Bill Belichick, Claude Julien skate together on Gillette Stadium ice

The Bruins only had stiff skates to lend to Belichick, and the equipment took its toll when Belichick fell at one point during the skate.

The Patriots coach, who had the Bruins coach out to practice on Wednesday, came into his press conference at Gillette Stadium wearing a Winter Classic winter hat. He’s a great guy. Here he is, about to hop a flight to Miami with nothing less on the line than home field advantage throughout the playoffs, and he still finds time to have a skate around with Claude Julien. “I think we probably have a lot in common just in the way we coach and look at the game and look at the team and things like that. They get to play in front of a ton of fans, I’m sure it’s cool for them, and to see hockey played outside is pretty cool”. So I asked him if he wanted to skate, and he said he’d love to.

Tune in to Friday’s Winter Classic between the Bruins and Canadiens on 98.5 The Sports Hub – the flagship station of the Boston Bruins.

“We didn’t have a lot of ice in Maryland but skated at Andover, skated at Wesleyan, played in the old “huff and puff” league when I was in New Jersey with the Giants”, Belichick said.

“From what I saw from him, to be honest, was the second he put his skates on to how he finished, he improved quite a bit”, Julien said. Coverage begins at 12:30pm on Friday, with Felger & Mazz broadcasting live from Foxboro following the game.

“Wish I could’ve played hockey”.

Gronkowski said he played left wing when he played hockey until ninth grade, when he switched to playing basketball.

Montreal Canadiens goalie Mike Condon grew up in MA, so his New England Patriots fanhood is still going strong.