Millions of hockey fans the world over would have watched the Capitals and the Blackhawks battle it out in the middle of one of America’s most iconic landscapes; a game played literally at Lincoln’s feet.

But perhaps, his idea still has some life left in it.

An Idea Takes Flight

Back in 1964, Spreiregen was an up-and-coming architect working in Washington DC. He hadn’t yet helped revitalize downtown’s languishing core, designed the striking glass-and-green IntelSat headquarters in Northwest DC (“You’ve got to see it through the trees!” he proclaims), or authored his landmark book “The Architecture of Towns and Cities.”

But 50 years ago this summer, Spreiregen and his colleague Louis Justement had a genius idea. Noticing that visitors to DC dropped off precipitously during Winter, Spreiregen offered a proposal as radical as it was simple: freeze the Reflecting Pool on the Mall for season-round ice skating and hockey.

The idea caught fire. Secretary of the Interior Steward Udall loved it, as did Senator Frank Church, a close political ally of President Johnson.

The Administration held a sweltering July press conference at the base of the Lincoln Monument, the long pool extending into the background, with Spreiregen holding up a pair of authentic Dutch long distance ice skates…the kind you might imagine Hans Brinker sporting.

Just think, they said, what this could look like in just six months.

For the then relatively low price of $3 to 4 million dollars (about $25-35 million today). refrigerator coils would freeze the entire Reflecting Pool for the duration of the winter season. That’s an 8 1/2 acre ice rink – enough area for ice skating, curling, and upward of 7 hockey rinks – all in the heart of the National Mall.

Skating on the Reflecting Pool, 1922 (Library of Congress)

Everyone was on board it seemed, until the bureaucrats got involved. In the time-honed Washington tactic of  ‘delay until dead’, Spreiregen’s proposal foundered and eventually melted away.

But Spreiregen is still very much around, and so is his idea. And this time around, with Washington preparing to become the largest stage in the NHL calendar hosting the 2015 Winter Classic, it just might be an idea whose time has come…again.

Lessons Learned

Paul Spreiregen, still at work (Photo: Doug Johnson)

“There’s an old joke,” Spreiregen says, speaking of one of his first DC projects. “Doctors bury their mistakes. Architects plant vines.”

Spreiregen is sharing lessons he’s learned over his 50+ year career, seated in the shade of his outdoor porch high above his Glover Park home. He’s funny and engaging, and the conversation sweeps between urban design, music, the transformative uses of buildings, Boston’s Fenway, and the biology of wolves.

“Why didn’t it happen?” he asks of the Reflecting Pool rink that never was. “That’s just one of those classic Washington stories,” he says, and laughs.

In the early 1960’s, as Washington filled with the boundless New Frontier energy of the Kennedy administration, Spreiregen began to design buildings, champion the re-imagining of urban spaces, and meet like-minded DC movers and shakers. One of them was Louis Justement, “an excellent architect” and designer of, among other things, Sibley Hospital.

“Justement was trying to build a new organization of urban planners, and asked me if I’d submit an article to his new journal,” he says. “I said ‘Sure, what on?’ He said ‘Anything you want.'” So I had this idea, and the rest is history.”

An MIT graduate and lifelong New Englander, Spreiregen grew up playing in winter’s snow and ice. “You ever notice people on a ski slope? Even if the weather’s rotten, everybody’s smiling.”

The Washington winter of 1960, his first one since moving from his Boston home, was particularly cold. “Everything froze, including the Reflecting Pool, and people went skating on it. Duh,” he chuckles.

Everyone agreed the idea was as natural as it was obvious. “It just caught fire. It was national news. Garfield Kass (a Washington philanthropist) offered seed money, and the Washington Post endorsed the idea. They were quite complimentary.”

Quickly the idea to turn the Reflecting Pool into a national wintertime attraction rocketed up Washington local and federal bureaucracies. Secretary Udall staged a major news conference in July – the one Spreiregen attended with his wooden Dutch skates.

“I said ‘If we were standing here 100 years ago, we’d be up to our needs in mud, because 100 years ago, this was a swamp. This pool was built by people of vision.’ That’s all this was. Freezing the Reflecting Pool in winter is only a minor engineering and financial problem. This was just an issue of vision.”

Spreiregen’s skates (Photo: Doug Johnson)

Many in the government agreed, except for an obscure collection of bureaucrats who saw themselves as holding the keys to the Mall.

“Udall instructed the Interior department to do a feasibility study, which I agreed with,” recounts Spreiregen. “I met the park service staff, and happened to point out that I liked that the Mall then had tennis courts so locals and visitors could play.” (From 1940 to 1972 there were ten very popular tennis courts between 3rd and 4th streets, which were ultimately closed to make room for the National Gallery’s East Wing.)

“I said, you want people doing things outside, just having fun, but they sort of sniffed and said ‘We really don’t like that kind of thing.’  They wanted pristine lawns, absent of people. How times have changed,” he said.

When he heard that the study would take a year, Spreiregen knew that the fate of his proposal was sealed. “Here’s the lesson: delay equals death. They didn’t like it, and they killed it with delay.” Sure enough, by 1965 few remembered his idea. The bureaucracy had moved on, leaving his hopes behind.

“I had this drawing for the article, grey skies and landscape, and then all these little colorful dots of people playing on the Mall. It was like a Bruegel painting.”

