Tag: bruins

NHL’s Winter Classic returning to Fenway Park in 2023

The Winter Classic is returning to Fenway Park in 2023, the National Hockey League announced on Friday. The league’s signature outdoor showcase will be hosted by the Boston Bruins, though who they will be playing has yet to be revealed.

In addition to an opponent for the Bruins, a date and time for the game has not been announced, either. The Winter Classic is typically played on the afternoon of New Year’s Day, which falls on a Sunday next January.

With that being said, it’s possible the regular season contest is moved back to New Year’s Eve so that it may be played on a Saturday. As previously stated, the details still need to be hashed out.

For the Bruins, this will mark the third time they have hosted a Winter Classic and the fifth time they have played outdoors overall.

On Jan. 1, 2010, the Bruins bested the Philadelphia Flyers, 2-1, in overtime while playing in front of 38,112 at Fenway for the first time. Marco Strum was responsible for the game-winner.

Six years later, the B’s faced off against the rival Montreal Canadiens at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass. With 67,246 spectators on hand there, Boston fell to Montreal, 5-1.

To kick off 2019, the Bruins traveled to South Bend, Ind. to take on the Chicago Blackhawks inside historic Notre Dame Stadium. Powered by a two-goal third period, Boston came out on top against Chicago, 4-2, in front of a crowd of 76,126.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic last February, the Bruins once again took on the Flyers in Lake Tahoe, Nev. With no fans in attendance, Boston trounced Philadelphia, 7-3, behind a David Pastrnak hat trick.

So, all-time, the Bruins are 3-1-0 in outdoor games. Their most common opponent to date has been the Flyers. But, as noted by MassLive.com’s Matt Vautour, there’s a good chance the B’s could be taking on the Pittsburgh Penguins at Fenway next season since the John Henry-led Fenway Sports group recently purchased the team.

As for Fenway Park itself, the iconic ballpark is no stranger to hosting hockey games and other winter events. Frozen Fenway, which has pitted some of New England’s top college hockey programs against one another over the years, is a prime example of this.

(Picture of Fenway Park: Elsa/Getty Images)

Red Sox Could Play Games at Empty Fenway Park This Summer, per Boston Mayor Marty Walsh

Boston mayor Marty Walsh is open to the idea of the Red Sox playing games at Fenway Park this summer under two conditions: no fans would be allowed in the stands and the City of Boston would have have to sign off on “advanced health and safety protocols that protect not only the athletes, but also everyone else reporting to the workplace,” per The Boston Globe’s Michael Silverman.

Speaking with Silverman in an over-the-phone interview earlier Friday, Walsh emphasized the safety of all parties involved in this challenging process.

“Yes, as long as the players and the teams and the support staff and all the people that are associated with it are safe and feel comfortable,” he said, “Obviously, their health is important to me as well, many of them are constituents of mine and even if they’re not constituents of mine, I obviously want people to be healthy and safe. That’s going to be the biggest challenge that they’re going to have to figure out and meet if they’re going to move forward here.”

Walsh mentioned how he had recently spoken with Red Sox team president and CEO Sam Kennedy. The two talked about MLB’s plan to get baseball back this year, although no specific dates to get the sport back have been set to this point in time.

Still, the league and its players association are hashing out negotiations about a potential return to baseball in 2020, and if an agreement is reached sooner rather than later, the City of Boston would have to ensure that MLB’s COVID-19 protocols meet its own.

“We want to see the plan,” Walsh said. “We’ll have our public health experts take a look at it and make sure that they feel like everything is covered that needs to be covered moving forward here…They’re personal teams and they have employees, and we want to make sure the teams and the employees are taking care of everything and looking through it all so that we can make sure if it does open it’s open in a safe way and the virus doesn’t spread.”

This applies to the Bruins and Celtics, whose respective seasons were abruptly suspended in March, as well.

Opening Fenway Park and the TD Garden back up to its tenants does not involve letting fans back in anytime soon, however. This is mainly due to the fact that we are still pretty far away from getting a vaccine.

Despite how unfortunate that may sound for fans across the city, Walsh is still looking forward to the return of professional sports. whenever that may be.

“I think if baseball could come back like we’re seeing in Taiwan and South Korea, I think that’s good for people to have a distraction,” Walsh said. “I think sports is one aspect of that. People have different reasons for distraction and sports is one, and I think it would help a lot of people’s psyches as far as having baseball and sports back.”

To get sports back at all though, one would assume that the City of Boston would have to open back up first. And until more information is gathered on the ever-changing coronavirus, that still might not be for quite some time.