Winter Classic 2010
Boston vs Philadelphia
Fenway Park
The annual NHL Winter Classic hits Fenway Park
Pregame show features the Dropkick Murphys playing “Shipping Up to Boston” to a raucous crowd, Not one Murphy had a Bruins Jersey on, Huge disappointment as I would have bet my tuition on a Terry O’Reilly jersey making an appearance.
Bobby Clarke and Bobby Orr as the ceremonial captains, and we watch as they make the long walk from their respective change rooms, to the ice, remove their skate guards and skate to center for the hand shake. This included a good 30 seconds of struggling removing their skate guards. The older we get, the more we look like 6 year olds again. Then they stand by as the teams take the ice. This leads to an interesting scene. As the Bruins players run by on their way onto the ice, they all give Bobby Orr a high-five and he pats them on their ass. At the other bench, not one Flyer acknowledges Bobby Clarke as he stands there uninterested. This rivals Tiger Woods sending his wife a Christmas card on the awkward scale.
Claude Julien and Peter Laviolette are rocking the old style coats from the 60, Julien completing the ensemble with a fancy dapper cap! Looks smashing! How great would it be if this game was all played in old school hockey gear? No buckets, straight blade wooden sticks, cooper alls, booze in between periods and Bob Cole doing play by play, Where the hell is Bob Cole!!!!!
First Period
The game begins and like every Winter Classic so far, the action is as sloppy as Paris Hilton’s.....(I’ll let you finish that thought). All week we have been hearing how the ice is better than at least half the NHL rinks. Hmmm, I wonder how much the players were paid to say that, the puck is bouncing more than a hoops game at the Boston Garden.
Jim Hughson makes Baseball joke #7 of the day as a puck goes over the glass “a double to left field.” Bob Cole wouldn’t be making those lame jokes. He might forget or mispronounce 75% of the players names but he WILL NOT stoop to the level of lame baseball jokes! Again I ask Where the hell is Bob Cole!!!!!
The first period sucks.....seriously it’s probably the worst period of hockey I’ve watched this season. Something better happen or else the casual American viewer is going to tune into Jersey Shore or the Biggest Loser marathon.
FIGHT!!! And there we have it, the first fight in Winter Classic History. In the Black Corner we have Scott Thornton and in the White Corner we have Daniel Carcillo. It’s actually not a bad scrap and Carcillo scores the takedown with a big right hand. Fenway erupts and this instantly rates as the second best takedown the stadium has seen behind Pedro Martinez throwing a charging 73 year old Don Zimmer to the ground in the 2003 MLB Playoffs. Elder abuse....it’s real.....and it’s happening.
And Hughson ends the scoreless, lifeless first period with the comment, “Instead of a horn to end the period they should just have a lady yell Supper!” Not bad Jim, sure beats the lame baseball jokes we have been subject to thus far.
Thank God that period is finally over so we can listen to Donald S. Cherry in the Coaches Corner. Don is especially revved up having witnessed his boy Bobby Orr do the ceremonial faceoff. I love watching Don when he gets talking about Bobby. He gets as giddy as a 13 year old schoolgirl gushing over the new Tiger Beat Zac Efron photo shoot. Now while many of you may not be Cherry fans, I love the guy. He’s like the drunk Uncle at your holiday gatherings who gets a little too wound up. He’s also patriotic to the end which is awesome to any Canadian. In today’s episode Don relives his Boston glory days, in a time when Don was king of the city. He addresses the first period fight calling Carcillo “the jerk of all jerks” for saluting the crowd after his fight. Yah Donny, you get him! He also makes a brief comment regarding the World Junior Hockey Championship refereeing referring to Slovakia, Sweden, Russia and any other country over there being all the same and the refs are all horrible. Some would call this a politically incorrect ethnically insensitive comment. I call it just the right amount of Don Cherry being awesome.
Second Period
Second Period starts with a baaaaang, no not really, but the action does pick up with some end to end play, forcing Michael Leighton in to a few big saves. Excuse me, it just took me a while to realize that Michael Leighton in the Winter Classic wasn’t a typo.
Glenn Healy tells us how well the Flyer and Bruin fans are getting along, while sharing my favourite memory of last year’s Winter Classic, the classic “We’ve got the cup chant” by Red Wing fans, to which Blackhawk fans responded with the “We’ve got a job!” chant. Gotta give that round to the Chicagoans.
Philadelphia begins owning the play just as Hughson, Healy and Simpson make the expert analysis that “the game needs a goal.” That’s right fellas, just like Humans need oxygen, plants need water and Tiger Woods needs “How to leave effective messages on your mistresses voicemail” lessons. And yes I’m aware that’s two Tiger jokes in one column.
