Classic!
Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Posted by HockeyReporter

Getty Images By: Noah Borer

Well after the winter classic in Buffalo, lot's of people in the NHL are starting to look brilliant individuals. Who would have thought that 2 years after the NHL's darkest year (lockout year) that they could have filled a football stadium (Ralph Wilson Stadium) would filled to it's capcity with 71,000+ screaming Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins fan.

While watching the game, I couldn't help but get excited with the way the game was starting to pan out. For the NHL, it couldn't have gone any better. At one point I said to myself "just imagine if the game goes into a shootout, and Sidney scores", almost like it was a fairy-tale, or a script written by the commisioner
Gary Bettman. Sidney came out flying in his first shift and assisted on a goal by Colby Armstrong. Not much else happened for Sidney other than the fact that he got the shootout winner. The other goal (which was scored by Buffalo) was a point shot from Sabres star defenseman and all-star from last year, Brian Campbell.

Like many are saying about this "classic" event, is that the positives far outweighed the negatives. I completely agree with this, and also think that this was an incredibly successful event. Although I also think that if something would have happened to any of these players competing in this contest, that it could have got ugly, and might not have had the same positive media attention in which it is getting. Luckily nothing happened though, the only thing that went wrong was the ice conditions, but that was inevitable with the weather conditions that were
set upon in Buffalo on New Year's Day.

All and all, I think that this event was great for the NHL, and while talking with fans who attended it I got a feel for what they thought. One guy who was at the game said the following and I think it summed it up nicely.

"I worked while the game was on so I recorded it on my DVR. I watched it when I got home. They did a great job of promoting our great sport. I too did notice that they talked about Sidney Crosby a lot! They might as well have pulled his pants down and kissed his butt. That being said, the game was meant to promote the NHL and he is "the big star" now. I really enjoyed watching it. Obviously I did not like the outcome, but, I enjoyed the experience and was proud it took place in my hometown of Buffalo, NY, the new Hockeytown USA. They did a great job putting on the game!".

Thanks all, and have yourself a great New Year!