In this town, there’s nothing so old as yesterday’s hot story. Both Washington and Spreiregen moved on. He joined the Downtown Progress Association and helped the city’s center again become vital and filled with people.

His idea might have just evaporated as well, were it not for a short letter to the Washington Post, published on May 13, 2011. It concluded: “building a rink nevertheless remains a most compelling idea that awaits a fortuitous moment in our city’s evolution.”

And now, with the Winter Classic just six months away, that moment may be at hand.

A Global Stage for Hockey

It’s increasingly clear that the main event – the beat-down the Capitals will deliver to the Hawks – will be held either at Nationals Park, or in a pinch, the rather less glamorous but definitely more old school RFK Stadium. Or God forbid, Baltimore. The NHL will be announcing the venue soon.

The stadiums make sense. An event that big, you need a stage big enough to accommodate the throngs of fans, press, curious and hockey-obsessed that will pour into town.

But Winter Classic week, and hockey more broadly, is about much more than one game…one very, very important game. (The first Classic attended by a sitting President? It’s a possibility – if the Obama family forgoes their usual Hawaiian Christmas vacation).

Throughout the week, and in the months and years following, the Classic provides a showcase for getting entire families involved; those playing and those who want to start, hockey moms and dads and those-to-be, and everyone else who never really thought much about the skating or hockey, but might now be tempted to try.

Could there be any better stage, any more national stage, for showcasing all of the best things about hockey and winter sports more broadly than that stretch of land that lies between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial? The sight of thousands of locals and visitors alike gathering to frolic on the site where so many Americans have gathered before?

If nothing else, it’s a photo-op the NHL, or any major sport, could never duplicate.

“This could easily happen,” says Spreiregen. “The key is finding someone in town who really wants to see this done, and the authority to make it happen.”

Yes, if you were to use Spreiregen’s original model of installing refrigeration coils in the shallow pool, there would have to be some temporary modifications – again, nothing outside the scope of a competent civil engineer.

Or, using the NHL’s technique of building an ice rink up with consecutive layers of freezing water, a portion of the Pool could be drained and a base constructed on just one part for the building of a rink. If you can play outdoor hockey in Los Angeles at Dodger Stadium, you can build a rink in the Reflecting Pool.

Enjoying the Reflecting Pool in Winter (Library of Congress)

“This isn’t a technical problem,” says the grey-haired Spreiregen as he dashes out drawings and illustrations. “It’s a problem of politics. It’s a problem of imagination.”

Yes, there are several small hockey rinks ringing Washington, and yes, they do a great job. But that’s not what this is about.

Baseball may have come first, and football still draws in the most money, but hockey is every bit an American sport and pastime as any you can name. A seasonal hockey rink on the Mall? Think what could be done.

Lessons to teach city kids and clumsy adults how to skate. A venue for players from PeeWee to beer leagues. Speed skating. Figure skating. Curling. Families of all sorts reveling in the cold in the most American of settings. “A carnival of humanity,” says Spreiregen.

It would cost less than peanuts. It would provide hockey fans memories to last a lifetime. It would celebrate all that’s right about sport, and a nation built by visionaries.

It’s an idea, we believe, whose time might finally have come at last.

The Winter Classic is all about endurance and grit and surviving the insanity of a 14 degree blizzard through three periods, overtime and a shootout. It’s about paying five dollars for a tiny hot dog with a bun so dessicated it could be used as a puck. It’s about waiting in line for a poorly ventilated bathroom where the floor is covered in liquid you hope is melted snow but you know is one hundred percent urine.

But that doesn’t fit into the media’s highly romanticized version of what is essentially an incredibly expensive (and as it turned out) dangerous game to attend. The outdoor guys calling the game like Doc will talk about how they don’t have a kerosene heater, but they at least they have a heated bench and people to bring them hot cocoa and a golf cart to take them off the field to a nice safe warm bathroom. They aren’t thrown to the wolves. Heck the players even get heated benches.

The only thing the media, players, and fans have in common is that they have to go through several layers in order to pee. I don’t want to give the impression that we had a horrendous experience, quite the contrary it was a thrilling atmosphere ruined by incredibly poor planning. Perhaps I’m being too harsh. It’s not as if they had two years to work out the details …. oh…. right…

Certainly, the weather has its own agenda and won’t be bullied into submission. While the continuous snow made for a wondrous backdrop, it also made for dicey driving. On our way, Long Suffering Partner (or LSP) and I saw six vehicles that had spun into a ditch. Or each other. Once safely there and on our way to the stadium, we passed several tailgating groups some of whom seemed to be approaching Rob Ford levels of drunkeness (BAM! Topical AND Canadian!) We skipped the Fan Zone set up outside the Bridgestone Winter Classic. We had pretty much the same experience at Comerica Park except for the free Advil they were handing out (popular with the party crowd).

Even inside the stadium’s concourse, it was cold enough that I broke down and purchased a Wings toque and scarf (a mere $65!) from one of the hundred outside merchandise tents since the heated store had a ten foot line. Most likely because it was the only warm place available. Why weren’t their warming zones other than the ones outside the stadium? Did I miss those? Could they find no one to sponsor one? Was I supposed to buy cheesy fries and warm my hands over them?

