NHL Winter Classic

History

The Winter Classic as a television event was presented by NBC Sports Executive VP Jon Miller. He pitched the idea to the NHL in 2004 "but they didn't find the concept workable." In December 2006, Miller found an ally in then Executive VP/Business & Media John Collins, who embraced the idea. The first Winter Classic was held January 1, 2008, between the Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, New York. The game had a then-NHL-record crowd of 71,217 fans in attendance. The success of the 2008 NHL Winter Classic led the NHL to schedule a second one for 2009, held at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois, on January 1, 2009, matching the Detroit Red Wings against the Chicago Blackhawks. That game had the highest American television ratings of any hockey game in 33 years.

The third Winter Classic was held at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 1, 2010, featuring the Boston Bruins and the Philadelphia Flyers. The result was a 2–1 overtime win for Boston, the first home team to win a Winter Classic. The 2011 game was played at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals with Washington winning 3–1.

The fifth Winter Classic was held at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, on January 2, 2012, featuring the New York Rangers and the Philadelphia Flyers. The result was a 3–2 win for New York.

Weather has proven to affect the game, with the 2011 and 2012 classics being delayed due to rain and other weather. Outdoor effects of wind and sun glare may give an unfair advantage to one team, so the NHL sometimes modifies the third and overtime periods. In this case, play is stopped at the midway point and teams switch directions. This option was exercised in 2008, 2011, and 2014. The 2008 and 2014 games also featured the teams switching ends halfway through the five-minute sudden-death overtime period for the same reason; in addition, during both games' shootouts, both goaltenders alternated defending the same goal, rather than the normal practice of defending opposite goals.

The Winter Classic was made a part of the NHL schedule through at least January 1, 2021, as part of the league's television contract, initially with NBC and Versus, then just NBC after Comcast (the parent company of Versus) bought NBC and merged Versus into the NBC Sports banner.

The 2012 Winter Classic in Philadelphia was not played on New Year's Day, as that fell on a Sunday in 2012 and conflicted with the NFL's final week of regular season games. Instead, following precedent set by college football's bowl games (which move their games to Monday when January 1 lands on Sunday), and to prevent a weather delay from pushing into the timeslot for NBC Sunday Night Football, the game took place on January 2, 2012. The game was played at Citizens Bank Park, home of the Philadelphia Phillies. Neighboring Lincoln Financial Field, home of the Philadelphia Eagles, reportedly was preferred, but as the Eagles hosted a home game on January 1, the NHL could not undertake the required week-long renovations needed to construct the outdoor playing arena. The New York Rangers defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 3–2.

The sixth Winter Classic was scheduled for Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor in 2013, with the Detroit Red Wings hosting the Toronto Maple Leafs in an Original Six matchup. However, the 2012–13 NHL lockout disrupted the season, leading to the game's cancellation on November 2, 2012. The matchup was rescheduled for the 2014 Winter Classic, at the same venue with the same participants. It was the first time a Canadian team participated in the Winter Classic. An NHL-record total of 105,491 tickets were sold, greater than the Guinness World Records-certified world-record attendance of 104,173 at The Big Chill at the Big House, also held at Michigan Stadium. However, on January 24, 2014, an NHL source reported that the certified attendance, based on tickets scanned at the venue, fell short of the world record.

The seventh Winter Classic was announced on September 21, 2013 when Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis announced the 2015 Winter Classic would be hosted by his franchise. On June 22, 2014, the NHL announced the Capitals would play the Chicago Blackhawks. On September 10, 2014, the NHL announced the game would be played at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C.

The eighth Winter Classic was announced on January 24, 2015 at an All Star Game press conference when the NHL announced that the Winter Classic would return to Massachusetts, with the Boston Bruins hosting the Montreal Canadiens at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough. On January 1, 2016, the Montreal Canadiens won the 2016 Winter Classic by defeating the Boston Bruins 5–1. The Montreal Canadiens were welcomed with the return of Brendan Gallagher, who had missed 17 games due to broken fingers that required surgery, and managed a goal and an assist, earning him the first star of the game.

The ninth Winter Classic was announced on March 9, 2016 when the NHL announced that the Winter Classic will come to Missouri, with the St. Louis Blues hosting the Chicago Blackhawks at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. The Winter Classic will be the second of two outdoor games to be held over the New Year's weekend in 2017, with the NHL Centennial Classic being held in Toronto on Sunday, January 1 and the Winter Classic following on Monday, January 2. The St. Louis Blues defeated the Chicago Blackhawks by the score of 4-1, scoring 3 goals in the third period. The Chicago Blackhawks are the only team to lose 3 times in the Winter Classic.

