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NBC Sports – We’re just a few days away from the Boston Bruins’ most aesthetically-pleasing game of the season. The Bruins will travel to Lake Tahoe on Sunday to take on the Philadelphia Flyers as part of the NHL Outdoors series. Bruins-Flyers will follow Colorado Avalanche vs. Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday, which means outdoor hockey is right around the corner.
The rink is being constructed a stone’s throw from Lake Tahoe on the 18th green of the Edgewood Tahoe Resort golf course, and it’s a sight to behold.
The NHL Outdoors at Lake Tahoe is going to be a spectacular made-for-TV event. I’ve been to a Winter Classic and no matter where they play the sight lines as a fan in attendance are anywhere from awful to mediocre. The TV experience is usually pretty cool with some highlights being the Penguins playing under the snow in the first WC
The Bruins playing at Fenway was an awesome TV experience as well. I’ve been to Frozen Fenway where I saw some college hockey games there so I know the sight lines are terrible, but I remember the whole neighborhood was bumping for the Winter Classic as I walked around hung over as all hell on New Years Day.
The 2010 winter classic at Fenway Park was awesome.
— Jordan Moore (@iJordanMoore) July 6, 2020
An old-fashioned Bruins vs. Flyers grudge match. The Bruins win 2-1, becoming the first NHL team to win the winter classic at home. pic.twitter.com/3umW8vl50S
But after a while the outdoor games at football and baseball stadiums became kind of overdone. I completely blame the NHL for this because they took something they created out of thin air that became hockey royalty in the Winter Classic and bastardized it by then playing like 5 outdoor games every season. The Stadium Series? FOH.
So the pandemic presented an opportunity for the NHL as teams playing in front of empty football stadiums didn’t seem like a prime aesthetic. The solution?
Lake Tahoe.
Tough to make a save with that view.#NHLOutdoors at Lake Tahoe on Feb. 20 & 21 on @NHLonNBCSports and @Sportsnet.
— NHL (@NHL) February 17, 2021
(📷 IG/trav4oilers) pic.twitter.com/BQ8FzF52tD
The latest peek at the rink. #NHLOutdoors pic.twitter.com/AeWYAWU51F
— Nick Cotsonika (@cotsonika) February 16, 2021
A legitimately awesome idea from a league that isn’t exactly known for marketing their sport all that well. With little to no fans allowed in the stands, why not just double down on the TV experience and put a rink in front of the picture perfect pond hockey back drop?
AND the Bruins will finally be breaking out their brand new reverse retro yellow jerseys, which are going to look absolutely money outdoors.
This must be a logistical nightmare because it’s not like they’re just pulling a couple nets out onto the lake and playing some puck. The NHL is constructing a full fledged hockey rink in the middle of nowhere and as Billy Jaffe pointed out on Toucher and Rich this AM, most Winter Classics are hosted at massive professional sports arenas that are in major cities with ya know, electrical power grids.
So major props to the NHL for thinking outside of the box because I can’t wait to watch this on Sunday and that’s something hockey needs people to be saying more of these days.
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“You know Nick Faldo and I won this thing last year, and I’d like to win it again this year.”
NBCSports Boston – In a stunner on Wednesday afternoon, Zdeno Chara signed a one-year, $795,000 deal with the Washington Capitals. “We are extremely pleased to have Zdeno join the Capitals organization,” said Capitals GM Brian MacLellan. “We feel his experience and leadership will strengthen our blueline and our team.”
Originally reported by Ken Campbell, Chara confirmed the move with a tribute video to Boston fans on his Instagram page.
“My family and I have been so fortunate to call the great city of Boston our home for over 14 years,” his caption reads. “Recently, the Boston Bruins have informed me that they plan to move forward with their many younger and talented players and I respect their decision. Unfortunately, my time as the proud captain of the Bruins has come to an end.”
Zdeno Chara is carved into the Mount Rushmore of Boston Athletes in the 21st Century right alongside Tom Brady, David Ortiz, and Paul Pierce. Chara will be forever beloved by Bruins fans because he chose to come here when he was at the top of his game and the B’s were coming off a last place finish. I still vividly remember sitting in my buddy’s living room that July day in 2006 when Chara (and Marc Savard) signed a massive 5-year contract to come to Boston, which was something the Bruins never did when I was younger. So it was monumental for a guy like Chara to even sign with the team, let alone become a franchise legend, a 14-year-captain, and of course bring the Bruins their first Stanley Cup in 30+ seasons. Not to mention anchoring the defense to two more Stanley Cup Finals appearances.
