Heritage Classic

An outdoor matchup in front of 41,000 screaming, half-frozen hosers at McMahon Stadium in Calgary featured the Flames beating down the Habs, 4-0.

• I like watching the Habs lose in front of a national audience.
• Hal Gill sucks.
  
• Local boy Andy Brickley doing the color commentary for the Versus network. While Jack Edwards is regarded as one of the loonier play-by-play guys in the NHL, our own Andy Brickley has emerged as being one of the best color guys covering the NHL today. There was an uptick to the give-a-shit index here at the 311 newsroom because Brick was covering the game.
• Carey Price with a mask/helmet done in the style of Jacques Plante, really looked more creepy than being a tribute. It's the stuff from which bad dreams are made.
  
• No zamboni. I forget why (too cold, weight would crack ice or something? I'm too lazy to look it up*), but dudes were shoveling and hosing down the ice between periods. I guess as the sun went down in Calgary, it got wicked cold. Weather.com had Calgary temps at 15F. WIMPS.
• Folks at tsn.ca love to call Boston, "Beantown". Anyone you know locally who calls Boston, "Beantown"? It's like...how to spot an out-of-towner...they call it "Beantown". "Beantown" etymology; also, here.
  

*it's this kind of ace journalism that makes Vf311 the best blog in town.