1st January 2010. Three solid hours of telly all to myself

Thanks in no small part to actually having NHL shown on British television again by the occasionally American-football-filled ESPN America, I got to see the game of ice hockey the way it should be played: outside, on a snowy day, in the middle of a baseball stadium

Fenway Park in Boston was the venue for this year's nostalgia fest. The Bruins even had a "heritage" jersey just for the occasion. The game featured the first Winter Classic open-air scrap too, with Boston's Shawn Thornton and Philadelphia's Daniel Carcillo butting heads halfway through the opening period.

After all the fireworks and bands I'd never heard of throughout the buildup as well as the always-naff ceremonial puck drop, I thoroughly enjoyed the game. While not as high scoring or as fast-moving as many of the NHL games I've watched (teams appear to tighten up and not play so open out in the cold) it was a fantastic advert for the game.

The Green Monster's never seen anything like it