Chara was an elite defenseman, played the powerplay and the penalty kill, was a captain for over a decade, had the most terrifying slap shot in the league, and he was a physical force. Hell the Canadiens legitimately tried to have him arrested up in Canada for nearly decapitating Max Pacioretty back in 2011. He was also the most intimidating enforcer in the NHL well into his forties with 30 fights in his Bruins career alone.
Chara will be remembered for a lot of things, primarily this iconic photo with the Cup.
He’ll be remembered for his dominance on the ice as one of the best defensemen in the NHL (3x First Team All-Star, 4x Second Team) and then while in Boston becoming the best in the league when he won the Norris Trophy in 2009. Chara will always be the center of some hardcore Boston sports bar trivia too as the owner of the hardest shot in the entire league at 108.8 mph.
Aside from all of the personal accolades and team success though, it was the absolute grit and determination of Big Z that made him a fan favorite. He was always the hardest working guy wearing the spoked B and was routinely setting the bar during the Bruins annual conditioning tests even as he was the oldest player on the team.
The one sight I’ll never forget and one that will be played in his Hall of Fame reel is the ovation Zdeno Chara, with his jaw wired shut, received before Game 5 of the 2019 Stanley Cup Finals, less than two days after breaking his jaw. Chara took a puck to the face in Game 4 and needed surgery to insert metal plates into his jaw and he didn’t even miss a game.
It seemed like the writing was on the wall for Chara this offseason unfortunately, as the Bruins appeared ready to move on after his playing time had started to dwindle. With a bunch of young defensemen the Bruins want to develop or at least evaluate at the NHL level, the team was likely less concerned about the money they’d have to pay Chara and more concerned with kickstarting a youth movement. The Bruins may have also wanted to avoid the optics of having their captain playing 3rd or 4th line minutes assuming Don Sweeney and Cam Neeley didn’t want to stick Chara out there as a Top-4 defenseman at this point in his career.
This is the worst part of getting older as a sports fan; watching your idols get older with you. They get older, sometimes they break down physically, sometimes they move on to other teams, and eventually they all retire. I’m over 30 so Chara has been a pillar of the Bruins for nearly half of my life, which is insane to type. He may not have won as many championships as Tom Brady or Big Papi, but he was just as monumental in changing the culture of an entire franchise and putting yet another Boston team on the map after years of mediocrity.
For that Big Z will always be remembered as a Bruins legend.
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Built for Boston’s Diehards.
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) November 16, 2020
Introducing the #NHLBruins adidas #ReverseRetro jersey.
Hitting the ice in 2021. pic.twitter.com/ByUAXVZGh0
Stop beating around the bush and bring back the Pooh Bear jerseys you cowards! Okay, now that I got that out of my system I actually really, really like this “reverse retro” jersey as they’re referring to it.
A nod to '90.
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) November 16, 2020
More #ReverseRetro photos ➡️ https://t.co/7CMxTulPzE pic.twitter.com/A6muv8gyYw
It’s a color flip of their jerseys from the early 90s that Cam Neely and Ray Bourque wore back in their playing days.
Which were basically a throwback to their jerseys from the late 70s that Mike Milbury and the boys sported.
This is far from the first time the Bruins have opted to go with gold as their primary color. Look no further than the 2010 Winter Classic sweaters.
The Bruins also wore gold in the early 60s
But it will be hard to ever really top the Pooh Bear jerseys of the late 90s. An absolute icon that the Jacobs family is afraid to bring back for some reason.
Now it remains to be seen what the team will go with for pants and socks, but they could go all out with gold on gold on gold. The Bruins coming out of the locker room rocking next season:
I already own the 2010 Winter Classic jersey so I am undecided if I’ll add another gold jersey to my collection (until I drunkenly charge it to The 300s company card), but these new alternates are so choice. Well done.
There are so few, true, fleeting opportunities in life when a teachable moment materializes, hidden in plain view, and those wise enough recognize it and are able to use it.
For me, a passionate, lifelong fan, player and student of the game of hockey, one of those moments occurred in the days and weeks proceeding the tragedy that struck on October 20, 1995. That night, Travis Roy, considered at that point to possibly be the greatest player to ever come out of Vermont and maybe New England, tied his skates to play in his first college hockey game for Boston University. He would achieve his dream, but would ultimately see it derailed and become a nightmare. Eleven seconds into his very first shift Roy would miss a check on an opposing player, fall headfirst into the boards, and suffer a catastrophic spine injury. He would be left a quadriplegic, gaining some use of his right arm years later.
