Penguins coach recalls family Fenway memories ahead of Winter Classic
Sullivan says facing Bruins in ballpark of his youth 'thrill of a lifetime'
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The tinny radio, with the voices of Ken Coleman or Ned Martin. The games of cribbage between him and his grandfather as they listened to inning after inning of Boston Red Sox baseball. The thrills and, more usually, the disappointments of being raised a Red Sox fan in the days when that meant a lifetime of pain.
"He used to sit in his rocking chair and we'd listen to the Red Sox game on the radio, on a little transistor radio and he'd smoke a cigar with the window open," Sullivan said as he prepared to fly from Pittsburgh to Boston, where his Pittsburgh Penguins will take on the Boston Bruins at Fenway Park in the 2023 Discover NHL Winter Classic on Monday (2 p.m. ET; TNT, SN, TVAS).
Sullivan, who not only grew up in the Boston area, but attended Boston University and played for and coached the Bruins, has lived in Pennsylvania since 2015 when he became the coach of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the American Hockey League. That same season, on Dec. 12, 2015, Sullivan became the coach in Pittsburgh. His team won the Stanley Cup that season and the next.
And when he did, he brought the Cup back to his roots in Boston.
But, until Monday, Sullivan has never been to Fenway Park as anything other than a fan, all those yearly games he would attend with his father, George Sullivan, who died four years ago.
It's there that his thoughts have turned lately, as the Winter Classic has approached, as Sullivan has seen the ballpark he has visited so often, with his father and then his own children, transformed into a hockey rink.
"All the time," he said. "I think about it all the time."
George Sullivan, who was born in South Boston, died on Sept. 15, 2018. Though his son feels the pang of not having his father watch him coach at Fenway, he takes comfort in the fact that George was there through two Stanley Cup runs, there to bring the Cup back to their shared hometown.
"He stayed at my house with my wife and I through those Stanley Cup runs and he was in the parade with us, so I think that was just an unbelievable experience to be able to live through it with my dad," Sullivan said. "I'm so grateful for that opportunity.
"But I think about it a lot going into this event, just because I can only imagine how excited he would be to be able to be able to watch me coach a game in Fenway Park, which we both loved so much."
And which they experienced together.
"My dad would take us to one Red Sox game a year," Sullivan said. "That was like the ultimate privilege to be able to go to Fenway Park."
Sullivan has appreciated what the current ownership group has done with Fenway, modernizing a ballpark that opened in 1912 while, as he put it, maintaining the nostalgia and the history of the park.
"It's amazing," he said. "I still get chills when I walk into the park. I've taken my son to games and my kids and I still get chills when you walk in and you see the Green Monster and you smell all the peanuts and everything that's associated with the ballpark experience.
"I still get chills to this day."
When the Winter Classic came to Fenway Park the first time, Sullivan was four years removed from being coach of the Bruins. He was an assistant with the New York Rangers and, he admits, felt a twinge at learning that the Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers would be playing at the storied ballpark on Jan. 1, 2010, in the third Winter Classic.
"I remember having a little bit of jealousy, saying 'I wish I was part of that one'," Sullivan recalled.
This time, he will be. And so will his family. Sullivan will have a whole pack for the Winter Classic, from his kids and his wife to his brothers and extended family and high school buddies.
It will be a special day, for all of them.
Because whether it's been in Boston or in Pittsburgh, Sullivan knows what sports can do for a family. He knows full well about living and dying with a team, as he and his family did when he was growing up.
"I can't tell you how many times my heart was broken in the playoffs with the Red Sox and they were finally able to win a World Series (in 2008)," Sullivan said. "I just think sports has that impact on people. It has a unique way of, I think, bringing families together.
"Whenever we had family parties and cookouts in the summertime and my uncles and cousins would come over, there was always inevitable talk about the Red Sox. That's how I grew up. I don't know any different."
Which is why it's just so hard to describe what Monday will mean to Sullivan.
"It's a tough one to articulate," Sullivan said. "Just because it's so personal to me, because I'm a Boston kid, born and raised. I have so many fond memories of Fenway Park, going to Red Sox games with my dad and my brothers and my family. So to have an opportunity to participate in a Winter Classic at such an iconic stadium in my home town, I think is the thrill of a lifetime."
