The Great White North and the Classic that Went the Distance

About four months before the NHL Winter Classic 13/14 was set to take place in Michigan my dear friend Matthew Tempich, also my assistant manager at the time; came to me and told me that I was going to the game and would pay as much of the ticket price that I could. It wasn't a question but a order, one that he knew I was all aboot. You see it came to be known that I was down for seeing hockey live on almost any scale, and a outdoor game was even more enticing. He was my Canadian buddy/manager and we came to understand each other to the extent we trusted each other to hang the heck out and have a good time witnessing, (in all honesty the most amazing LIVE hockey game in my life) and be there to experience it with him and his buddies. Listen. You can see a game on tv and it can be great, you can see a regular season game in a normal barn and it can be amazing but an outdoor game is something to behold, given the weather. (playoffs is a whole different story). But a regular season game outdoors, with the right conditions, is just magical. Harry Potter himself would be in awe and straight bliss :). Anyway what I came to find out was we weren't going to just another outdoor game like the one I saw in Pittsburgh (When it rained and the Pens lost :| ) but I was going to the biggest attended hockey game in history.

HISTORY!

Hahahaha but seriously!! The stage was set in Ann Arbor Michigan and had the scale to hold over 100,000 people inside this here football stadium. And it ending up doing so, with even more people standing.

But lets go back a second. Because there was even more craziness to lead up to!

I met up with Matt New Years Eve at his house in Cranberry and stacked my bag in the back of his dads pick up that was ready to brave the elements and make our way up to Canada. Yup, not only was this my first visit out Detroit way but it was my first visit to Canada herself. Passport ready and Matt's grandma and cousin, Steven, and I settled in the F-150, we were off. The trip went as expected and we drove through the elements a good deal, snow was falling and there was more ice on the interstate than I ever encountered. I really was happy I wasn't driving. This whole trip I was happy I wasn't driving.

Anyway we got to the border and had to go through the normal procedures, I just did as I was told and all went right and wallah! The Great White North, Americas Hat, Canadeh. Well first thing was first that we needed to get grandma back home and so we did. Dropped the dear girl off at her apartment and shoved off for Matt's lifelong friend Lucas's place of work. I met him a year or so back when we played some puck together and made friends, good guy. Showed up at his parents restaurant in Leamington Ontario and nabbed his keys off him to his place. He had a couple hours left in his shift but it was cool for Matt to take Steven and I to Lucas's place and try and bring in the New Year a bit before the big day tomorrow.

This pretty much consisted of us playing NHL on Xbox360, boozing and blasting music till it was too late to cause a commotion and Matt and I went back to his Grandmas to sleep it off before the big game.

9am comes quick when you fall asleep around 3am. After some Timmy's coffee we got on the road and headed back towards the boarder in the F-150, Matt and I. Lucas and Steven were on our tail following us back from Leamington in Lucas's Jaguar that had a few years on it and happened to be RWD...... After a bit of a hold up at the border for no reason we hit traffic heading toward Ann Arbor, apparently people were rushing to get to a hockey game or something?

So we pretty much missed the entire first period, and by pretty much I mean we totally missed it. But before I get to the start of us walking up to the stadium let me fill you in on a bit why we were late, other than the hangover late wake up, border patrol and traffic. So you remember how Lucas's Jaguar is RWD? Yup, it got stuck on a side road in Ann Arbor with all the snow hahahaha So Matt and I are going up a side street dodging traffic and we look back and Lucas and Steven are tailwhiping like its their job. We were riding up a Slight Grade street. Literally it maybe rose ten feet at most on this block so it wasn't a steep incline or anything but with how much snow they got there it didn't matter.

Immediately when we got to the stop light at the top of the "hill" and saw they were struggling, Matt, whose a big guy and could probably partially lift that Jaguar on his own, orders me to get the heck out of the F-150 and go push that there Jaguar. Ps. I weight about 150 and Steven who jumps out to help push too might weigh 140 if that. We have the most frail guys we could find pushing this car up a hill in 11 degree weather haha.

Hey it worked out. Somehow.

So we find a lot to park in and start off walking, praying, we didn't miss anything amazing. Luckily we showed up as the first intermission was starting and the game was tied 0-0 after 1. So we really only missed the opening ceremonies and the teams testing the ice and testing the tempo in the first, the second would have to be entertaining. As we walked through the small college town we already saw people bailing from the low temperature. It was 11 degrees without the windchill and flurries were moving into the area. Now I won't go into too much detail but if you ask me there was some stuff going on before or during when we got in, but first thing was first lets grab a beer before getting to our seats!! Oh. Wait. You're out of Labatte and only have Coor's. Wait. They're frozen? How Frozen? Either way gimmie one. Hahaha it might have been my first beer slushy. This woman tried to crack a Coor's and a slushy icee substance started rising out of the can hole without her even trying to pour. Gosh what a let down... As I see a man fall on his face and get carried out by police. He got my Labatte. Hahaha anyway at this point I had to buy a hat, ps. I didn't have one and it was super cold. So after buying the only Toronto one I could since thats who we were rooting for, I made my way to our seats for the start of the second period...... WOW.

