Winter Classic: Blackhawks' Fashion Statement Not Enough to Curb Bruins
No team has appeared in the Winter Classic more than the Chicago Blackhawks.
Dudes entered this game at 0-3 on New Year's Day, so maybe they were hoping the 2019 game at Notre Dame's football stadium in South Bend, Indiana would find a bitta luck of the Irish rubbing off on them.
Seems like they didn't notice what happened to Notre Dame in the College Football Playoffs.
The Hawks hooked up with Boston's Bruins in what became one of this series' better-played games. The ice was fast, the weather was ideal for outdoor hockey, and it was a close contest all the way to the B's empty-netter.
But really, except for a casual glance at the scoreboard, who noticed?
From the moment Chicago hit the ice for pre-game warm-ups, it took discipline to look away from their nifty cool throwbacks.
The second-largest crowd ever to pack into a Winter Classic -- a sellout 76,126 fans, behind only the 105,491 who filled Michigan's Big House in 2014 -- may have been annoyed that the stadium ran outta food and drink ...
For the record, #WinterClassic ran out of food during the first intermission and they don’t have much beer left now. I haven’t eaten in three days and am probably gonna perish before I leave this place.
— phonymahoney (@phoneymahoney) January 1, 2019
... but the tradeoff was feasting eyes on awesome threads -- for both teams, really -- who put on a complete show competitively.
Boston's having a solid season, and since the disappointing dismissal of Joel Quenneville, Chicago's finally starting to get its act together. This season, that means a squad that management allowed to get too long in the tooth has fought its way back up to being competitive.
The 'Hawks were all of that in the Winter Classic, but it was the Bruins who registered a valuable 4-2 victory:
In so doing, Boston collected its 50th point and remaining in the thick of the battle for a playoff spot.
Chicago, meanwhile, will don the black-&-whites twice more this season, all indoors at the United Center:
- Tue 22 Jan 22 vs the New York Islanders,
- Monday 18 Feb vs the Ottawa Senators, and
- Sunday 24 Mar vs the Colorado Avalanche.
By then, there oughta be a host of those updated 1934 sweaters in the stands. That's the season, incidentally, when they won their first Stanley Cup.
Being kitted out in black-&-white in those days didn't make much difference. Full marks, though, to whomever modernized the look for this year's team.
Incidentally, Chicago's won one game outdoors. They're 1-1 in the Stadium Series, beating the Pittsburgh Penguins at Soldier Field in 2014.
What with the Bears making the playoffs this season, maybe that's where the luck is right now.
Maybe it'll show up elsewhere as 2019 unfolds.