Chandler Stephenson of the Vegas Golden Knights wrote a blog for NHL.com about the 2024 Discover NHL Winter Classic at T-Mobile Park in Seattle on Monday.
In his final installment, the 29-year-old center discusses the 3-0 loss to the Seattle Kraken as well as the memories he is taking from his first outdoor game.
What an amazing experience today was. I think it's one you'd remember more if you'd won, there would be a lot more good vibes I guess toward the weekend, but I still think it’s being part of something special. It was a lot of fun and I thought that we played a pretty good game. Their goalie played well for them, for sure.
In the end, I think it is kind of the experience that matters. Not everybody gets to play in the Winter Classic. It’s the most fans I've played in front of in my life. Walking out there and seeing that there was not a seat to be had, it was a really cool opportunity and experience.
You know, I said this yesterday, that you kind of know what to expect, but it always exceeds expectations. That was the case again today. Everything that they had going on was really cool, really special. It's done up to the nines. It was so loud in the beginning, and then you get on the ice and it’s kind of quiet. It's a little quieter than you'd expect. There's always something going on, something happening to catch your eye, but you can’t take it all in.
I hope that every NHL player gets to experience at least one just to see what it's like to be part of a Winter Classic.
The helicopter flyby in the pregame ceremony was amazing, especially with the people dangling from them. I thought they were going to parachute down or something.
The conditions were really good weather-wise. The ice always gets beat up more during a game than during warmups or practice or anything like that just because you can't replicate game speed and all the stops and starts and turns, but it held up for the most part.
The game seemed more heightened than some games. There's a lot of adrenaline, a lot of emotion. Everybody wants to win, wants to play good. A lot of people watch, so it's definitely more heightened.
We had our chances as a team and on our line. Late in the game, I made a nice pass to Jack Eichel and Daccord made a huge save. Right before that on the penalty kill, Jack rings it off the crossbar. Mark Stone hit the inside of the post in the second. It's just a little bit of puck luck. I think the game could have gone either way. A couple hiccups on our part. A couple more bounces our way and it's a different game. Seattle has been playing well as of late and you know, they had us on our heels for a little bit, too.
All in all, it was just a really good experience. I mean, I know I enjoyed it. I know my family enjoyed it. It was good to see them, to get to spend three or four days with them on the road. You don't get to do that ever. To have them on the road and to be able to see them this morning and after the game and fly home with them tomorrow, it’s just a cool experience.
There’s been so much build up for this game, and after it’s over it’s just done.
We have a lot of time coming up here at home, a lot of home games. I think we have three weeks here in January at home and then go on the road at the end of the month. In February, we have three more weeks at home and then go on the road at the end of the month. So, it'll be nice to kind of have that and to just have some home games. It's always nice being at home with family, getting to spend time with them, and it helps rest your mind a little bit. You're not always thinking about hockey, so that helps when you're kind of going through what we’re going through right now.
Back to the game. I think it exceeded expectations big time. How cool was the stadium without a roof? It was truly outdoors in that sense. So, that was really cool, and just to be in a game with so many fans, I think it just exceeded expectations. It was such a unique experience to be able to be so close to the fans but also so far away. You know, walking out they were right there and coming off they were right there. The day we got, it was perfect. It was kind of like all the stars aligned. Everything just kind of went smooth.
Thanks for reading along about my experiences during the Winter Classic.