And just as the boys wanted, the game gets a goal! And it’s brought to you by the Tim Thomas School of Anger Management! Scottie Hartnell and his hair bump Thomas in his crease. The puck travels back to the point and Danny Syvret fires it past an incensed Thomas as he delivers a cross check to the back of Hartnell, totally ignoring the puck. To top it all off, that’s Syvret’s first goal of his NHL career, despite the fact Hughson and Simpson spend the rest of the game trying to give the goal to Jeff Carter.
The second period ends with the Flyers up 1-0. The three stars thus far would be Michael Leighton, Danny Syvret and Scott Hartnell, just as everyone predicted at the start of the game right?
The second intermission features another entry into the “Awkward Moments in Sports” Diary as Eliotte Friedman asks Jeff Carter how he feels about being left off the Team Canada Olympic roster. What? Too soon?
Third Period
Third period begins with Hughson mentioning Carter hasn’t been credited with the goal yet, but in an absolutely horrible Boston accent says “But we all know Caaarta got the goal.”
Philadelphia gets an early power play, Sturm shoots from half and hits the post through Leighton. Looking like Team Canada World Juniors on the power play, Boston killing the penalty gets more chances then Philly on the pp. Boston finally gets a power play, Philly, most penalized team in the league playing nice so far. An uneventful power play goes by without any great chances.
Shadows emerge on the ice, good thing we got the eye black! Hughson kills the crowd with his 328th baseball joke that the wind coming from center field will make a long ball hard today.
Great camera angle of Chara rounding the net with the green monster in the background.....monster on monster. Somewhere Pierre Mcguire just got a boner.
Great Boston tradition of Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline playing at the 7th inning stretch carries over to hockey as the song is played during a break at the 12 minute mark of the 3rd. Dennis Leary leading the singing of Sweet Caroline, yup I also wish he just sang “I’m an asshole” instead.
Healy makes a comment that the Flyers new found confidence has gone right to their legs?? Sounds like a teenage boy who just lost his virginity and is ready for round two!
Tukka Rask has a mask made for the game with a Bruin Bear chewing a Yankee jersey with Fenway Park behind it, and it got the loudest ovation of the day! This kind of kills the argument that Boston is a hockey town doesn’t it? The only way a Blue Jay featured helmet would get a cheer in the ACC is if it showed JP Ricciardi getting eaten.
Philly takes a penalty with 4 minutes left setting up an exciting finish....hopefully. After some always exciting passing around the perimeter, Mark Recchi, the 84 year old wonder tips a shot by Derek Morris in to tie the game and set up the finish we hoped for. Now all we need is snow for the finish.
Healy makes the obligatory,” I’m an ex goalie so whenever a goalie gets scored on I have to defend him”, comment about Leighton, “He had no chance on that one!” Why do Greg Millen and Glenn Healy do this after every goal? We aren’t judging your goaltending ability! Another question I have is how do mediocre NHL goaltenders continue to get all these broadcasting jobs? Glenn Healy, Greg Millen, Darren Pang, and Kevin Weekes all come to mind.
Philly almost takes the lead with 1:30 left as a puck trickles through Thomas who is folded like a pretzel, but ends up inches wide.
The last 2 minutes have been better then the first 58 of the game combined, as Boston’s pressure forces Briere to take a penalty with 43 seconds left.
Unable to score in the 43 seconds left in the third, we are going to OT where the Bruins will have a 4 on 3 for 1:15.
Overtime
How great is the penalty box? Who came up with the idea that we would isolate the penalized player for all to see? Watching Briere sit helplessly in the box and watching is hilarious. Hughson makes baseball joke number 389 on the day with an “Extra Innings at Fenway Park” comment!
Philly kills the penalty and on Briere’s way out of the box has a 2 on 1 which leads to a 30 second mad scramble in front of Thomas but he keeps the puck out.
Boston heads down the ice and Sturm tips a ridiculous pass from Bergeron at the side boards into the
net to send Fenway into a frenzy and give the Bruins the win. For the first time in the history of the Winter Classic the game goes to the home team!
While much of the game lacked the intensity and pace of a regular NHL game, there is something about the Winter Classic. The NHL has hit homeruns (@#$! Hughson’s baseball jokes are rubbing off on me) when selecting teams and venues and hopefully that can continue. The Leafs are at the top of teams hoping for an outdoor game. This would be great, however the ice surface isn’t the Leafs problem, it’s the people on the ice surface. So in closing, the Winter Classic was a crappy game but still a great spectacle, and most importantly....Go Leafs Go!!!
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