Winter Classic will deliver for Seattle, former Mariners pitcher says

SEATTLE -- Maybe better than anyone else, Matt Boyd can appreciate the blend of hockey and baseball in the 2024 Discover NHL Winter Classic.

He grew up playing high-level hockey in the Seattle area, facing Spokane native Tyler Johnson. He has pitched in Major League Baseball for nine seasons, including one with the Seattle Mariners in 2022. And he’s a Seattle Kraken season-ticket holder.

The Kraken and Vegas Golden Knights will play Monday (3 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS) on a rink built on top of the baseball field at T-Mobile Park, home of the Mariners. The timekeeper’s box and penalty boxes will sit on the back third of the pitcher’s mound.

The 32-year-old free agent has made seven regular-season appearances at T-Mobile Park. He has gotten to make one playoff appearance in his career, and it was for his hometown team in his hometown stadium in a classic. He pitched one-third of an inning for the Mariners in an 18-inning, 1-0 loss to the Houston Astros in Game 3 of the American League Division Series at T-Mobile Park on Oct. 15, 2022.

He remembers the intros, the anthem, the flyover. He remembers what he was thinking as he left the bullpen: “This is so cool. I dreamed about this. I knew this would happen, but it’s actually happening right now.”

“It was so special,” he said.

The Winter Classic will be special too.

“It’s going to be electric,” he said. “I don’t think there’s going to be an empty seat in the house. I just know the energy that stadium packs for Mariners games. Putting that into the high-paced Kraken games, hearing ‘Lithium’ by Nirvana play after a goal, it’s going to be pretty awesome in that environment. It’s going to be a sight to see.”

Seattle didn’t have an NHL team when Boyd grew up in Mercer Island, Washington. But he had Chicago Blackhawks gear thanks to his grandfather, John, a diehard Chicago sports fan, and watched “Hockey Night in Canada” on CBC, thanks to the proximity to Vancouver.

“I remember one day we were watching Don Cherry on there, and I told my dad, like, ‘Hey, I really want to play hockey. Where can I do this?’” Boyd said. “And he’s like, ‘I don’t really know, but if you really want to, we can go do it.’”

Boyd played hockey from about 4 to 16, even in the summer, baseball season. He became a defenseman for the Sno-King Junior Thunderbirds, who wore uniforms like the Seattle Thunderbirds of the Western Hockey League, and traveled around the region.

A lot of people didn’t know high-level hockey existed in the Seattle area then.

“Like, I’d get pulled out of school at 1 o’clock to go make our 4 o’clock game up in the Vancouver area or wherever, and they’re going, ‘Wait. Why are you getting pulled out of school?’” Boyd said.

Boyd thinks he played against Evander Kane, now a forward for the Edmonton Oilers. He knows he played against Johnson, now a forward with the Blackhawks.

“He was my age,” he said. “We always played Spokane. They were one of the teams we constantly played. I remember it was like, ‘Hey, put a body on Tyler Johnson every time you can. Try to take him out of his game.’ It felt like it was like that from mites all the way up to the end of bantam.”

Boyd said he wanted to keep playing hockey, but he had to give it up for baseball. He went on to Oregon State, the minor leagues and the big leagues. He has played for the Toronto Blue Jays, Detroit Tigers and Mariners.

“I remember talking to his dad,” said former NHL defenseman Jamie Huscroft, who was the hockey director and a skills coach for Sno-King when Boyd played there. “He said, ‘He’s quitting, and he’s playing baseball.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, my God. That’s a stupid decision. You’re a good hockey player, and it’s so hard to make it in baseball.’

“Obviously he made the right decision.”

Hockey might have helped Boyd make it in baseball. Boyd talked about the sacrifices made by his parents, Kurt and Lisa, and the lessons on the ice.

“I loved the intensity of the sport, the fast pace,” he said. “You have to be hard-nosed to play it. And also, being on an American team playing in Canada, you learned to play through adversity, whether it was from the referees or …”

He laughed.

“Something else. I love it. I love the sport, and I loved every minute I had playing it.”

Boyd has seen hockey grow in Seattle since the Kraken began play as an expansion team in 2021-22.

“The buzz here is cool,” he said. “People are still learning the sport. We’re in our third year as a fan base. But the passion for a team from Seattle is there.”

He goes to about 10 games per season at Climate Pledge Arena, which is challenging considering he and his wife, Ashley, have four children 6 and younger.

“We’re usually leaving halfway through the second period, which stinks, listening to the rest of the game on the road,” he said with a laugh. “It’s really, really awesome, man. It’s such a cool place. The energy in there is sweet.”

The best part?

Isaiah Boyd is asking his dad to play hockey the way Matt Boyd once did, and there are more opportunities to enjoy the game in Seattle, like, say, the Winter Classic.

“Now my son loves it, my 4-year-old,” Boyd said. “He was 3 years old last year asking to get out there, so I was just taking him out to learn to skate, and now we’re dropping into stick and puck as a 4-year-old.

“He’s pulling me out there. I’m like, ‘This is awesome.’”