Granted, we never made it all the way around the stadium but we tried to huddle inside the concourse area for warmth as much as possible. Besides the aforementioned five dollar hot dog, LSP and I got hot chocolate that was already tepid by the time it got to us. Although it came in a lovely commemorative cup for only ten dollars.

For an extra six dollars, you could get a shot of Baileys in it. Baileys? Hot chocolate is already sweet. The perfect accompaniment to hot chocolate is Peppermint Schnapps. Everyone knows this. I’m sorry if you believe differently, you are wrong. Maybe if Baileys had sponsored a warming zone, I might have purchased some. But with the driving conditions unlikely to improve, no way was I drinking alcohol. I didn’t want to be a cautionary tale. About drinking and driving that is.

The crowd was amped up even before warmups with the alternating “Let’s Go Red Wings!” “Go, Leafs, Go” chants. Occasionally you could hear “No, Leafs blow!” which was quite amusing to us. There was plenty of good-natured ribbing between fans of these two long time rival teams. Both mighty franchises have struggled lately so there’s been plenty of fodder. I saw a family of five all decked out in Leafs gear save for a (middle?) daughter in Wings merch. I asked them if they really knew the girl or if she was just following them. They all laughed and the father mock whispered “She’s adopted.”

The view from our seats was a beautiful snow covered panorama. That is after we dusted the two feet of snow of them. Special seat cushions were on each seat, but they also had snow on them and were obviously very cold as well. Better than the metal however. Inside the pocket of each cushion were a packet of trading cards. Both our packs had a Tyler Bozak card. How I hate you, prophetic fate.

As entertainment (?) after warmups the NHL provided Mayer Hawthorne. I wasn’t certain if they were playing live or just faking it to a track. I can’t imagine that a cymbal would sound as rich in that brittle snowy environment, but in that stadium I mostly heard the rhythm section which was probably for the best.

Speaking of poor musical choices, the Tenors (are they trademarked?) sang the Canadian anthem. I say “sang” but it was more like intoned by monks. It was a glacial tempo more befitting a state funeral than a celebration of hockey. The crowd wisely ignored them and chose their own tempo. (Canadian Comments behind us: “Whoa. This is slow, eh?” “Are they singing that part in French?”)

Even the over the untrained mob, I could hear the lack of proper training of the Tenors. The lead in particular was terribly flat. You would imagine that a group on a worldwide arena tour would be used to singing in larger space acoustics. But here’s the dirty little secret: if you have a group of tenors, someone’s gotta be the baritone. And we all know what that means. (Note to my mother: I really have no idea what that means).

The Zac Brown fared better as they opted not to sing the American anthem like a dirge. Bonus points for nailing the interval of “what so PROUD-ly we hailed” since if that gets off, it’s pretty much downhill from there.

Anthem Recap: The Tenors – well groomed (and marketed) but fairly poor musicianship. Zac Brown Band – look ready for a bar fight (and they would win) but hold a tune and actually respectful to the spirit of the anthem. Also, the first time I have ever seen fireworks in a snowstorm. And I really didn’t see them that well.

Oh right. The Game itself. Certainly, the first period was a slogfest as players watched the puck get trapped in a snow bank while they skated forward. There were several offsides (where we were subjected to yet more ads) until the teams decided to dump and chase into the zone or in the Wings’ case, just give it to Pavel Datsyuk to stick handle into the zone.

The ice needed to be shoveled constantly otherwise you couldn’t even see the blue line. The crew was quite proficient at this, but at the end of the rink where they dumped the snow there were two people constantly shoveling snow out of the way to make way for the snow off the ice. Why a snowblower wasn’t used is beyond me. Maybe there’s some snow shoveler’s union at the University of Michigan – if so, I apologize.

I have now come to the darkest part of our adventure: the intermission. Our plan was to meet up with actual operatic tenor @DylanHayden at the break. In retrospect, this was a enormous mistake as everyone else had the same idea. Once the horn sounded, every pathway was blocked with people seeking bathrooms, concession stands, or just a warmer spot. In the concourse, the crowd was just an unmovable mass all trying to head in completely different directions pushing and shoving from all sides.

More insanity after the jump.

Some wags started mooing like cattle, but that’s not an apt metaphor for the situation. Cattle have a clear chute to the abattoir and it can’t be a stampede if there’s no movement whatsoever. It was amusing to hear comments like “This is just like the standings. We never move!” (applicable for both teams) but disheartening to hear “I have a small child here!!! Please stop pushing!!!” while you are trapped in a mass of humanity. Eventually after ten minutes of trying to get through the crowd Tetris style, we gave up and managed to sidle over to a gate facing the street on the concourse where it was only partially dense.

And there I saw it. I saw large, pasty buttocks. Then I realized they were attached to a squatting man pooping into a clear plastic bag. Some things cannot be unseen people. True, he was trying to hide behind a garbage can, but it was too late. The thin veneer of society had already been shattered.

Guys started peeing through the gate on the concourse down to the street level. And not attractive guys either. The smoking ban was completely ignored. Someone was even smoking a joint. He was popular. When a stadium worker finally walked by, he merely said “There’s no smoking. You have to put that out” in a school-marmish scold. He obviously knew he was outnumbered and didn’t want trouble.

