NHL Winter Classic

Ralph Wilson Stadium (now Bills Stadium), near Buffalo, during the first Winter Classic in 2008

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."[2] In December 2006, Miller found an ally in then Executive VP/Business & Media John Collins, who embraced the idea.[3][4]

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 fifth Winter Classic was held in 2012 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia

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, 2014, and 2018. The 2008, 2014, and 2018 games also featured the teams switching ends halfway through the five-minute sudden-death overtime period for the same reason. In 2008 and 2014 the games went into a shootout, where 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 the risk of a weather delay pushing the game 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, was reportedly 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 2014 Winter Classic at Michigan Stadium saw over 105,000 fans in attendance, setting an NHL record

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.[5] The matchup was rescheduled for the 2014 Winter Classic, at the same venue with the same participants.[6] 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.[7] 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.[8]

In 2017, the Winter Classic was the second of two outdoor games to be held over the New Year's weekend, with the NHL Centennial Classic being held in Toronto on January 1 and the Winter Classic following on January 2. The St. Louis Blues defeated the Chicago Blackhawks by the score of 4–1, scoring 3 goals in the third period.

To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the first Winter Classic, the NHL announced on May 10, 2017, that the Buffalo Sabres would take part in the 2018 game against the New York Rangers at Citi Field. Due to a 1982 agreement with New York City and state tax laws that give their home arena Madison Square Garden tax-exempt status, the Rangers must not "cease playing" home games at MSG (which is generally interpreted as meaning playing a home game at any other venue), and thus Rangers hosted the game but played as the visiting team. The arrangement gave the Sabres only 40 games for the 2017–18 season in their home city of Buffalo, while the Rangers played 42 games (not counting away games against the New York Islanders) in New York City. The NHL had used a similar policy for the Rangers in the 2014 Stadium Series and the 2011 NHL Premiere.[9][10][11] The game was played on January 1, 2018.

The 2019 Winter Classic was hosted at Notre Dame Stadium in Notre Dame, Indiana.

On November 18, 2017, the NHL announced that the Chicago Blackhawks would host the Boston Bruins in the Winter Classic scheduled for January 1, 2019. The game was played at Notre Dame Stadium, in Notre Dame, Indiana, and was the first instance of a Winter Classic being played in a different state and media market than the host team—the stadium is located less than 100 mi (160 km) from Chicago but is served by television stations in South Bend.[12]

The NHL announced on January 26, 2019, that the Dallas Stars would host the Nashville Predators in the 2020 Winter Classic at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas.[13] It would be the first Winter Classic to take place at a warm-climate city and the first outdoor game for both the Predators and Stars. The Stars won the game 4–2 in front of 85,630 fans, the second largest attendance in an NHL game behind the 2014 Winter Classic.[14]

The league originally announced on January 1, 2020, that the 2021 NHL Winter Classic would feature the Minnesota Wild at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota.[15] The league later confirmed the St. Louis Blues as the opponent. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic delaying the conclusion of the 2019–20 season to September and postponing the start of the following season, the event was moved to 2022 at its earliest.[16]

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, FedExField, Ohio Stadium, Husky Stadium, motorsports venues such as the currently under construction Canadian Motor Speedway in Fort Erie, Ontario,[17] and even non-sports venues like the National Mall or Central Park.[18][19][20][21][22] 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 Bills Stadium), possibly to coincide with the 2018 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, which will include one outdoor game.[23] 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).[24]

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 (Heinz Field eventually hosted the 2017 Stadium Series game).[25] Another possibility for the Penguins, Flyers or Sabres (Pegula is a prominent Penn State alumnus who has hosted an annual exhibition game at Penn State's indoor hockey arena since 2016) would be Beaver Stadium on the campus of Penn State University, located between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.[26]

Harvard University and the Boston Bruins have explored the possibility of asking the NHL to schedule the 2024 Winter Classic at Harvard Stadium in Boston, Massachusetts to coincide with the Boston franchise's 100th anniversary year. If awarded the 2024 Winter Classic, the Bruins are expected to ask the NHL to again have the Montreal Canadiens as the opposition.

Any future games in New York City will have to have the Rangers play as the away team because their home area Madison Square Garden receives tax-exemption status which means the Rangers "must not cease playing any home games at MSG" which is interpreted as playing a home game outside of MSG.

• Bolded teams denote winners
• All games played on New Year's Day, except for 2012 and 2017, which were played on January 2 due to New Year's Day falling on a Sunday.

Teams often wear throwback, or retro-styled sweaters for the Winter Classic

For the Winter Classic, participating teams typically wear throwback, or retro-style sweaters, and occasionally retro-styled equipment. The throwback sweaters are 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.

