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sports Tuesday 3 January 2023

Fenway Park transforms for NHL's 14th annual Winter Classic

By KEN POWTAK with temperatures in the game's venue, the Pen-
Associated Press upper 40s. guins are owned by Fen-
BOSTON (AP) — Fenway Last season's Classic was way Sports Group, which
Park, the majors' oldest played at Target Field in also owns the Red Sox.
active ballpark, was trans- Minnesota — the home of They were sold to the group
formed into an outdoor MLB's Twins — and saw the that's headed by Principle
hockey arena for the NHL's temperature drop to mi- Owner John Henry in De-
14th annual Winter Classic nus-5.7 degrees Fahrenheit. cember of 2021.
on Monday afternoon. Before the game, a free So, Boston's professional
With the logos of the two concert that featured hockey team faced Henry's
teams — the Boston Bruins country music star Sam NHL team in his MLB park.
and Pittsburgh Penguins Hunt was held in a parking Some fans picked up on
— hanging high atop the lot across the street from the moment.
seats above the park's fa- Fenway, where fans could "It's kind of strange, but I
bled 37-foot Green Mon- play a giant table-top knew they were going to
ster, the league's annual hockey game and take a play the Penguins," said Boston Bruins players, from left, Linus Ullmark, Jeremy Swayman,
marquee New Year's event challenge of ingesting hot Andy Holt, 58, from Mer- A.J. Greer and Charlie McAvoy walk off the field in vintage
returned to Fenway for the sauce before sitting in a rimack, New Hampshire, Boston Red Sox uniforms before the NHL Winter Classic hockey
second time. penalty box for two min- who was wearing a Bruins' game against the Pittsburgh Penguins, Monday, Jan. 2, 2023, at
Those usually clad in red utes along with other free Patrice Bergeron No. 37 Fenway Park in Boston. Associated Press
and blue for the Boston events. road jersey.
Red Sox were replaced by Hunt sang his hit song "23" One fan even had some signed a $280-million, 11- don't love it," Ally Ryan, 29,
thousands wearing black in his nearly hour-long per- advice for the Red Sox with year deal as a free agent from Marshfield, Massachu-
and gold (actually, the formance, bringing up the star third baseman Rafael with the San Diego Padres setts, said of the Bruins fac-
colors of both NHL teams), start of 2023. Devers after they lost short- last month. ing Henry's NHL team. "They
and they lined up around In an interesting twist to the stop Xander Bogaerts, who "John Henry, the traitor. I better sign Devers."q
the soon-to-be 111-year
old park hours before the
faceoff.
The championship banners
of the Red Sox, that usually
hang along the outside of
the third-base side of the
park, were replaced by
banners of the Bruins, Pen-
guins and the Winter Clas-
sic logo.
About 4 hours before the
game, Bruins' fans lined
the gates along the play-
ers' parking lot just behind
home plate, looking to get
a glimpse of their stars be-
fore they entered.
Bruins' players joined into
the baseball theme, too,
coming into the park wear-
ing vintage white Red Sox
uniforms with "Boston" in
red letters across the front.
Some played catch in
front of the home dugout,
which had "Boston Bruins"
across the top on the first-
base side. The visitors had
"Pittsburgh Penguins" on
the roof.
The team's official souvenir
store was filled with Bruins
and Penguins Classic gear,
with most of the Red Sox
stuff pushed to back racks.
The rink stretched from just
beyond what's usually sec-
ond base across the mid-
dle of the diamond, over
the pitcher's mound where
Hall of Famer Pedro Mar-
tinez worked for the Red
Sox, and toward the visi-
tors' dugout on an unsea-
sonably warm afternoon