‘It’s hockey at it’s purest form’: Outdoor hockey brings back special memories for many Blackhawks
At least six Cubs games in April figure to be colder than it was Monday (44 degrees) for the Winter Classic practice at Wrigley Field.
The Blackhawks have returned to the Friendly Confines for the first time since 2009, and will face St. Louis on Tuesday at 4 p.m. Rain is a concern for game day. Some of the players are openly rooting for it to snow, to pump up the atmosphere.
When the NHL started playing these outdoor games — the first of the modern era was 2003 in Edmonton — they were billed as a tribute to pond hockey.
In the suburbs, playing hockey typically means expensive travel teams, not meeting friends on the pond. For some of the Blackhawks who grew up closer to the Great White North, playing outdoors is special.
“It's hockey at it's purest form in my eyes,” said forward Nick Foligno, a Buffalo native. “It's where it all started and where your imagination comes to life. Just being out there today brought me back to being a kid. You could feel the fresh air in your lungs, the dark — it was magical.”
Taylor Hall shared a story of playing in his own backyard rink, which took far more effort than just hanging a basketball hoop above the garage door.
“My dad built me a backyard rink every year in Calgary and I played a ton of backyard hockey,” Hall said. “My dad spent a lot of hours building that rink for me and I'm always grateful for what he did there.
“My dad even built all the way up the side of the house, so I could skate down the side of the house and go for a breakaway in the backyard, That's where I learned to love the game and honestly, it's where I learned my skills and had so much fun. So when I'm out here, it brings me back a lot.”
Defenseman Seth Jones moved around quite a bit because his father is former NBA power forward Popeye Jones. But his hockey career got rolling when he lived in Denver.
“There are so many sunny days there, sometimes the snow just melts the next day,” Jones said. “But there were a few winters growing up that we did play on a pond and all my buddies got out there.”
Rookie Frank Nazar grew up in the Detroit area, where the proximity to Canada makes hockey a bigger deal.
“I had a lot of friends in high school that lived on canals or lived by lakes or ponds, and we'd always go out,” he said. “It was comical. A lot of my friends that didn't play hockey, they'd put on skates and try to keep up. It was always a lot of fun.”
One player who didn't spend much time playing outdoor hockey is Connor Bedard, since he's from Vancouver, where freezing temperatures are less frequent.
Jason Dickinson said outdoor hockey was very popular where he grew up outside of Toronto.
“We had an outdoor rink managed by a local dad,” Dickinson said. “Basically, he would go out and flood the baseball diamond in our little park. The number of times we'd be out there until 10 or 11 at night, just freezing our butts off, but loving every minute of it.”
Since facing the Red Wings in 2009 at Wrigley Field, the Blackhawks have played five outdoor games. They hosted one in the snow at Soldier Field in 2014, then played at Nationals Park in Washington in 2015, at Minnesota in TCF Bank Stadium in 2016, at Busch Stadium in St. Louis in 2017, and at Notre Dame Stadium in 2019.
This year's game arrives at a low point in the season. Not long ago, the Hawks won three straight and were 4-3 since making a coaching change from Luke Richardson to Anders Sorenson. But now they've lost four straight, dropping the past two games against Buffalo and Dallas by a combined score of 11-3.
“I'm using this game as a way to springboard our group to where we were expecting to go,” Foligno said. “It's been a little disappointing as of late, especially.
“But this is a great opportunity to kind of catch ourselves, enjoy the moment, come together as a group. It's a great fan base here that we need to give a little bit more to, and what a great opportunity for them to be able to celebrate on New Year's Eve.”