Stadium Series blog: Chandler Stephenson

Washington Capitals forward Chandler Stephenson is keeping a diary of his experiences at the 2018 Coors Light NHL Stadium Series at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland. The Capitals defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-2 on Saturday in the 25th outdoor regular-season game and the last of three this season.
In his final installment Saturday, Stephenson talks about what it was like to walk out for the start of the game and the memories he'll take with him from playing outdoors for the first time in the NHL.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- That was a blast.
We came to Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium on Saturday morning for our meeting and only saw a little piece of it. From what we saw in the morning, it looked like it was going to be pretty special.
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Then, when walked out for the start of the game and all the fans were loud and the fireworks and seeing the jet fly over was pretty cool. It gave you goosebumps.
In warmups, my line -- Jay Beagle and Devante Smith-Pelly -- wore some Harley Davidson biker masks. They were just sitting in my stall, and the three of us had them, so we went out and tried to get a laugh out of it.
Then, we got off to a great start taking a 3-1 lead in the first period. I think it was little refreshing playing outside. The ice was hard and fast and everything just seemed to happen fast.
The Maple Leafs scored to make 3-2 at 7:22 of the second period, but John Carlson got a big goal for us 43 seconds later to make it 4-2. I got an assist.
I don't even really remember what happened. I was just going far side and I was hoping for a loose puck and it popped out. I tried to get goaltender Frederik Andersen out of the net a little bit and threw it off his pad. John was backdoor and fired it home.
I was throwing it to an area. I didn't have much of a shooting angle. Beagle made a great play, being in front and screening Andersen so he couldn't see it.

I don't remember much about the outdoor game I played in the Western Hockey League with the Regina Pats against the Calgary Hitmen at McMahon Stadium in Calgary in 2011. I was 16 years old then. That was a long time ago.
But I will never forget this night. Just having family in town and everything from being outside with the group of guys that we have in here and almost 30,000 fans in the stadium was really special.
I just tried to take in as much as I could. Everything was above and beyond expectations, that's for sure.
They had everything. It was one thing after another that surprised you and gave you goosebumps.
Just to experience it, to get the privilege to play in the game was very special. I'm very thankful to have been a part of it.