Cold as Ice

Fenway Park was a busy place to be today. While the Red Sox announced their big free agent signings, John Lackey and Mike Cameron, work crews from the NHL worked feverishly on the field to build the rink for the Winter Classic game on New Year's Day.

For you non-hockey folks, the Winter Classic is the outdoor game the NHL has staged the last few years in Buffalo, Chicago and now in Boston. The first two games were terrific, bringing the desired "backyard hockey" feel to a massive media event. Right now, the hope around here is that the weather will stay cold enough for good ice on January 1, and it looks like the next several days will be downright chilly.

I decided not to try and get a ticket to the January 1 game between the Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers because the prices were so high, but I have procured one for the Boston College-Boston University game at Fenway a week later. I'm looking forward to that game, which is usually a good battle no matter where those teams play.

I just like the whole concept of playing hockey outdoors. Pond hockey is a total blast. I try to get out and skate on ponds whenever I can, but the warmer winters in recent years have made those occasions few and far between. Even when we get cold weather, we've gotten a lot of snow, which of course makes for tough skating. I did some pond skating in Canada when I lived there, but I really got into when we moved to Kingston, NH. Our house had a huge pond behind it and it was frozen all winter long back in the early to mid-80s. My brother and I would get out there and skate for hours. Unfortunately, I didn't know anybody else who might want to play hockey, so it was just the two of us. Still fun, though.

At UNH, I played a lot of street hockey the first few years, but when I moved off campus, I started skating at an outdoor rink with some buddies. We knew the rink operator and he'd let us skate at midnight. It was awesome. When I moved to Beverly, I tried to get out and skate whenever I saw people out on Kelleher Pond, a man-made pond that freezes quickly. Sometimes I also go to Redd's Pond in Marblehead, where I work. Most of those skates are by myself, but it's still fun.

Still, I wish I'd taken advantage of my youth (and free time) more and did more pond skating back in the day.