2018 Winter Classic Review

Another New Year's Day, another Winter Classic, already come and gone.  The 10-year anniversary game was a pretty good one, it saw the New York Rangers and Buffalo Sabres head to Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets.

Apparently, it was one of the coldest Winter Classics on record, as the cold front in the US northeast was still hanging around and the game was -6 Celsius at the time of puck drop, which really isn't that bad.

The Rangers got out to an early lead in the 1st period, jumping out to a 2-0 advantage before the halfway point of the frame and then after that, it was a lot of back and forth through the shadows, keeping a pretty good pace.  The Sabres had to work their way back and they used the first minute of both the 2nd and 3rd periods to help tie the game up at 2-2, before the two teams headed to overtime to decide it.

A power play, halfway through the extra frame, gave the Rangers the added advantage and sure enough, that was all they needed for J.T. Miller to swipe one past Robin Lehner and earn themselves the win.

The winning goalie, Henrik Lundqvist and the overtime goal scorer, Miller, also added an assist to lead the way for the Rangers in this game, each coming away with 2 points, while Rasmus Ristolainen and Kyle Okposo each had a couple of points each on the side for the Sabres.  That's not too bad of a haul, considering some of the poor results we've seen from some of these outdoor games.

Team	GP	Points
Tony Dourado	2	5
Wes Moroz	5	3
Stacey McDonald	1	2
Brian Towers	2	2
Benson Greenley	1	2
Troy Berkley	2	1
Steve Bishop	1	1
Stacey Campbell	2	1
Brenda & Seward	2	1
Dale Bradley	1	1
Cam Wagner	2	1
Mike Somerville	4	1

Tony came into this game with quite a large advantage, thanks to having the shutout in the NHL100 Classic earlier, and he was able to get a goal from Sam Reinhart of the Sabres, bringing his total up to 5 points in two outdoor contests.

Wes, who led all teams in the Winter Classic with four players playing, had both Okposo and Ryan O'Reilly, who combined for 3 points on the day, giving him 2nd place in the contest.  The other three teams with 2 points each above, had the remaining players that had 2 points a piece in this one.

There's only one more outdoor game left and that will be the Stadium Series game between Toronto and Washington in March and that will be the next time you see one of these posts.