The Buffalo Sabres are reported to be the hosts of the 2018 NHL Winter Classic; according to reports released March 15, 2017, they will host the New York Rangers at Citi Field after the Rangers' original plan to play at Michie Stadium fell through. The league has not confirmed the reports.

List of NHL Winter Classics

Throwback sweaters

Participating teams have worn throwback or retro-style sweaters.

The throwback sweaters are very popular with fans, and teams have often continued to wear them after the Winter Classic. The Penguins and Blackhawks made their Winter Classic sweaters their alternates the following season. The Flyers went a step further and made their 2010 Winter Classic sweaters their permanent road sweaters, beginning with 2010–11. The Sabres had already been using a variation of their throwback sweater prior to their appearance (that particular season, there were no third sweaters anywhere in the league) and adopted a slightly updated version of the sweaters as their main uniform in 2010–11, while the 2011 contestants, the Penguins and Capitals, wore their classic uniforms as third jerseys in 2011–12. The Capitals continued to do so through the 2014–15 season, the same year the Flyers adopted their 2012 Winter Classic sweaters as their third jerseys.

Impact

The Winter Classic has proven to be a ratings success for the league in the United States and is regularly the league's most watched regular season contest (in the US), rivaling the ratings for the Stanley Cup. Its popularity in the United States led to the American Hockey League adopting a similar contest in 2010, the AHL Outdoor Classic, which it has reprised each year since. Both the Winter Classic and the earlier Cold War contest helped repopularize outdoor hockey at the college and university level, and several college organizations, minor and junior hockey leagues hold outdoor games each year.

Despite the overwhelming popularity of the original Heritage Classic between the Montreal Canadiens and the Edmonton Oilers in 2003, the popularity of the Winter Classic in Canada is not as high as it is in the United States. On Canada's CBC Television network, the Winter Classic has lower ratings than its weekly regular season telecasts Hockey Night in Canada. This has been attributed to the lack of Canadian teams in any of the Winter Classics and has led to both the revival of the all-Canadian Heritage Classic and the scheduling of the Maple Leafs in the 2014 Winter Classic and the Canadiens in the 2016 edition.

Sports Illustrated columnist Dan Shaughnessy said of the new Winter Classic, "[N]ow hockey owns New Year's Day the way baseball owns the Fourth of July and football owns Thanksgiving."

2014 game

The 2014 Winter Classic between the Detroit Red Wings and the Toronto Maple Leafs had an NHL-record paid attendance of 105,491, and a television viewership in the U.S. and Canada of 8.2 million television viewers, a North American record for a regular season game. Sportsnet's Chris Johnston said, "The feeling when the players walked into the 87-year-old stadium in front of more than 100,000 fans was truly something special. The biggest and best Winter Classic of them all lived up to its advanced billing." The game went down to the wire, ending in a 3-2 Toronto victory in a shootout.

TV Ratings in the U.S.

The Winter Classic games usually rank among the most watched regular season NHL games on NBCSN since 1975. Viewership peaked in 2011 and, with the exception of a bump in 2014, has been in persistent decline since then.

Future sites

Due to the popularity of the event, every NHL team has requested to participate in the Winter Classic either as the host or the visiting team. Numerous locations have been mentioned in the media as potential sites for future Winter Classics or entries in the NHL Stadium Series, including Michie Stadium, FedEx Field, Ohio Stadium, motorsports venues such as the currently under construction Canadian Motor Speedway in Fort Erie, Ontario, and even non-sports venues like the National Mall or Central Park. New Sabres and Buffalo Bills owner Terrence Pegula and commissioner Gary Bettman have discussed the possibility of hosting a second Winter Classic at Ralph Wilson Stadium (since renamed New Era Field), possibly to coincide with the 2018 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, which will include one outdoor game. Former Toronto Maple Leafs President Tim Leiweke expressed his desire to host the 2018 game at a renovated BMO Field to mark the Leafs' centennial (he eventually got the Centennial Classic instead).

Any future additional Winter Classic games in Pittsburgh would have to be held at PNC Park due to scheduling logistics with the Pittsburgh Steelers, who for the 2011 game requested to the NFL to play Week 16 on Thursday night and Week 17 on the road in order to give the NHL time to get Heinz Field ready for the game. (Indeed, work started immediately after the Steelers finished their Thursday night game against the Carolina Panthers, as NFL players were still coming off the field when work started on converting the field.) Both PNC Park and Heinz Field would be available, however, for a Stadium Series game. Another possibility for the Penguins, Flyers or Sabres (Pegula is a prominent Penn State alumnus who has hosted at least one exhibition game at Penn State's indoor hockey arena) would be Beaver Stadium on the campus of Penn State University, located between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.