Why was this allowed to turn into anarchy? Why isn’t there an NHL Department of FAN Safety? (I’m looking at you, Patrick Burke. Maybe you can wear the Curtis E. Bear outfit). Once the crowds finally abated enough to venture back, we walked along a path of lone gloves, scarves, hats, blankets, even seat cushions all trampled and covered in filthy slush – a scene of forlorn desolation like the aftermath of a violent diaspora. The only mitigating factor was that I didn’t have to hear Mayer Hawthorn perform again.

We missed around ten minutes of the second period (and we will never speak of it again – I saw a man poop in a plastic bag, people) but we made it back in time to see the first goal of the game. I was glad it was Alfredsson, he’s been a favorite of mine for a while even when he was with the Senators. Or maybe because he was with the Senators.

Anyway, suddenly the contest grew more exciting as players remembered there were two desperately needed points on the line. The pace picked once everyone became accustomed to the conditions and started using them to their advantage.

I could go through the game but frankly, as the snow fell harder it was impossible to see it clearly. If you didn’t move every ten minutes you looked like Jack Nicholson at the end of The Shining. (Full disclosure: Every Puckbuddys writer is required to make at least one Kubrick reference each year. Please note I have filled my quota early.)

You watched the game anyway, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this. We don’t need to rehash the Bozak business or the Zetterberg breakaway stopped by the buzzer in overtime so they could change sides. Whatever. Everyone knows he would’ve scored. Even the guy wearing a Flyers jersey at the airport the next day. Everyone knows. So, there’s that. If you want to see the game, they will play it on the NHL Network every now and then, presenting it with a wistful air.

But that’s how I will choose to remember it. I won’t want to remember the monstrous traffic snarl caused by the lack of planning by the city of Ann Arbor. Well, they had a plan. It was to treat it like any other home football game they hold. Well, guess what? It wasn’t like ANY other game at that stadium.

A city official went so far as to blame the NHL for not educating the fans on how to exit the stadium and the town. That’s what the police are supposed to do. Why don’t you just shake your fist at the sky and blame the snow for not listening to you either, you pathetic old coot. I’m sorry. He deserves worse language than that, but my mother reads this.

What I am going to remember is the incredible adventure that my Long Suffering Partner and I had where we saw our team earn a point. But we also saw some guys dressed as the Hanson brothers from Slapshot.

We danced and sang along with a hundred thousand some people to the like of the Beastie Boys and Franz Ferdinand. (Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” will be a long cherished memory) I watched people drink nine dollar beer slushies with ice in their beards. I was with a mass of humanity enduring the coldest Winter Classic ever. We even saw a guy go shirtless before the shootout to whip the crowd into a frenzy. Yes, he was a Leafs fan, but he was still kind of cute.

Eric Pinder is an actor/writer/director/sometime hoofer originally from Detroit suburbs. He does not know Eminem, please stop asking. His tweet about a man pooping in a bag  quickly went viral and earned him twenty new followers. He was promptly unfollowed by half of those people when they read the rest of his tweets. Follow him @operahockeyguy.

Rough Trade

As part of our Whirlwind Winter Classic Vacation, we had to check out the Coke Zero Fan Zone at the Sirius/XM Hockeytown Winter Festival on Saturday. (Pretty much everything in that last sentence is trademarked except the word ‘Saturday’).

It turned out to be the perfect day to visit as it was a balmy 47 degrees. In fact, it was so unseasonably warm that they had to delay the start of the Great Lakes Invitational three and a half hours so the sun would be lower and the ice would have a chance to firm up.

The Coke Zero Fan Zone was free to folks with tickets to each day’s events, but you could get in for a five dollar fee. I would venture that is was worth four dollars. Certainly the atmosphere was festive, what with plenty of stands selling State Fair type cuisine (Elephant Ears!) and firepits set up for roasting marshmallows (marshmallows not included in ticket price). Wings and Leafs fans mingled freely without incident. Even the guy decked out in Ohio State gear remained unmolested.

Our first step was to visit one of the many merchandise locations to purchase appropriate headgear for Dwayne (AKA Long Suffering Partner or LSP) since as Floridians we don’t normally have a need for a toques. And it was only $30! The Leafs locker room trailer provided a terribly unthrilling up close look at various player’s jerseys whereas the Wings locker setup was much better. (Full disclosure: it was the same experience, but my pro-Wings bias wins out here)

There were plenty of events for kids like a pick up street hockey rink, synthetic ice surface open skate, and a Red Wings goalie mask bounce house. (All requiring signed waivers to participate) Also, “Snowzilla” with the official explanation “It’s like sliding down a snow-covered hill and is the only one of its kind in the U.S.” Since it was a five dollar upcharge, and I had plenty of actual snow-covered hills in the area from which to choose, I opted out of this experience.

The NHL Network tent let you make a video about “Your Goal In 2014”. LSP and I decided our goal was to not freeze our asses off at the game. Said video has a chance of appearing on the NHL Network. My guess is it’s a snowball’s chance in hell. We didn’t see any point to visiting the Verizon tent as I have seen enough of their ads touting NHL GameCenter on one of their many tablet devices.

In fact, my big complaint is that the Fan Zone was really one enormous ad where you had to fill out forms with email, physical address, and phone number to get anything. Certainly that was the purpose of the Bridgestone® tent – a huge tire display with wintry pine trees and TVs blaring the joys of treads while you waited in line to take a photo in Winter Classic jerseys. Note in this photo, I am shooting left handed. I would be a right hand shot (if I had the slightest idea what I was doing), but for photo-op purposes, I switched for better staging.

