2009 NHL Winter Classic - Go Redwings!!

January 1st marked the 2nd annual Winter Classic game. This year it was held at Wrigley Stadium (Home of the Chicago Cubs) and it was between long time rivals the Detroit Redwings and the Chicago Blackhawks.

All I wanted for Christmas was those tickets and Garry got them for me! Our seats were in the bleachers center field. The rink was closer to home plate (bleachers are in the outfield) and there was another smaller rink for some of the intermission events.

The game was an amazing experience! Some highlighted experiences from the event.

• Layered up - I swear by the "Under Armor" brand of clothing. The day before the game I bought some under armor pants and long sleeve shirt and I think that was the best purchase ever! I ended up having about 5 layers on top and 2 on the bottom which was enough for the cold weather.
  
• Prior to the game there was little kids playing hockey on the smaller rink in the outfield. They were dressed up in the classic jerseys and soooo adorable. On little boy has his jersey to his ankles. Here are some pics that I took of them:
  
  
  
  



• For NHL games they play both the Canadian and American Anthems. The presentation of these were great. The brought the largest flags out for the singing of the anthems. During the Star spangled banner there were fireworks that went off and well as a finally fly by with 2 jets.

Prior to the game there were signs that were held up in the stadium to spell out "Happy New Year" and "Winter Classic banners in the crowd happy new year and winter classic





During the game (up until Detroit took the lead (4-3) alot of the Blackhawk fans were chanting "Detroit Sucks" It was extremely irritating so I (surrounding by alot of those fans chanted back "Stanley Cup" Needless to say once Detroit was winning it stopped!

We tested out the instant hand and toe warmers. They last for like 6 hours and I would definitely recommend these.

Celebrity sightings - Vince Vaugn was spotted at the game, but unfortunately I didn't get to see him, I only read about it the next day. http://www.nbcchicago.com/sports/hockey/blackhawks/Winter-Classic-FAN-tastic.html

It would not be the same at Wrigley Stadium without signing "Take me out to the ball game" like normally played in the 7th inning stretch

Brief history of the Winter Classic games:

• The Heritage Classic was an outdoor ice hockey game played on November 22, 2003, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, between the Edmonton Oilers and the Montreal Canadiens. It was the second NHL outdoor game and the first regular season outdoor game in the history of the National Hockey League, and was modeled after the success of the "cold war" game between the University of Michigan and Michigan State University in 2001.


• Given the success of the Heritage Classic, a second regular season outdoor NHL game, the 2008 NHL Winter Classic was played on January 1, 2008, at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, New York. The home team was the Buffalo Sabres, and they hosted the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Penguins won the game, 2-1 in a shootout, on a goal by captain Sidney Crosby.[3]
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