• 2008
  • Pittsburgh Penguins: 1970–71
  • Buffalo Sabres: 1983–84
• 2009

Fans on stilts adorned in the sweaters used for the 2009 Winter Classic

• • Detroit Red Wings: 1926–27 Detroit Cougars
  • Chicago Blackhawks: 1935–36 design with 1948–49 logo
• 2010
  • Philadelphia Flyers: 1973–74 with modern font for their numbers and a black nameplate, became permanent road jersey the following season.
  • Boston Bruins: 1958–59[27] design with brown stripes instead of black, and 1948–49 inspired logo (the original form of the "spoked-B" logo).
• 2011
  • Washington Capitals: 1974–75
  • Pittsburgh Penguins: 1967–68 sweater with colors reversed and crest logo instead of diagonal "Pittsburgh" lettering that appeared on original jerseys.
• 2012
  • New York Rangers: Traditional sweater design in off-white with straight-lined player names and blue numbers with red trim in felt rather than drop-shadow tackle twill. Striping on shoulders, arms and tail is a variation of the ones they currently use, and crest logo a modern variation of the logo used for the team's inaugural season in 1926.[28]
  • Philadelphia Flyers: Traditional sweater design in orange with black numbers and off-white trim. Striping on shoulders, arms and tail is different from the current sweaters. The stripe design was inspired by a sock design the team wore in the 1980s. This design would be used as an alternate uniform in 2014.
• 2014
  • Toronto Maple Leafs: Toronto's uniforms were royal blue and white and featured the distinct striping configuration inspired by the 1930s Maple Leafs. The front crest of the jersey featured a distinct wordmark from the inaugural Maple Leafs' logo, revealed in 1927. The neckline design is taken from the sweaters worn by the Leafs throughout the 1960s and the running stitch detail on the numbers is a tribute to the Leafs' sweater from the mid-1950s.[29]
  • Detroit Red Wings: Detroit wore red and antique white uniforms featuring a striping pattern and arch Detroit wordmark inspired by the late-1920s Detroit Cougars. The front crest on the jersey featured an early iteration of the winged wheel from the late 1930s Red Wings.[29]
• 2015

During the 2015 Winter Classic, the Chicago Blackhawks wore throwback sweaters, whereas the Washington Capitals wore a retro-styled sweater

• • Chicago Blackhawks: Chicago's jerseys were based on their 1957 jerseys, white with red and black striping on the bottom, lace-up collars and the tomahawk logo near the elbows.[30]
  • Washington Capitals: While the Capitals' uniforms were not technically "throwbacks" because they represented a new uniform not previously worn by the team, they were a combined look back at hockey in D.C.[31] Washington wore red sweaters (in a darker shade of red than the team's normal uniforms) with white stripes atop the shoulders and along the bottom, the front featuring the team's name in white over a large blue 'W', with the center of the 'W' stylized like the Washington Monument.[32]
• 2016
  • Montreal Canadiens: Montreal's jerseys were based on the one they wore for the 1924–25 season. Having won the Stanley Cup the precedent season, the first in the team's history as a member of the NHL, the team put a globe with the word "Champions" under it. Since 1922, the team was using their classic CH logo with inverted colors (the C in white and the H in red): that logo was moved on both arms for the 1924–25 season. For the Winter Classic, the CH logo was put back as the team's crest while the globe moved on the arms. As for the jersey's colors, they traded place from the original version, the red becoming white and the white becoming red, similar to a jersey worn by the team between 1944 and 1947.[33]
  • Boston Bruins: Boston also used a jersey based on the one they wore for the 1924–25 season, their first in the NHL. The jersey is identical to the one used that season, except for the fact that it is black instead of brown as it originally was.[33]
• 2017
  • Chicago Blackhawks: The jerseys from the 2015 Winter Classic returned for 2017. Chicago's jerseys were based on their 1957 jerseys, white with red and black stripping on the bottom, lace-up collars and the tomahawk logo near the elbows.[34]
  • St. Louis Blues: St. Louis' uniforms were based on the inaugural 1967–68 home jersey. The jerseys feature historically-accurate fonts and team striping, a ribbed crewneck collar, the vintage blue color and the original Blue Note crest from the first season.[34]
• 2018
  • Buffalo Sabres: 1970s design and colors, with no gold trim on numbers and a small "NY" initial at the bottom of the logo. The "Buffalo" wordmark from the Buffalo Bisons-inspired throwbacks from 2010 is included on the helmet, and a new shoulder crest (a buffalo filled with the word "Sabres") was added.[35]
  • New York Rangers: Rangers' jerseys were based on their 1926–27 jerseys from their inaugural season.[36]
• 2019
  • Boston Bruins: The brown and gold jersey with heritage materials and striping that pays homage to the 1930s era uniform. Highlighting the throwback look, the jersey features the throwback “B” logo.[37]
  • Chicago Blackhawks: black and white uniform that pays homage to the 1934 Blackhawks along with a Blackhawks crest featuring a combination of felt letters and chain stitching.[38]
• 2020
  • Dallas Stars: Green and white jersey with elements from the 1993–94 Dallas Stars jerseys (the Stars first year in Dallas) and the 1945–46 USHL's Dallas Texans jerseys (the first year of minor league hockey in Dallas).[39]
  • Nashville Predators: Yellow, blue, and white striped jersey inspired by the 1960s and 1970s jersey of the Eastern Hockey League's Nashville Dixie Flyers, the first minor league hockey team in Nashville.[40]

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."[57]

Its popularity in the United States led to the American Hockey League adopting a similar contest in 2010, the AHL Outdoor Classic, which it continued to organize each season through 2017–18. 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. The Winter Classic also led to the revival of the Heritage Classic, an outdoor game featuring only Canadian NHL teams; and the creation of the NHL Stadium Series, another regular season event held at an outdoor venue.

• List of outdoor ice hockey games
• List of ice hockey games with highest attendance

Media related to NHL Winter Classic at Wikimedia Commons