We could’ve tried the Slapshot Challenge but someone had already hit an 88 mph shot and seriously, if I had attempted it, I most likely would’ve hit myself with the stick somehow. And I would have filled out a waiver meaning I couldn’t sue.

Even the Molson CANADIAN HOCKEY HOUSE with its table top hockey games and local bands (of dubious quality) was really a glorified beer haus.

Although, they did have one of three Alumni Autograph locations which at the time was occupied by Kris Draper – my favorite of the famous Grind Line. Dino Ciccarelli was in the Red Wings Experience tent, but has not aged as well as one might have hoped. Drapes, being a ginger, has fared far better. Inside the Red Wings Experience (which sounds like a cover band to me) was a stage where they were holding a trivia contest. In our fifteen minutes in the tent, not one of the three contestants answered a question correctly thus mocking the idea that it was a Fan Zone.

But for me, the crowning jewel of the Festival was the Hockey Hall Of Fame (also trademarked) tent displaying memorabilia (a Patrick Roy Canadiens jersey! BOO! Red Wing pucks from their Stanley Cup victory over the Penguins! YAY!) and various trophies like the Conn Smythe, Ted Lindsay, and Rocket Richard.

The Stanley Cup wasn’t in attendance. It wouldn’t appear until Monday, but that’s okay as it was an extra five dollar charge to get a photo with it and LSP and I already have a picture with the Cup we took for free at a Lightning game. As a matter of fact, there’s also a photo of Other Gay Hockey Friend and I beveling next to the Cup like Price Is Right showgirls. And really, isn’t that what photo ops are all about? (Oh, and have I mentioned my Dad drank from the Stanley Cup?)

Now while we would love to watch one of the Alumni Showdowns, we are from Florida and are not about to stand outside in 18 degree weather two days in a row. We would rather save hypothermia for the Winter Classic. And anyway, on Tuesday, I’m dragging LSP through the Henry Ford Museum where we will ogle the chair in which Lincoln was sitting in Ford’s Theatre (no relation) when John Wilkes Booth so rudely interrupted the performance of “Our American Cousin©”. Because we are cultural gays. Hopefully, I’ll be able to tweet during the game without frostbite attacking first. Check back later for exclusive coverage only available on this site!

Eric Pinder (@operahockeyguy on Twitter) is a highly talented and employable actor/director/writer/hyphenate who is currently updating his resume. In his spare time, he tweets about opera, hockey and the plantar warts on the balls of his feet. He is working on a hockey opera, but isn’t sure which team should win.

On Monday the season is half over for the Wings as they play at Nashville. It’s tough to say how they’ll fare in Nashville. They lost to them earlier in the season. However, Nashville has a losing record and sits at the bottom of the Central Division. Since the Red Wings tend to do better on the road this season, which is very weird for them, I tend to think they’ll end up with Monday’s game in the win column.

Meanwhile, as I write this after Saturday’s Florida Panthers win (4-3) the team is 18-13-9. Sure, it’s a winning record, and a record that has them in fourth place in the Atlantic Division and fifth in the Eastern Conference. If the playoffs started now, they’d land a wildcard spot.

I suppose I should be happy with this. But I’m not.

Nine overtime losses! Six of those have been in shootouts (clearly this is something the team needs to work on). It’s blot on the record and exemplifies what’s wrong with the season. Granted, the team gets crucial points for these losses and it’s better to have nine puts than none, but it would be better to have 18 points.

Coach Mike Babcock has called it out a couple times on HBO’s 24/7: Red Wings/Maple Leafs: Road to the NHL Winter Classic. The team is often not moving enough and not playing up to the level that it can. This is costing the team regulation wins that they should be getting, plus that behavior spills into overtime, where they end up losing.

The team seems besieged a ton of injuries. Usually they start racking them up closer to playoffs, but in just December key players Jonathan Ericcson, Johan Franzen, Justin Abdelkader, Darren Helm, Henrik Zetterberg and Jimmy Howard have been out. Zetterberg and Abdelkader returned for the Panthers game, but there’s still way too many Wings out for my comfort. There is word that Howard may return for Monday night’s Predators game.

Red Wings/Toronto Match Up

As rough as the Red Wings have looked this year, Toronto is in a similar position with a 19-16-5 record, they sit right under Detroit in the Atlantic Conference standings. On the upside when you look at the match up for Wednesday, the Wings bested the Leafs in a shootout less than two weeks ago in their first matchup of the season. So, on the one hand Red Wings are ahead in the head-to-head for the season, but that means Toronto will be on the hunt for redemption.

Both teams will be looking for a win because they both need it. As the second half of the season gets underway it’s going to be all about locking up a playoff breath and neither have that assured right now. I’m hoping the competition for the win will have both teams coming to the ice hungry and putting their best games out. That would make a spectacular game on the ice for the hundred thousand or so at the Big House as well as the NBC and CBC TV audiences.

We don’t want to see the teams that both Babcock and Toronto coach Randy Carlyle have dealt with in the first two episodes of 24/7 (I haven’t seen the third, which is having its first airing as I’m putting the finishing touches on this post).

