Many of the top players in the game took their talents outside this past weekend, with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings highlighting the inaugural Centennial Classic on 01 January, followed a day later with the St. Louis Blues hosting the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2017 Winter Classic.
The Leafs and Red Wings met at BMO Field in Toronto to kick off the NHL’s 100th season in style, with a relatively slow game through 40 minutes exploding into a flurry of action in the third period, with 7ย goals scored in the frame to put the game at a 4-4 tie, ending withย a last-second tying goal from Detroit’s Anthony Mantha. However, Leafs phenom (and surely future IHLC-holder) Auston Matthews answered with his own second goal in overtime, givingย the Leafs the 5-4 victory in front of aย raucous crowd of 40,000-plus.
The Leafs boasted five players who have held the IHLC in their careers, a number surely to grow due to the abundance of young talent joining the team this year, led by the trio of Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander. The Red Wings only featured three IHLC holders, also a sign that younger talent like Mantha and Dylan Larkin will soon helm their squads, both in Detroit and internationally.
| DETROIT ๐ธ๐ช Niklas Kronwall ๐ธ๐ฐ Tomรกลก Tatar ๐ธ๐ช Henrik Zetterberg |
TORONTO ๐ฉ๐ฐ Frederik Andersen ๐จ๐ฆ Nazem Kadri ๐ซ๐ฎ Leo Komarov ๐จ๐ฆ Morgan Rielly ๐ท๐บ Nikita Zaitsev |
As for the Winter Classic, held at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, a crowd of over 46,000 took in yet another game that broke open in the third period, with a 1-1 stalemate being busted by dynamo forward Vladimir Tarasenko, who whipped in two goals in just 1:53 to set the crowd alight, with a late Alexander Steen empty netter sealing the 4-1 victory for the Blues, becoming just the third home team in nine iterationsย to win a Winter Classic on home ice.
These squads, more established than the youth-focused Maple Leafs and Red Wings, boasted 17 combined IHLC holders,ย including all goal scorers in the game (Kempnรฝ, Berglund, Tarasenko and Steen), along with team captainsย Jonathan Toews and Alex Pietrangelo and star players Patrick Kane, Duncan Keithย and Jay Bouwmeester.
| CHICAGO ๐ท๐บ Artyom Anisimov ๐จ๐ฆ Corey Crawford ๐บ๐ธ Patrick Kane ๐จ๐ฆ Duncan Keith ๐จ๐ฟ Michal Kempnรฝ ๐ท๐บ Artemi Panarin ๐ธ๐ช Dennis Rasmussen ๐จ๐ฆ Brent Seabrook ๐จ๐ฆย Jonathan Toews |
ST. LOUIS ๐ธ๐ช Patrik Berglund ๐จ๐ฆ Jay Bouwmeester ๐ธ๐ช Carl Gunnarsson ๐ซ๐ฎ Jori Lehterรค ๐จ๐ฆ Alex Pietrangelo ๐บ๐ธ Paul Stastny ๐ธ๐ช Alexander Steen ๐ท๐บ Vladimir Tarasenko |
Photo Credit:ย Toronto Maple Leafsย โย Yahoo Sportsย โ IIHF โ HHOF โ IOC
International Hockey Lineal Championship 