Playing in Centennial Classic a ‘neat experience’ for Red Wings’ Jared Coreau

Corrado had just finished getting a stick inked by all the alumni and was still savouring the stories he’d just heard from Eddie Shack and Tiger Williams, who played for the club in the 1960s and 1970s.

Matthews scored his first goal of the game at 12:05 on a shot from the right circle to increase the lead to three goals. Outdoor hockey games have been an annual occurrence mostly on New Year’s Day since 2008 as a throwback to how hockey was played during the early days of the sport. When the media asked what he could do to impress once he got back in the lineup, Carlyle responded bluntly: “Play better”. He’s going to understand more.

Komarov grew up playing outside, so Sunday was a nice reminder of how he got started as a kid.

“In saying that, it doesn’t matter who you play him against and what situation”.

“(Ron) was a lot more relaxed and kind of let me play my game and then Randy was the opposite.

“To fly up here today and do the tour of the truck; the truck is like a moving mini-Hall of Fame and I truly enjoyed my time in there”, Gretzky said. And their long-term chances look even more daunting.

Morgan Rielly didn’t mind failing to score on a breakaway in overtime after all.

With the temperature just above freezing for much of the game, you didn’t hear Leafs players complaining about the cold.

Matthews could become the only teenage rookie (Laine could also join him) in the salary cap era to hit the 40-goal plateau.

Leafs head coach Mike Babcock, meanwhile, was enthused to see one of his favourite former Leafs, Hall of Fame defenceman Borje Salming. “He’ll be a leader, he’ll be a captain of this team”. Sunday was the first of four meetings this season between the teams.

Mantha scored for the fourth time in five games and extended his point streak to six games. “We got the point, but I need to do a better job in the third”.

OT here we come. “We’re feeling good about ourselves”.

Classic. In an otherwise uneventful “Road to the Winter Classic” series, that and Randy Carlyle’s toaster debacle made it all worth it.

Matthews was “the best player there” at that camp in Ann Arbor, Mich., as Larkin remembers it, and the next season he’d earned a spot on a stacked USA under-18 squad which also featured National Hockey League up-and-comers like Larkin, Buffalo’s Jack Eichel, Columbus’ Zach Werenski and Carolina’s Noah Hanifin.

“It’s going to take a few years for all of this to sink in”, said Keon.

“You know, we’ve got a lot of young guys on our team that are all experiencing this together, and there’s still a lot of guys from that team that made the playoffs and had that heartbreak against Boston”, said Marner.

This is just the second outdoor game for the Leafs and fourth for the Wings. Anthony Mantha and Henrik Zetterberg scored three points each against the Maple Leafs. On Saturday Babcock said he sheltered Matthews in the beginning with his matchups but doesn’t anymore.

They packed a fan village the NHL had filled with activities: a truck full of memorabilia and digital displays from 100 years of Leafs hockey, a ball-hockey rink, blaring music, and a mini-Zamboni, giving fans that cool breeze and rumble-over-the-surface feeling of flooding the ice – in virtual reality.