It’s going to be interesting to see how the weather plays into the game too. It’s forecasted to be cold—currently the high is expected to be 17 and the wind chill could take that down into single digits. I can’t imagine that chill is going to be easy to play in. There’s a 30 percent chance of snow flurries too. The snow would be a cool addition—I loved the first Classic in Buffalo where it snowed all over the Penguins/Sabres 2008 outing.

This game will be won, and lost, by which version of these teams show up. If they both come to play, it’s going to an excellent contest. If only one of them shows up, it’s going to be a blow out like the uninspiring shutouts the Red Wings suffered recently against the Lightening (Dec. 15) and Islanders (Dec. 23). What if both teams show up for lackadaisical hockey? I doubt that will happen. I suspect the epic proportions of this game will keep that form happening.

PuckBuddys’ Tampa Bay correspondent, Eric (@operahockeyguy), will be in the Big House for the game and I’m looking forward to his in-person take on this mega event (and maybe he’ll snag me a t-shirt or something, too).

Shameless moment of self promotion…

Part of the Hockeytown Winter Festival, which has been going on in the lead up to the Winter Classic, was the annual Great Lakes Invitational moving from Joe Lewis Arena outside to Comerica Park. Since the University of Michigan plays in that, I decided to write a short sequel to Hat Trick that drops the lead characters into this special GLI. Hat Trick Overtime: A Classic Winter’s Tale is available as a free read on my website (just click the link and start reading). Since I couldn’t get to Detroit for all these awesome hockey activities, I’m glad I was able to send my characters!

It snowed. And I got to enjoy it all from the comfort of my home. I could have gone to the game for $350 a ticket but I thought I would save that money and maybe say go to like seven games at MSG instead. Instead, I sat at home in my Ryan Callahan Rangers Winter Classic jersey with a beer in one hand and a bag of Dipsy Doodles in the other. Happy New Years to me!

I think what is great about the Winter Classic is not just the game itself but everything that leads up to it. The HBO four part mini-series “24/7” that follows the two teams involved in the Winter Classic for the four weeks up to and including the actual Winter Classic game. The webcam available on the NHL’s website to view the construction of the rink at the venue where the game is taking place. The alumni game that has recently been added as part of the tradition. The practice and family skate the day before the game. All these things add to that which makes the NHL Winter Classic something to look forward to every New Years.

I have watched the Winter Classic every year so far. The teams are not always ones that I necessarily like or would root for normally. However, the atmosphere of the game draws me to get excited for it anyhow.

The first one in 2008 between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Buffalo Sabres was really exciting. It was the first of its kind (though not the first NHL outdoors game) and so it had the feeling of something very new and different.

It snowed a ton, increasing the “outdoor” feeling. And of course, my favorite part, Sidney Crosby scored the game winning shootout goal.

The following year, the 2009 Winter Classic featured the rivalry between the Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings.

While the 2008 game was played at the Ralph Wilson football stadium in Buffalo, the 2009 game would be played in a different setting. This time the game would be played at Wrigley Field in Chicago, a baseball stadium. It was going to be interesting to see the difference between the game being played in a baseball stadium as opposed to a football stadium. Plus there was the added bonus of getting the pleasure to see Chicago’s Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane.

On January 1st, 2010 the famous Fenway Park in Boston was the setting for the Winter Classic showdown between the Boston Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers.

For the first time, the home team (Bruins) came away victorious winning the game 2-1 in overtime.

2011 featured the return of the Pittsburgh Penguins, this time to face their rivals the Washington Capitals. This game was not just the rivalry of two teams but “Sid vs. Ovi.” The Crosby vs. Ovechkin had been long running since both players started their NHL careers in the 2005-2006 season. While this was just another setting for the contest between the two players it also brought the Winter Classic back to a football stadium at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh. Washington came away with the win with a score of 3-1.

January 2nd, 2012 would be the meeting of two rival teams that have been battling in the Atlantic Division since its inception in 1993. The New York Rangers would be playing against the Philadelphia Flyers at the Citizen’s Bank Park in Philadelphia. Because the teams play each other so often, the teams would play each other several times before the Winter Classic game , which would build the rivalry up even further leading up to the game.

We got a taste of that by watching HBO’s “24/7 Rangers/Flyers: Road to the Winter Classic” mini-series. Three episodes would air before the actual Winter Classic game with the final episode premiering a few days after, which would include the game itself. The show gave fans a nice inside look at the two teams, their lives on and off the ice, and the creation of the Winter Classic.

The game was intense and physical. It was hard fought between the two teams with many great scoring chances. Jaromir Jagr was not given much ice time during the 2nd and 3rd periods but showed he still has some game left in him during the first period cutting past two defensemen and getting a great scoring opportunity. The 1st period ended with the score 0-0. The Flyers picked up the pace in the 2nd period scoring two goals. But Rangers Coach John Tortorella was able to adjust and the Rangers would not let the period end by such a deficit.

With less than five minutes left in the 2nd period the Rangers got a goal from (the unlikely) Mike Rupp cutting the Flyers lead to one. Mike Rupp came to the rescue again in the 3rd period by scoring the tying goal and making the score 2-2. Less than three minutes later Brad Richards got the go-ahead goal to make it 3-2, which would be the final score. Flyer’s forward Daniel Briere would have a chance to even the score with a penalty shot awarded to the team as a result of one of the Rangers players covering the puck in the crease with their hand (an illegal move). But Briere was unsuccessful. And the Rangers won the game.

