Winter Classic Alumni Game

On New Year's Eve former Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins played in an Alumni Game at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA. The game was played the day before the actual Winter Classic between the current Canadiens and Bruins on New Year's Day.

José played goal for the Habs (the first 2 periods of the game.) Richard Sevigny was the other Habs goalie, and he played the 3rd period. José faced 20 shots, stopped all in the 1st period, one goal got past him in the 2nd, so after the 2nd period when he left the game the Habs were up 2-1. But they then ended up losing 5-4 after the game went to a shootout.

He looked like he really enjoyed himself. He had said he was very happy to have the opportunity to "retire" with the Canadiens. Even if he's not officially announced his retirement, he's made it clear he is the same as retired. He hadn't played in the NHL in 3 years, and had only been on the ice once since that time, over 2 years ago, for a charity game in Florida.

He had a new pair of pads ordered from Vaughn to use in the Alumni game, but they didn't get them to him in time to have them broken in, so he used an old Minnesota pair. He did use the new blocker he ordered from Vaughn. I bet his new pads were going to look like the ones he wore in 2002 when he also had that blocker, too bad Vaughn didn't get them out to him. He ordered them in August. That should've been plenty of time. :/

Anyway, he looked really great. He was still sharp and still had great reflexes. I'm so proud of how he played, and it's a perfect ending to an amazing career.

And yes, he wore a tuque on top of his mask, like he did in the 2003 Heritage Classic.