A Different New Year's Day

OMG it was amazing!

For my 23rd birthday, my mom gave me money so I could head to Toronto for a Maple Leafs game that was being played on New Year's Day 2017. Since 2008, the National Hockey League has hosted a Winter Classic outdoor match, normally held at a football or baseball stadium. In 2014 they added other outdoor games.

The Leafs were playing the Detroit Red Wings that day, to celebrate the NHL's 100th anniversary they played in what was dubbed the Centennial Classic. It was very different having to wear all my winter clothes to a hockey game but it was chilly out of course and even with snow pants on over my jeans, my butt was still cold from sitting on metal bleachers for almost 4 hours. Even though it was chilly, it was a nice sunny day and was awesome to walk around Exhibition Place. They had a fan zone set up across the street, which I did not go in to because it was so full, and you could definitely tell who was playing that day with all the logos everywhere. I liked the logos that they had set up on the field to show where the players would be coming out.

Lining up for Oh Canada

The game was awesome to witness. The first period was a little boring with no score and then Detroit got the first goal in the middle period to lead 1-0 after 40 minutes. The crowd really came alive in the final frame after the Maple Leafs scored 4 straight goals. It was so cool seeing the young guys score and make some really nice plays during the game. Even though the Red Wings tied it up with 2 goals in the last two minutes and forced overtime, I was just a tiny bit happy that the game wasn't over quite yet. Then Toronto's 1st overall pick in 2016; Auston Matthews, scored mid way through the extra period to win the game for the home team. When it happened not many people thought the game was over and I was one of them because the puck just squeaked by the visiting goalie, but people knew once the boys started celebrating. I was so ecstatic that Matthews scored and I finally got to see the Leafs win live. During one of the intermissions, the league brought out a bunch of guests as the league announced the NHL's Top 100 players of the last century. That was cool to see as well and I recognized almost every name, many were from the Montreal Canadians, Wings or Leafs and a number of current Chicago Blackhawks.

I'm very glad I have a friend who lives in Toronto so I didn't have to pay for a hotel as well because it was expensive to fly up there and back and the ticket for the game was too but I told my mom that it was worth it big time because I had a great experience.