The
NHL started an annual tradition back on January 1, 2008 when they
played their first outdoor game in the United States. The Pittsburgh
Penguins played the Buffalo Sabres at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard
Park, NY. It was an overwhelming success. They called it the Winter
Classic. The NHL had played a similar game back in November 2003 in
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada which they referred to as the Heritage
Classic.
As time has gone on, the Winter
Classic as become a mainstay on New Year's Day here in the States. As
for the
Heritage Classic, the NHL had another one in Calgary in February
2011 which the King & I attended.
With that being said, the NHL decided
to expand its plans to having more games outdoors this season. As a result, the
Stadium Series was born. The league decided to have games in the three
largest markets in the States. New York, Chicago & Los Angeles. They
also added another game in Vancouver which is part of the Heritage
Classic series.
As for the Stadium Series, the
King & I got to go to both of the games they decided to play at
Yankee Stadium. The New York Rangers wound up being the visiting team in both
games. That way they didn't lose any home games at the Transformed Madison Square Garden. In other words, it was a financial issue. They played against their local rivals, the New Jersey Devils
& the New York Islanders.
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| National Anthem from our seats in section 420B row 5 |
The first game
was on Sunday afternoon, January 26th. Despite the brutal winter we've
experienced here in NYC, the game was played. It was delayed an hour at
the start due to sun glare on the ice. The game time temperature was a balmy 24 degrees of which an announced crowd of 50,105 people braved the elements
to be a part of history. Besides the King & I, a number of people
we know we're there as well including Greg Venuto & his pal Paul
Bosler who I arranged to get tickets for. They couldn't thank me enough
for helping them out. I was more than happy to do so because that's who I
am. If I can make a difference, I will.
As
for the game we saw, the Devils scored the game's first goal to take a
1-0 lead. They went up 3-1 late in the first period. The Rangers added a
late goal to make it 3-2. In the second period, the Rangers scored four
unanswered goals to take a 6-3 lead. They added one more in the third
period thanks to Derek Stepan who scored on a penalty shot midway
through the period to round out the scoring as the Rangers beat the
Devils, 7-3 in front of a mixed crowd of hockey fans. Since the Ranger
season ticket holders were forced to buy tickets to both games, there
were slightly more Ranger fans at both games.
Wednesday
night January 29th the King & I decided to do it again. I met the
King there after work. We dressed for the occasion & we survived
without a problem despite a game time temperature of 22 degrees. I wound up meeting my pal Eddie Pelle who went to the
game too. We had dinner together at the New Sunflower, a Chinese restaurant
a few blocks from Yankee Stadium. When I got up to my seat with the King in section 424 row 2 we had an empty seat which was filled by our other buddy Andrew Van Cleve who came up from Philadelphia to see the game.
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| View from section 424 row 2 |
As for the
game we saw, the Rangers & Islanders played a scoreless first
period. The game remained that way until late in the second period. The
Islanders got on the scoreboard first as Brock Nelson got one by Ranger
goalie Henrik Lundqvist to give the Islanders a 1-0 lead. It was short
lived as the Rangers got the equalizer 40 seconds later to even the
score at one with 47 seconds left in the period. In the third period,
Dan Carcillo lit the lamp to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead. That's the way
it ended as the Rangers won again outdoors. They're now 3-0 when you
include the win they had over the Philadelphia Flyers in the 2012 Winter
Classic at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.
Stay tuned as I plan to do the rest of my w/o 1/27 in review when time allows me too.
Thank you for reading & following along.
Yours truly,
Gary Herman