I've been to a couple hockey games that blew me away in my day, Pittsburgh vs. Washington in Heinz Field for instance; but this was different. This was real, this was bigger than real. I found my seat (a number on a icy metal bench) and joined the 105,000 people already in attendance. One Hundred and Five Thousand people, that loved hockey enough to sit in 11 degree weather and pay for a ticket over $200. I was in heaven. I kid you not.

I was shivering so bad trying to activate hand and feet warmers all through the second period hahaha as I sipped my beer that froze on the edges of the plastic cup I had slowly but surely. Detroit scored first to open it up in the second period. But shortly after JVR or James Van Riemsdyk scored to tie the event up. I was pumped let me tell you, I bought a JVR shirt like two weeks before cause that guys got some skill and had it on and just felt like a good luck charm giving the Leafs some life.

The Second Period ended with a 1-1 tie to make life interesting and the beer hunt even more valuable since all the stakes had risen. Everyone grabbed two and immediately went back to our seats because missing a second seemed like throwing money away. And the third took off with excitement. Little into the third Bozak found some twine and put the Leafs up 2-1. As a buddy of a Leafs fan and seeing the rivalry between the Pens and Wings I was ecstatic seeing Detroit go down!!! But little did anyone know that Detroit would happened to tie it up three fourths through the third, almost ten minutes later, to make it a nail biter.

OT- Some good chances but no results.

S/O- Results.

First up Det-
Det- Alfy with the miss
Tor- JVR stuffed
Det- The Magician... I mean Datsyuk... you guessed it, he scored Det 1-0
Tor- Lupul popping one past Howard making it 1-1 and keeping it alive.
Det- Tatar getting stuffed by Bernier
Tor- for all the marbles, Bozak putting it away

Toronto wins in a S/O 3-2 and boy were we pumped!!!!

But the most thrilling thing of the day, the trip, was yet to come.

As we pile out and head back to our cars we buy all kinds of cool stuff just to remember it by... But all goes as plans and its time, at like 4pm; to drive back to the Burgh. This four and a half to five hour trip ended up taking a tad longer.

So were traveling down a Michigan interstate headed south about a hour out of the gate from the game and Matt and I are cruising softly around 65 in the F-150 loving life while Lucas and Steven are in the Jag behind us. Well it just so happened Lucas wanted to pass Matt and I for laughs, so he got into the left lane and started gaining on us slowly until a snooty person came up on his ass and forced him into a rough spot of trying to speed up and pass us a little sooner than expected. This is where things turned for worst.

As Lucas and Steven came to pass us they themselves, the front side doors, got to about our front bumper and tragedy struck. They hit black ice. All of a sudden, without a notice or knowing, their Jaguar slid in front of our truck. We were ramming out friends car, my buddy was ramming his relative in the passenger seat of that car. I could see the fear in Stevens eyes when our left headlight was right on the other side of his passenger door window about a foot away right at face level, and its a image I will never forget ever. It happened so fast and so intensely but as if it were a stop in the frame I will never forget that scene and how I braced for myself and for them in that F-150. And then watching them spin off of our grill/bumper to the right, down a inline into a ditch where the woods began until a tree stopped them..... As Matt white knuckled the steering wheel and tested the breaks to their limits.

Before the F-150 stopped I found myself outside of the car running towards my friends friend and relative. I don't know to this day how I jumped to that action but I was running faster that I ever had before. It was real. I didn't know what I would find but I had to get there, time could matter! I hope these guys are alright! As I barrel through knee high snow down the hill to the car embedded in this tree I'm uttering words asking God to help them, to help us. I was freaking out lets be serious. And somehow, by the grace of God, they were both alright. Once they climbed out I immediately took pictures to document without even thinking until someone asked what I was doing and I realized I was doing it so the facts were there and that the insurance companies knew how severe it was.... and eventually Facebook knowing how severe things were haha but really it was proof. After about two or three hours of working with Triple A and getting Lucas's car to a garage we started up again for the Burgh. It was rough. Thinking about how lucky we were, what could have been. Lucas and Steven passed out soon enough but Matt had to keep driving no matter what and I needed to stay awake so he would stay awake. It was one for the roughest rides home either of us have ever experienced I'm sure. Even without the accident, afterwards our energy and focus was tested staying awake since the roads only got worse and our 4.5 hour trip that started at 4pm ended with us getting back to Cranberry at about 3am...

Matt's couch in his basement was calling my name..