TVOS and Fan-tastic Sports - NHL's Winter Classic Becomes A Great Holiday Tradition

Every Wednesday, I share my thoughts from inside the NHL Alumni Association and from around today's NHL at Peter Ing's XHockey blog. This week, I take a look at the NHL's Winter Classic.

NHL's Winter Classic Becomes A Great Holiday Tradition

 

 

I wasn’t in the room at the NHL office in New York at the time, but I am sure that when the Edmonton Oilers and Montreal Canadiens first approached the NHL with the idea of holding an alumni and regular season NHL game outdoors in a football stadium, there were probably several raised eyebrows. The first question may have been, “You would like to do what?”

Despite the cold weather at the 2003 Heritage Classic, the event was a huge success and an instant hit with hockey fans. With over 55,000 people in the stands at Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium braving the bone-chilling cold, the Oilers and Canadiens Alumni entertained the crowd before the NHL game got underway. Looking to stake a claim to the huge television audience in the United States during the holiday season, the league expanded on the idea and created their annual Winter Classic, which has been held every year since 2008.

Read the entire article at the XHockey site