Outdoor hockey in some form is the common thread running through virtually all levels of organized hockey. It is to hockey what Wiffleball is to baseball, or what playground hoops are to basketball.
“It’s huge,’’ said Philadelphia Flyers coach Peter Laviolette, whose first exposure to hockey was on neighborhood ponds behind his father’s and grandfather’s homes in Franklin. “I grew up on a pond. That’s where you really learn to love the game, playing outside all day long, you learn all your skills and really the true meaning of fun.
“It doesn’t matter if you get scored on, nobody yells at you, you don’t really have to forecheck or backcheck, you just go out and have fun. You do what you want.’’
The opportunity to play the game both outdoors and at its highest level in the NHL’s Winter Classic at Fenway Park tomorrow has had players thinking about the good old days back home.
“It’s going to be amazing,’’ said Morris. “It’s going to bring you back a little to your childhood.’’
Except, maybe, for Bruins left wing Milan Lucic.
“It’s funny, everyone is asking me this, but growing up in Vancouver, it’s a warmer climate, so I didn’t really get to, you know, I never skated outdoors,’’ said Lucic, who has been sidelined by an ankle injury and is doubtful for the game.
Here are memories some of the people involved with the Winter Classic have of those halcyon days.
ZDENO CHARA: There was no need to make plans with his boyhood pals in Trencin, Slovakia, where Chara, the Bruins’ burly defenseman, grew up.
“Every weekend, we just knew that’s where we were going to meet up,’’ Chara said.
They’d play for two or three hours at a time on frozen lakes or the Vah River, which had ice solid enough to support two teams.
“It was just for fun,’’ said Chara. “We’d play four-on-four or five-on-five, with no goalies, and we just had small nets. It was pretty high-scoring games.