I want to mention at this point that I thought this game was great and part of the reason for that was the way it was played. As I said before, it was physical, it was fast, it was intense … but it was not violent. There were no fights, no head shots, no knee on knee, etc. I was impressed that these two teams were able to play hard and fast without any of the violent shenanigans often seen in NHL games this season.

These two teams showed that you can play a rough and exciting game without a fight or seriously injuring an opponent. I was very impressed. I should note however that Flyers’ tough guy Scott Hartnell was assessed a 10-minute game misconduct for cross checking one of the Rangers after the 3rd period ended, which led to some minor scuffling between the players.

But as I mentioned, this was after the game had ended and no serious fighting broke out. No violence. Just pure hockey. I loved it. Happy New Year Everyone!

Follow Scott on twitter or Mike Rupp will score on you: @moridin87

“On Wednesday December 14th, 2011 HBO premiered the first episode of its original series “24/7 Rangers/Flyers: Road to the Winter Classic.” The show will follow the New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers for the four weeks leading up to and including the NHL Winter Classic on January 2nd 2012.

NY Ranger Michael Del Zotto

The show is following the success of the incarnation last year, which did the same in following the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals for four weeks leading up to their showdown in the 2011 Winter Classic.  The show gives a behind the scenes look at the teams and what happens on and off the ice; i.e. what the coaches say in the locker room, what the players do on their “off” time, what the players are saying on the ice (they are mic’d up), etc.

As a Rangers fan, I was very excited about the show, having thoroughly enjoyed last year’s. While I have heard that a number of people were disappointed with the first episode, I enjoyed it a lot. I tend to like any hockey documentary but then again I like anything hockey.

Del Zotto and a friend

I can watch any game (even an Islanders game) and enjoy it.

I was eager to watch the parts covering the Rangers as I would be able to put that which I have seen (games on TV) and know (from articles and reports in the media) into context from the behind the scenes point of view I would now get.

Usually, as fans, the knowledge we gain about the teams we follow are from our own observations during games and what the media reports to us. Now I would be able to hear and see from the sources themselves what happened.

One MOAR time!

It is no longer that I know Del Zotto got hurt chasing the puck into his zone during a game but I can hear the sound of his collision into the boards, him yelling “f#%k!” and his reactions as the medical staff check him over.

The Rangers’ media outlets mention their work with the Garden of Dreams Foundation and you get the idea that the Rangers are a charitable group.

Now I get to watch the players as they spend time with the under-privileged children and the real effects it has on both the children and players.

According to most people I know, two “persons of interest” to watch throughout this documentary were going to be Coach John Tortorella (“Torts” as he is at times referred to) and Sean Avery. Tortorella can be difficult at times when dealing with the media. While he is known for saying things bluntly (like Bruce Boudreau,) he does not always get along with the media. He has done short press conferences or not answered certain questions to the frustration of reporters. He once told New York Post reporter Larry Brooks to “get the f#%k out of here” live on TV.

So it was going to be interesting to see how he would react with all the cameras being around the team. It did not seem to me like he let it affect him at all. In fact, he yelled at Brian Boyle at one point for making a mistake on the ice, which had led to a goal against, as a result of Boyle letting the mic on him mess with his head.

I am sure everyone was also curious to see if he would be dropping F-bombs the same as Capitals (at the time) Coach Bruce Boudreau had done so frequently on the program last year. While Tortorella did not, in at least this first episode, use the F-word as frequently, when he did say it I “felt” it. He was irate. Even I was scared to do something wrong while watching the show so as not to be on the receiving end of Tortorella’s wrath.

Sean Avery was not on the Rangers squad when the NHL 2011-2012 season first started. He did not make the cut at the end of the pre-season and was sent down to the Rangers’ farm-team the Connecticut Whales (formerly the Hartford Wolf Pack). However, with all the injuries to players on the Rangers’ roster, unless you are an injury lawyer, as fans, these are hard times. Avery was eventually placed on re-entry waivers and called up to play for the team again. Some critics questioned the move being so close to the start of the filming for the 24/7 documentary and asking if Avery was called up to have him around for the show more than for any other reason.

Sean Avery frequently seems to be surrounded by drama. He is the face of the NHL agitator (or some might say “pest”) and considered one of the most despised players in the league. He is hated on the ice for his mouthing off to everyone and his ability to get under other players’ skins. The NHL created a rule known as the “Sean Avery rule” for his acts in a game versus the New Jersey Devils. Avery parked himself in front of and facing Devil’s goaltender Martin Brodeur and began waving his stick in his face to obstruct Brodeur’s view of the puck.  (I happen to think that was kinda creative and funny).

The “Sean Avery” rule now makes that action illegal in a game. I (of course) have gotten super annoyed at him when he targets Sidney Crosby. Avery has also gotten some media attention for his support of same-sex marriage. He recorded a video in May of 2011 for the New Yorkers for Marriage Equality and had lobbied politicians in New York to support the legalization of same-sex marriage in the state. In a New York Times interview Avery discussed his support for the gay community and how he has made many gay friends through living in both LA and NY.

