Snow, rain or other inclement weather causes teams to adapt and change plans all the time in football. Why should it be different for one game out of the season for two teams in the NHL? With the decline of the NHL in popularity with the casual hockey fan (like me, who only really watches during the playoffs), the NHL needs events like this one. I certainly watched the game through to its storybook ending.

Long story short, the NHL needn't take Burnside's advice. NHL players are big boys. They can handle a little change in the environment.

On a side note, did anyone else notice how few commercials there were compared to a football game? Under normal circumstances I would understand a lack of advertising, as hockey is a very fluid game with far fewer stops in play. However, there was one point (before overtime I believe) during which the commentators talked at length about how Buffalo's club had been brought back from near-bankruptcy. (They even had enough time to joke about selling their notes on eBay because they were so pretty with all the different coloured pens they'd used.) I'd have guessed they'd have gone to commercial at some point during that stoppage, but they did not, and overtime commenced.

[Gothamite]

As a football fan, I find Burnside's article fairly ridiculous. Granted, football players run on a field of grass, and hockey players skate on ice, so the dynamics of the movement is probably quite different. However, Burnside makes hockey players sound like a bunch of wusses simply because conditions aren't 100%. If there's some variation in the ice or a little wind with some snow, hockey players can't play? They're athletes, they'll adapt. Burside states, "At one point during the game, Buffalo defenseman Henrik Tallinder appeared to stumble over a hole in the ice. Luckily, he didn't hurt himself, but what if he had?" Then he'd have hurt himself. Suck it up and move on. All athletes play in games that involve risk. It's part of the attraction for the fans of the sports they play. Burnside goes on, "[brian] Campbell has a patented spin move he employs during games, but he admitted he was fearful of attempting it Tuesday. 'I would have killed myself if I'd have tried to spin out there,' he said." Then he writes, "Passes meant to be soft, or touch passes, had to be delivered with more force." Snow, rain or other inclement weather causes teams to adapt and change plans all the time in football. Why should it be different for one game out of the season for two teams in the NHL? With the decline of the NHL in popularity with the casual hockey fan (like me, who only really watches during the playoffs), the NHL needs events like this one. I certainly watched the game through to its storybook ending.

Long story short, the NHL needn't take Burnside's advice. NHL players are big boys. They can handle a little change in the environment.

I agree completely, although with the number of people we've had calling the Steelers' Field "unprofessional" during the Miami game and insisting they need to move to artificial turf, I suppose it's not surprising that Burnside should say this.

[charger77]

Did Crosby win the Cup in overtime of game 7 or did he win a regular season shoot out?

-Dan

[Chazberg]

As a football fan, I find Burnside's article fairly ridiculous. Granted, football players run on a field of grass, and hockey players skate on ice, so the dynamics of the movement is probably quite different. However, Burnside makes hockey players sound like a bunch of wusses simply because conditions aren't 100%. If there's some variation in the ice or a little wind with some snow, hockey players can't play? They're athletes, they'll adapt. Burside states, "At one point during the game, Buffalo defenseman Henrik Tallinder appeared to stumble over a hole in the ice. Luckily, he didn't hurt himself, but what if he had?" Then he'd have hurt himself. Suck it up and move on. All athletes play in games that involve risk. It's part of the attraction for the fans of the sports they play. Burnside goes on, "[brian] Campbell has a patented spin move he employs during games, but he admitted he was fearful of attempting it Tuesday. 'I would have killed myself if I'd have tried to spin out there,' he said." Then he writes, "Passes meant to be soft, or touch passes, had to be delivered with more force." Snow, rain or other inclement weather causes teams to adapt and change plans all the time in football. Why should it be different for one game out of the season for two teams in the NHL? With the decline of the NHL in popularity with the casual hockey fan (like me, who only really watches during the playoffs), the NHL needs events like this one. I certainly watched the game through to its storybook ending.

Long story short, the NHL needn't take Burnside's advice. NHL players are big boys. They can handle a little change in the environment.

On a side note, did anyone else notice how few commercials there were compared to a football game? Under normal circumstances I would understand a lack of advertising, as hockey is a very fluid game with far fewer stops in play. However, there was one point (before overtime I believe) during which the commentators talked at length about how Buffalo's club had been brought back from near-bankruptcy. (They even had enough time to joke about selling their notes on eBay because they were so pretty with all the different coloured pens they'd used.) I'd have guessed they'd have gone to commercial at some point during that stoppage, but they did not, and overtime commenced.

Amen.

And as for the commercials, welcome to watching hockey, kinda nice ain't it? They haven't sold out to the point the NFL has, with those absurd TV timeouts, so you can actually have fluid action without constant stops in momentum.

[Gothamite]

And as for the commercials, welcome to watching hockey, kinda nice ain't it? They haven't sold out to the point the NFL has

Well, it's kinda hard to sell out when there are so few willing buyers....

[maz]

Your allowed to use either of them now that the two line pass has been eliminated. Some teams switched back over to the solid line after the lockout ended and there are still a fair number of teams that havent.

What irks me is how all across the league, no teams logo is drawn over the red line. So for every team that uses a single center ice logo, all of them have a thin white border between the logo and the red line. You see it in the Winter Classic logo, in that Blackhawks logo above and every other city, and in all cases I think it looks like crap.

Umm, theres still an icing rule, so I believe keeping the line visible over the logo is kinda still nessicary...

Anyways, from the persepctive of someone who was there: Except for the curved hemline, both teams looked great... its still a shame we couldnt see any throwback pads, but it does now seem like a good idea to have kept Conklin in.

[Sodboy13]

Scott Burnside says it shouldn't be a regular thing

I think the real story here is that ESPN.com has a hockey writer. A terrible, misinformed hockey writer, but nonetheless...

[ABCJr]

Burnside goes on, "[brian] Campbell has a patented spin move he employs during games, but he admitted he was fearful of attempting it Tuesday. 'I would have killed myself if I'd have tried to spin out there,' he said.

For those who watched the game, Sidney Crosby was able to pull off a pretty good spin move on his own while shooting the puck backhand on net. I think he survived...

[DrBear]

Gee, you think BSPN - which dropped the NHL - is really going to say something good about something it dropped? I'll bet the orders came down from the Chief Mouse at Disney to rip it to shreds.

For example, the "bad conditions" comments - how about playing CUP FINALS in the fog in Boston and Buffalo?