Wowyoucanread at 1:21 AM January 03, 2012 I think the whole spin of your argument is rather weak.  The point of the winter classic is to show the connection of playing outdoors – the purest root of the sport.  Pond hockey – with dad each nite of the winter.   It’s not some novelty – randomly drawn up as you present.Hockey is a cold weather sport, so no surprise you can’t relate to it with our weather the last few days.  It needs cold to exist.  Next, if you actually watched the game – instead of writing the thesis of your article beforehand – you surely would have noticed the historic rivalry between the two teams.  Again reason being the NHL started in the north east.  There were no western teams for many years.  The largest percent of fans still reside there, thus making the team selection appropriate. Additionally the Rangers are one of only six original teams to start the league almost 90 years ago.Lastly we had a game between the top two teams in the eastern conference decided in the closing seconds in dramatic fashion.  Very questionable article.Best,Mike in Sherman oaksEx hockey player-fanPs as a professional composer let me point out your grace note reference musically makes no sense. A grace note is an extremely short note played immediately before another note.  You’ve used it incorrectly.