Winter Classic 2016: Boston Bruins to host Montreal Canadiens
The Boston Bruins will host the Montreal Canadiens in the 2016 Winter Classic at Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts.
This was probably a long time coming.
When the NHL instituted the Winter Classic in 2008, they envisioned it to being more than just an outdoor game. They wanted the event to be a hockey game in it’s rawest form. Obviously, playing the game outdoors attributes to that, going back to hockey at it’s roots. The second aspect are the two teams playing against each other. Ideally, you want two teams who are top teams in league, and also have a bit of a rivalry with each other to add to the intensity of the game.
In the first Winter Classic back in 2008, they had the Pittsburgh Penguins against the Buffalo Sabres. Now, these two teams don’t really have much of a rivalry with each other, but they were two of the top teams in the league at the time. Since then, the NHL have done a much better job at the rivalry part.
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We’ve seen two original six teams go against each other, the Chicago Blackhawks and the Detroit Red Wings, in 2009. We’ve seen Sidney Crosby versus Alex Ovechkin when the Penguins played the Washington Capitals in 2011. We had an amazing show at the Big House in Michigan in 2014 as the Red Wings faced the Toronto Maple Leafs, and we’ve had the Philadelphia Flyers against the Boston Bruins at iconic Fenway Park in 2010.
I leave out 2015, because it wasn’t much of a rivalry between the Chicago Blackhawks and Washington Capitals. While it was a tremendous game and a great venue and event, I feel like the NHL took a step back in the rivalry department.
For 2016, according to WEEI’s Big Bad Blog, it looks like we’re headed back to Boston. This time, there were be a couple differences though.
The venue will be Gillette Stadium, home of the 2015 AFC Champion New England Patriots. As iconic as Fenway Park is, it’s not a very hockey-friendly venue. There were many complaints about visibility obstructions at Fenway during the 2010 Winter Classic. Gillette Stadium will be a much more viewer-friendly venue, and not to mention bigger.
The second aspect that will be different will be the Bruins opponent, and this is where it gets even more exciting. The Bruins will be playing their most hated rivals, the Montreal Canadians. It will be only the second Winter Classic that a Canadian team will be participating in, and the second Winter Classic that the Bruins will be hosting.
As noted earlier, the Bruins hosted the Flyers in the 2010 Winter Classic, which they won 2-1 in overtime. They were the first host team to win a Winter Classic.
This is what the Winter Classic should be about, two hated rivals going at it in a hockey game at it’s purest.
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