A true classic belongs north of the border

The Winter Classic was nothing less than a spectacle for hockey fans. Especially hockey fans like me who were raised by an outdoor sheet of ice. I was impressed by the 70,000+ fans who showed up at Ralph Wilson Stadium and enjoyed themselves in Buffalo yesterday. It would be hard not to enjoy yourself. Sure it snowed a whole helluva lot, but it certainly wasn't that cold (especially if you're 12 pints deep by the end of the 1st frame).

But compared to the 2003 Habs/Oilers outdoor matchup, this game was lacking something. Maybe because it was played in the US. Maybe because the ice crew had to come onto the ice to fix the same hole every 15 seconds. Maybe because the score (2-1) didn't truly reflect what a real game of shinny should be. Especially after Sid the Kid's Penguins opened the scoring in the first minute. With the amount of raw danglers on both teams, I thought this would be a high-scoring affair. There are some bloggers and media-types alike who have continuously stated the obvious all day long. Yes, there was lots of snow and the zambonis needed to flood every 10 minutes. But hey, it's winter. And yes, the game went on forever, but how many time-outs are called in the last 3 minutes of an NBA or NCAA basketball game? Sure it may say 3 minutes on the clock, but in reality, you're committing the next hour of your life to watching a bunch of flagrant fouls and free-throws. Excitement much? Negatory. Listen, the NHL can't play mother nature, and in reality, it was a pretty fun to watch a different kind of hockey game. It sure beat the hell outta watching the Senators lose again to the lowly Capitals in front of 3,416 Verizon Center fans (OK, so maybe there were more fans than that, but you get my point).

Overall, I'm happy with G-Betts the Commish taking the initiative and trying to spark interest in a football-saturated US marketplace, but let's hope next year it's north of the border where the game was born and where it belongs.