As soon as the schedule was announced and I saw that we would have an outdoor game this season, I couldn't wait for it. These are once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to play an NHL game in an outdoor setting and especially for a team like the Maple Leafs against a big rival like the Buffalo Sabres. It's going to be a pretty special experience, something I know I'll remember forever.
I have never played an outdoor game before at all so it's something I was always hoping to get the chance to be a part of. Back when I was at Harvard, I missed the chance to play outdoors unfortunately. Just before I got there, they had played an outdoor game at Fenway Park, I think they called it Frozen Fenway. But I missed that chance by just a few years.
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Being from Vancouver, the weather never really gets cold enough consistently to play outdoors but when I was a kid, our family would go up to Whistler every so often and that's where I have my fondest memories of playing hockey outdoors.
Usually around Christmas and New Year's, that week in between, we'd be up at our cottage and the lakes had frozen over so I'd always be getting on the ice with my three younger siblings. We were on Alta Lake, not the one our cottage was one but where some friends of ours had cottages because that lake seemed to freeze better for skating than where we were.
It's funny but the weather conditions have to almost be perfect to get ice good enough to skate on. If it's too windy, it's all bumpy. If it snows, you're done. You never wanted to be the first one out there, you don't want to be falling in. And then you need people who are committed to the upkeep. The whole lake wouldn't be skateable but if you were nice to the neighbors who would maintain their little section, they'd let us skate on their areas.
Two of my brothers both played hockey and my sister would also get out there with us, so we were always out there as a family playing against some of our friends and their families. Those were always some of the best times and kind of how we had our family reunions. One of the nice things over the last couple of years, I've had the chance to get home for Christmas and I was out there on the lake again like back when we were kids, so I've been out there fairly recently.
Part of what makes outdoor hockey, limited as my experiences with it have been, special to me is the ability to share it with family. So I'm excited to have my mom, dad and sister in town to be at the game on Sunday and to be at the family skate on Saturday just like back at home.
I hear from Jason Spezza that he still skates regularly outside even nowadays with his kids so he might be our secret weapon!
