August 5, 2010 | Awake & Dreaming

The NHL announced their decision to hold the a second heritage classic, next outdoor game in Canada — Feb. 20, 2011 at Calgary’s McMahon Stadium — stemming from the fact hockey fans from coast to coast spent seven years asking for it.

The league has done a masterful job of turning New Year’s Day south of the boarder into Hockey Day in America by holding Winter Classic games in Buffalo (2008 ), Chicago (2009) and Boston (2010). This season’s installment will be in Pittsburgh, when Sidney Crosby and the Penguins play host to Alexander Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals. The first recent outdoor game — the Heritage Classic — took place at Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium between the Oilers and Habs during the 2003-04 season.

The Flames will dig deep into the city’s roots for the game. They’ll be wearing sweaters honouring the Calgary Tigers, the city’s first professional hockey team, when they take to the outdoor ice. The Tigers, who existed from 1920 through 1927 and then 1932 through 1936, faced the Canadiens for the Stanley Cup in 1924. Calgary lost both games against Montreal, 6-1 and 3-0. The Flames won’t wear replica sweaters of the Tigers, rather jerseys in their colours — deep red and gold — with the Flaming C in front.

Living in India, we are used to many power outages; forced and unforced. Forced is when the dams that store water that run electricity for us in the state of Kerala are running low, usually during the long summer months, the government lays down a scheduled power outage of 30 minutes during the evening hours for all. On a rotating basis, your area will have the lights go out for a half hour between the hours of 6:30pm till 10pm. Some years you don’t have to suffer, as the rains have been plentiful and the Idduuki dam is filled – like this year, yay!

But unscheduled power outages – man they can be a pain in the arsre. The Kerala State Electricity Board is so efficient that a minor lightning effect can cause a lengthy power outage; the briefest of winds can cause transformers to blow up. They are so efficient in this manner. Luckily, that too is on the downside this year but we are treated to one every few weeks. So how do I spend my time?

We keep candles ready, on the dining table in the living room. Matches are always kept handy nearby as well. A few candles, an emergency electrical battery charged lamp can brighten those dark evenings. Since I have a 1GB ipod shuffle and my BlackBerry too, I can always listen to music while sitting at the window or lying on my bed. If I have enough light, then I can also read a bit and try and finish the last few chapters of that novel that has been lying around for ages. And a cup of coffee would keep me company as well.