The Winter Classic

The Winter Classic is an annual New Year's Day event held by the National Hockey League every year since 2008.  With the massive success of the original Heritage Classic between the Edmonton Oilers and Montreal Canadians in 2003, the NHL and NBC have partnered together to bring fans the Americanized version – the Winter Classic – to help grow and expand hockey's popularity South of the border.

2014 NHL Winter Classic - Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Detroit Red Wings

The latest edition featured an Original Six match up between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings.  Originally scheduled for January 1, 2013, the Winter Classic was postponed for a year due to the 2012-13 Lockout.  Nick and I were originally supposed to go given the teams involved and the venue it was being held at – Michigan Stadium.  Michigan Stadium – aka the “Big House” – holds close to 110,000.  This meant we would potentially be witnessing the largest outdoor Hockey game ever attended.

Fast forward to April 2013, and not only had the NHL resolved their labour dispute by this point, but they also officially announced that the 2014 Winter Classic would be held by Detroit to make up for the cancelled 2013 edition.

2014 NHL Winter Classic - Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Detroit Red Wings

Here are a few basic facts about the NHL Winter Classic:

• Held in outdoor venues on or near New Year’s Day every year since 2008.
• Every Winter Classic to date has been hosted in an American City.
• Fan Festivals are now held in the week leading up to the event.  This usually includes an outdoor NHL Alumni game between the two competing teams.
• Four out of five of the most watched hockey games on American television have been Winter Classics
• The NHL is contractually obligated to make the Winter Classic a regular part of their season schedule up until 2021 per their television agreement with NBC.
• The 2014 NHL Winter Classic held at Michigan Stadium officially sold 105,491 tickets.  At the time of writing, the Guinness Book of World Records recognizes “The Big Chill at the Big House” game on December 11, 2010 as the largest attended outdoor Ice Hockey game at 104,173.  An official audit will be conducted within the next few weeks to see if the 2014 Winter Classic beat the record by matching tickets sold with the number of attendees at Michigan Stadium.

Official Attendance for the 2014 NHL Winter Classic

Even though Nick and I were initially reluctant to go to the Winter Classic after the unusually long and unnecessary 2012-13 Lockout prevented us from going the year before, I'm glad we did as the Winter Classic certainly lived up to the hype!

For starters, the Big House was a perfect place to hold it.  In earlier Winter Classic editions, inclement weather had delayed puck drop by a few hours.  In Ann Arbor where the Big House is located, temperatures reached below sub-zero – about 13 Fahrenheit or -10.5 Celsius.  So, inclement weather was not an issue this year.

Having a blast despite the Sub-Zero temperatures!

The teams playing – Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs – have storied franchises, extremely loyal fans, and are two teams from the Original Six era.  This historic rivalry combined with a massive outdoor rink added a bit of that sentimental feeling I felt playing pond hockey as a kid.

The game itself was a brilliant one to watch.  While it started off slow in the first period, the Leafs and Red Wings displayed a great showing of talent, scoring opportunities, and energy towards the end resulting in an overtime Shootout to decide the winner.  In this case, the Leafs came out with the shootout win to beat the Red Wings 3 – 2.

Tyler Bozak's winning goal in the 2014 NHL Winter Classic shootout!

The rest of the 2013-14 NHL season will see at least five more Outdoor games, albeit, none of them will be as large as the Winter Classic.  But, be on the lookout if you live near New York, Los Angeles, Chicago or Vancouver.  Should you choose to go to any future Winter Classic events, then I have some pointers to share with you in a future post.  Go, Leafs!  Go!