The injury, how it occurred, to whom it occurred, and the reality of what could happen in what amounts to a child’s game, shocked and horrified not just hockey but the entire sports world. Here in Boston, home to a number of college powerhouse conference Hockey East’s teams, the effects were tenfold. Every rink, every stick, every puck, every mention of the game was tainted for a little while with the taste of tragedy, or dejection, of almost mourning for a kid who was damned to a life so unlike the one he had earned. Not even old enough to check with, I remember it crystal clearly.
Everyone felt this way. Except for Travis Roy I guess. Roy almost immediately clung to those eleven seconds. Because for those eleven seconds he achieved his ultimate dream of playing major college hockey. For those not quite in the know, in the Northeast, while dreams of playing in the NHL are abundant, college hockey is actually pretty huge given the presence of the Hockey East, which includes BU, BC, UMass etc. For Roy, he had been able to reach that huge peak, if only for just over a sixth of a minute. From just after his injury to his death, yesterday, at the age of 45, he was quick to mention how fortunate he was, how hopeful he was, and how he refused to see himself as anything but a guy who had lived his dream, regardless of the outcome.
To reach the heights of playing for the Boston University hockey team, you have to work extremely hard. So one can assume Travis Roy was no different in that regard. His efforts after his injury were no different if not even greater. Not only did he log arduous hours of PT to regain the aforementioned use of one of his arm, but he started the Travis Roy Foundation and was tireless in his endeavors to raise money for research for and assistant with spinal cord injuries. Millions of dollars have been dispersed since the foundation was founded to not only try and find either cures or to improve treatment for spinal cord injuries, but for the things we don’t think about like modifying family vans to accommodate those who suffer these enigmatic, mysterious, barbarous maladies.
That, I honestly think, will be Travis Roy’s legacy. His enduring legacy. He was a hockey player. He was a hockey player that got terribly hurt. But he was a hockey player that got terribly hurt and used that hurt to make sure people that suffered the same fate were not alone and had people standing by them. He was grateful, he was optimistic, and he always kept going. He never stopped.
Rest in peace Travis Roy. Because of you my Dad got to teach me at age six that you should always be grateful for what you are able to experience, no matter how briefly. And no matter how you get knocked down, there is always a way, some way, to get back up.
-Joey B.
With everyone either remote or part-time, we know you’ve got some time on your hands so The 300s is looking for interns and part-timers to blog about Boston sports, national sports, golf, TV, movies, video games etc. We’ll give writers a platform, promotion on social media, and the opportunity to write about what you like.
If you’re interested send an email to Red@The300s.com and let us know what you want to write about and any samples you might have.
Full disclaimer since I do possess a degree in Big J Journalism, I am a bit biased on this because we are both Quinnipiac grads, but it’s time for people to put some respect on Connor Clifton’s name.
With his all around game as an energy guy that’s not afraid to lay the wood and mix it up, not to mention his rocket of a slapshot, Clifton needs to be in the lineup every single night. Since he was inserted into the lineup by Cassidy in Game 3 (plus Halak taking over for Tuukka) the Bruins have looked like a more energetic team that’s playing with an edge.
Just look at last night’s 3rd period 4 goal explosion that all happened in just 6 minutes and 51 seconds; Clifton was making huge plays in every facet of the game.
My goodness. This is the start of the Clifton goal sequence. Clifton carries the puck, dumps it in, blows somebody up and then scores like 10 seconds later. pic.twitter.com/aE6doclScq
— crag janey (@DreamofJanney) August 18, 2020
And that was immediately followed by Clifton getting into position for a rocket to tie the game at 2 and really swing the momentum in the B’s favor.
Quinnipiac stand up! @connorcliff28 @QU_MIH @QUAthletics #Boston #Bruins #NHL #NHLBruins #StanleyCup #StanleyCupPlayoffs #Quinnipiac #QU pic.twitter.com/HrbmhphT3Z
— The 300s (@The300sBoston) August 18, 2020
Marchand followed that up just a minute later with a slick goal of his own, followed by a goal from Jake DeBrusk (2nd of the night) less than 3 minutes after that.
I’m not saying a third pairing defenseman has been the difference in this series, but I am saying Connor Clifton finished with a goal, an assist, was second on the team in hits with 3 (+ 5 in Game 3), and led the team in +/- at +2 last night. Not too shabby for Cliffy Hockey. There’s a reason the Bruins gave the QU grad a 3-year extension last summer with one year still left on his deal.
With their No. 1 goalie done for the season, Pastrnak’s return date a complete unknown, and an old veteran laden team the B’s desperately need some energy and production from the young guys and Clifton has done just that.
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