As I settled in on the LazyBoy with coffee in hand to help stave-off the impending post-New Year's feast induced coma, I grabbed the remote control and clicked on the tube. Soon, my little brother (16) and little sister (18) joined me and asked the inevitable question, "So, who's playing?". My response surprised them.
Toronto and Detroit.
Those are 2 hockey teams. My dad came down the stairs, asked which bowl we were watching, and when he heard that it was actually the NHL's Winter Classic, he immediately retreated to his room.
The Winter Classic has quickly become one of my favorite sporting events of the entire calendar year, even making it's way into my top-5 sport's themed bucket list (if you want to know the other 4, you can ask me another time). For a sport that has long been the punch line in many-a-joke, the NHL has certainly done something right here.
For those who may not realize what exactly the Winter Classic is, it is when, on New Year's Day, the NHL poses 2 teams to play on an outdoor ice-rink. Simple, yet unique. Crazy, yet ingenious. It would be the equivalent of having the Yankees and Red Sox play a regular season game in a local sandlot, or the Cowboys and Redskins play on a playground, or the Nets and Knicks play a game in Rucker park. "Ridiculous", you might say, but that is exactly where the genius is in it.
It is a unique experience that not many other sports can have. Sure, other sports give you "retro-jersey" nights, but the Winter Classic takes the retro-jersey and gives the entire venue that feel. In the midst of the 8 inches of snow falling onto the ice-rink, there was a magical feel. That feel crept off the screen and turned my 2 siblings into hockey fans, even if just for that day. Will they become NHL season ticket holders? Doubt it, but it has introduced them and begun to turn them into fans of one of the most unique and entertaining sports they will otherwise have never heard of.
Raymond Morris
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