Ferraro: Classic's grand stage requires control, focus

Boston Bruins forward Landon Ferraro gives his perspective on playing in the 2016 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic.

The Winter Classic is something you're excited to do. Personally, for me, I'm going to treat it like my first Stanley Cup Playoff game against the Tampa Bay Lightning last season where you have that much more excitement just because of everything going on.

You have to make sure you channel it the right way, and that you're not running around trying to hit everything or trying to do too much because you're so excited. Just keep it simple. I'm a guy who keeps it pretty simple throughout every game. I don't need to come here and start trying to toe drag. That's not really in my skill set.

I've played outdoors before. The year that the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs played at the Big House at the University of Michigan, our minor-league teams played at Comerica Park. I kind of have a feeling what's coming, but there's going to be 50,000 more people at this one so it's going to be exciting for sure.

The ice this morning was pretty good. The hardest part was just the sun at the one end, but that's going to be down around when the game is starting so it shouldn't be too bad. It's always fun when you're out and you're in fresh air and you feel the wind start picking up at times and it just adds different things to it. It kind of reminds you when you were younger and got to go out on outdoor rinks and ponds.

You can take the outdoor game away and this is already a good game. It's huge for both teams and we want to make sure we're ready. But then you add this whole spectacle on top of it, it's just going to add to it. The biggest thing is making sure we calm down early and we make sure we play simple. It's going to be a game when the team that makes the least amount of mistakes, handling the puck and not trying to be too pretty, is going to be the team that comes out on top.

It's been great to be here in Boston since I got here from Detroit. All you can ask for is a chance. I had a little one in Detroit and then we ran into some roster issues with too many guys. That's the story of their organization. They have so many guys, even in the minors, that are ready to play but there's no room and I was the odd man out. I get a second chance and I told myself I wasn't going to let it go to waste. I wanted to make sure I came in and played and didn't think too much, and did what I could. I've had a couple of games where I feel I haven't been as good as I was when I first got here. I'm just making sure I'm getting back to that so I continually show them not only do I want to be here, I deserve to be here and I don't give them a choice of anything else than keeping me around.

I think the biggest thing is allowing myself to play. I felt in Detroit there was the situation of I need to play well or I'm going to be out of the lineup. Even sometimes I play well and I'm still out in the lineup because someone else needs to get in because they haven't played for a while. I don't know if I handled it the best that I could of. I was lucky when I first got here because I got to play right away. You have to make sure you keep pushing so when it comes to that time to decide, I'm not in that discussion. That's all I can do. That's my job.

We're happy where we're at right now as a team. We had three games in a row that we didn't feel like we were on top of it. Sunday we thought we played better and we deserved a little better fate, but the last game I thought we took a good step, especially with David Krejci going down. Guys stepped up. Jimmy Hayes comes out with the hat trick and Matt Beleskey gets two goals. Those are guys who have been playing well but have struggled to put it in the net, so to see them step up and contribute in such a big fashion was a big momentum for our team. Now with Brad Marchand out three games it's time for more guys to step up. It's something that brings teams closer together knowing you can take some of your best players away and we can still get the job done.