This short lil vid is supposed to illustrate the Detroit-Chicago rivalry... which is pretty lame, as far as rivalries go. Granted there USED to be one helluva rivalry between the two teams, as both are members of The Original Six and have been playing each other since 1942. I can remember some great games back in the '80s... when Chelios played for Chicago and was THE Guy I Loved To Hate, bar none (Well... except for Claude Lemieux, but we won't go there. That was the '90s, anyway.). Chelly's been in Detroit for nearly ten years now and is one of my favorite players. Funny how that works, eh? But we digress...
The Winter Classic will be played at 1300 hrs (ET) at Wrigley Field in Chicago on New Years Day. I dunno which Bowl Game will take it in the shorts here at El Casa Móvil De Pennington, but I will NOT miss the Winter Classic. From The Wiki:
The largest crowd to ever watch an NHL game was during the AMP Energy NHL Winter Classic when 71,000 people watched the Pittsburgh Penguins battle the Buffalo Sabres. The game was held at Ralph Wilson Stadium, which is the Buffalo Bills home stadium in Orchard Park, New York, a suburb of Buffalo, on January 1, 2008. This was the first NHL game held outdoors in the United States.The Sabres and the Pens game was one for the ages. I'm thinking this year's game will only be better, especially since Chicago actually has a competitive team now. They were a LOOOONG time in the hockey wilderness, Gentle Reader.
This is where I'll be on New Years Day... for a couple of three hours, anyhoo. Wanna join me?
Last year's was phenomenal, I couldn't believe it. There's always a fear of the big let down after something like that, but I can't imagine being disappointed, no matter what happens. And yes, those 'Hawks really have some go this season.
ReplyDeleteYou KNOW I'll be joining you. What to drink, what to drink...
I finally got the vid to load - problem on my end, not yours. Not a bad setup, but I think they should have gone with some old footage sprinkled in. Anyway, I am uber excited.
ReplyDeleteBTW - total opposite. I was a huge Cheli fan until he went to Detroit. Loved that old Chelios/Steve Smith blue line for the Hawks.
"What to drink" will be THE operative question New Years Day. The game will start at 1100 hrs my time and I'm just not one for indulging before noon... and never have been. But maybe a shot of Kahlua to spice up the coffee I'll doubtlessly still be drinking... especially if I do as I have at New Years these past few years and stay up half the night watching other people celebrate.
ReplyDeleteAre you saying you don't like Chelly today, Andy? HOW can that BE? ;-)
(I hope he's well enough to play, btw.)
Chelly (that's the spelling?) has been around long enough that he has moved into dignified elder statesman" sort of status. Too much respect for the man to dislike him now.
ReplyDeletePlus, he loves chili
re: spelling. I'm just assuming here. Hockey players hang a "y" off of everyone's name for some strange reason. Part of their sense of humor, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteYeah... Chelly is MOST definitely an "elder statesman" at this point in time.
If I ever get back to Deetroit, you can bet a stop at one of his bars will be required. But I don't see myself back in Deetroit anytime soon. It's a long way from P-Ville.
BTW... did I ever tell ya that Deetroit won the frickin' Cup the year after I left Detroit? And a great good friend of mine had the frickin' NERVE to call me up and breathlessly tell me "Guess where I'M going... right NOW?" about a week after the shouting was all over? She was on her way to a favorite watering hole of ours, where McCarty and Friends were celebrating with the Cup... being the beneficiary of a hasty phone call to the effect of "Get down here! NOW!" And she followed it up with pics of her drinking from the Cup while getting a lil bit friendly with McCarty. Ah... missed opportunities, and all that. I hated her for a very brief moment in time... ;-)
ReplyDeleteOh my, that's the stuff - well, I don't even know WHAT to say about that. I mean, I would want to hate her, but as Oscar Wilde said about friends (and I broadly paraphrase) : Anyone can sympathize with another's failures. It takes a real friend to enjoy another's success.
ReplyDeleteMy story: I watched all of the 2001 Stanley Cup playoffs from my barracks on Ft. Bragg, but missed every single minute of the finals - and Ray Bourque's beautiful moment - in the desert on an untimely deployment to Ft. Irwin, CA for a National Training Center rotation. When I finally got to a TV and saw Super Joe Sakic give the first hoist of the cup to Bourque, well, I was moved, to say the least.
When I finally got to a TV and saw Super Joe Sakic give the first hoist of the cup to Bourque, well, I was moved, to say the least.
ReplyDeleteI was moved, as well... and nearly to tears, at that. It was Bourque's LAST shot and he made it... there's no finer moment in sports when something like that happens. God Bless the Avs for giving him the chance.
And speaking of the Avs... I was rooting for them in the Finals that year, believe it or don't.
Sorry you missed the Finals... it was quite good that year, but I ain't telling ya anything you don't know! ;-)
The first Winter Classic was an incredible game to listen to. I just hope they will have improved the ice surface. It got tedious that they had to keep fixing it throughout, prolonging the Pens victory.
ReplyDeleteMichelle: NHL.com has live webcams of the building activity at Wrigley Field... have you been watching? OK... OK, I'll concede the "watching paint dry" analogy when it comes to watching a bunch of guys build a hockey rink. They're taking off tomorrow for the holidays, anyway, and returning to finish up next week.
ReplyDeleteRumor has it the refrigeration unit will be able to handle the ice this year, no matter the temps... but wasn't snow accumulation the major problem last year?
It was one of the problems. I remember that they had to keep taking timeouts so that workers could repair the cracked surface itself because of several dangerous spots where the players could seriously hurt themselves.
ReplyDeleteNow that you mention it, Michelle, I remember that, too.
ReplyDelete