winter classic

The NHL Winter Classic is a series of NHL regular-season, outdoor hockey games played on New Year's Day. The first was played on January 1, 2008 between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Buffalo Sabres, played at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, N.Y., This game had an NHL-record crowd of 71,217 fans in attendence and was the first ever regular-season outdoor NHL game held on U.S. soil. However, the Winter Classic was preceeded by the 2003 Heritage Classic which took place on Nov. 22 2003 at Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium. The Heritage Classic was between the Edmonton Oilers and the Montreal Canadiens and was the first NHL regular season outdoor game in the history of the National Hockey League.

The success of the 2008 NHL Winter Classic led the NHL to schedule a 2nd one for 2009, held at Wrigley Field on January 1, 2009 at noon CT. The series looks to continue annually going forward with the New York Rangers rumored to host the 2010 edition of the Classic at New Yankee Stadium.

The first NHL exhibition game to be played outdoors was on September 28, 1991 when the Los Angeles Kings played the New York Rangers outside Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. [1]

List of NHL Winter Classics Edition Name Date Site Home Team Away Team Winner Notes 2008 AMP Energy NHL Winter Classic January 1, 2008 Ralph Wilson Stadium Buffalo Sabres Pittsburgh Penguins First "Winter Classic" 2009 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic 2009 January 1, 2009 Wrigley Field Chicago Blackhawks Detroit Red Wings Detroit (6-4) This is the first "Classic" to feature two Original Six teams.

See also Heritage Classic Cold War (ice hockey) Pond hockey This ice hockey article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHL_Winter_Classic" Categories: National Hockey League | Ice hockey stubs