So with this reputation as a pest and the media attention he receives, what was going to happen with him in the show? Well, not much. There were some clips of him mouthing off to opponents and a scene with him in the locker room bouncing a tennis ball off his stick. The “feature” part on Avery was the cameras following him on his off-time to a fashion shoot (of all things). Avery is known for his “passion for fashion” and has been involved in the fashion scene as both a guest-editor for Men’s Vogue and as a model for men’s clothing (as shown in the episode). And that was it. No real drama if you ask me. Which leads me to think he was more likely re-called due to the injuries and not for the show.

One thing that you can see in the show that was not focused at all on was some of the new renovations that were done to the aging Madison Square Garden (MSG), home to the Rangers (and New York Knicks). Early in the season the Rangers went on a long road-trip series in order to accommodate the construction going on at their home arena. The renovations were reportedly going to give the building a much-needed face-lift. I went to the Rangers vs. Penguins game on November 29th at MSG and was curious to see the changes made. I was very disappointed.

The only changes I noticed were that the “Team Store” was no longer located at gate 75 (it was one level lower now) and you could no longer walk around in a full circle around the concourse unless you were inside the arena by the seats.

The towers were now somewhat cut off from each other. Nothing else seemed different. After the game, I went on for several days telling friends how the renovations were awful and no “face-lift” existed. Boy was I proven wrong. On December 13th I was offered by a teammate of mine his 2 tickets to the Rangers’ game that night against the Dallas Stars.

I accepted them without even asking where the seats were. When I found out where the seats were located I almost passed out: Section 2 Row 1. (I sat in the 300’s section at the Pens game). I would be sitting right behind the net, at ice level. These tickets were also part of MSG’s new Delta Sky 360 Club. What does that mean you might ask? It means that these tickets included unlimited free food and drinks (alcoholic beverages were sadly not free though). This was an experience I will never forget.

My friend and I walked into the arena and felt like kids in a toy store. We were in awe the entire time. This whole section of the arena is so classy and chic. I was speechless for the first ten minutes we were there. I just could not believe it. This is what I am referring to that you get to see in the 24/7 episode.

Those areas where the players are going up escalators and heading to the locker rooms are the same ones we used to get to our seats. That is because the new locker rooms are located right next to the . When you see during the intermissions the players walking back to the locker room surrounded by glass walls and fans looking in, that is the 360 Club behind the glass walls. I was immensely impressed and will now back up that there was indeed a face-lift (I should note that I was told the renovations are not finished yet and more are still to come). It is unfortunate though that you can only experience this renovation if you have tickets in that area and not in the higher seats. I am definitely spoiled and will now have trouble sitting anywhere else at a game.

Seeing the players so up close and personal was so awesome. I flinched every time the puck came toward us and hit the glass and could almost feel every hit a player took against the boards.

I only hope my staring at Lundqvist for so long, being as he was so close, did not throw him off his game and cause him to give up the only goal scored, which resulted in the Rangers losing 0-1. But sitting that close, how can you not stare at him?!”

Follow Scott on twitter and you too could get that close to King Henrick: @moridin87

This Bud's for you and you and you...

In a city known for manufactured and focus-grouped soundbytes, 24/7 was on beyond refreshing. 

Bourdreau 2012?  Why the F not?

The final episode demands another screening or three just to soak up some of the more subtle nuance*. 

The post-game Dan “Mr. Personality” Bylsma looked like he should’ve been placed under 24-hour suicide watch.  Sidney “I’m ready for the relay Coach” Crosby looked far more shaken up than previously thought after his run in with that handsome stud, David Steckel.  Maybe a Tom Shales-style (or more appropriately, Hank Steuver <wink-wink>) review is in order for the coming days.  But until then…

A couple days ago, pal, colleague and all around sports / media geek, Dave Levy had a nice piece for WeLoveDC on siting a rink in DC for a Winter Classic: FedEx; Nationals Stadium, UMD’s Byrd Stadium and the Mall.   A boy (a city) can dream. 

Not mentioned in his piece is RFK.  I asked Dave why.  He told me to STFU and to stop fantasizing that we could write about hockey.

*Extra credit given to anyone who can cite the use of ‘nuance’ in a hockey blog before this morning.

No, this never gets old.

Craig Laughlin, sporting 18 for the Capital in his salad days

First off, the Alumni (“Old Dudes”) game wrapped at an admirable 5-5.  A number of our favorite former Caps saw a little action, although we were just a bit disappointed that Craig Laughlin was unable to get the biscuit between the pipes.  Joe B better give him s**t about that.

Although the NHL channel screwed up by NOT airing the game, you can find all the days action streamed live here.   The Caps are slated to hit the ice later this afternoon; the Penguins already fouled the rink up with their practice, so the Zambonis will need a little extra time.

Sure the weather could suck tomorrow, but Coach Boudreau seems intent on keeping out men focused.  “If I have to say anything to players on New Year’s Eve, they’re in the wrong business,” Boudreau is quoted today in the Post’s Caps Insider.  “Of course young guys want to go out, but this is a 1 o’clock game the next day and it’s the most important game for hockey this side of the playoffs.  If they’re out, I would be extremely disappointed.”

We think he means it.  As for the Penguins, go party your rocks off.

OK – We get painting your eyes, but the lip?  Was he doing Groucho or making fun of Sidney’s pubestache?