The outdoor portion of the NHL season has finally come to a close. Chicago embarrassed Pittsburgh on Saturday at Soldier Field and Vancouver hosted Ottawa for the Heritage Classic on Sunday for what turned out to be...an indoor game.
Yes, you read that right. The Heritage Classic was held at BC Place right across the street from the Canucks' Rogers Arena. The venue mostly accommodates Major League Soccer and Canadian Football League events but opened its doors to over 50,000 hockey fans for the all-Canada stick-and-puck spectacle. The period (no, not exclamation point) to the relatively underwhelming play on the ice, however, was the fact that the retractable roof remained closed through the duration thanks to continuous rain.
Despite the fact that the outdoor thing was knowingly overdone this year with a total of 6 games, I would mark it overall as a success. Each game sold out, the warm weather location experiment worked out well, we discovered that two games in the span of a few days is at least feasible in a large enough market, and the NHL knows to never do this to the 2013-14 extent ever again. What's more, each game seemed to have its own unique identity and energy. All wins in my opinion.
But the Heritage Classic seemed to just be a reminder of how strange this season kind of is if you think about it. We are recovering from the lockout-shortened season the year prior, the diving of the salary cap as well as realignment is making the approach to the trade deadline an awkward thing to watch, and we're still readjusting from two weeks of games at 6:00 A.M in a summer resort on the Black Sea.
And then the HC rolls around where the players are decked out in their gorgeous throwback uniforms and eye black for what essentially was just a run-of-the-mill game with terrible sight-lines for almost twice the price and almost three times the livers to feed beer to. It kind of felt like wearing a tuxedo to a mediocre night club.
To be clear, I can't stand how every. single. game. was underscored by the whole "reminds these players of being young, skating from dawn 'til dusk out on the pond with all their friends and woodland creatures before having to be dragged home kicking and screaming by their parents for dinner" angle. It was tolerable once a year but the novelty of the "nostalgia" concept doesn't exist anymore (I'm looking at YOU, Doc Emrick).
But the whole point is to have these games outside. Eyebrows were raised at the Vancouver concept when it was introduced (not at a true outdoor venue, early March puck drop, seasonally rainy region) which made yesterday's execution a total misfire by the NHL from the start. I certainly hope that lessons were learned moving forward because this isn't the most ideal final impression to leave for the concept.
Looking ahead, the sky's the limit for the outdoor series. The NHL has confirmed that the Stadium Series will live on and the Heritage Classic will most likely return in two-years time, almost certainly to Winnipeg (YAY!!!) but we won't see as many matchups in a single calendar year as we did this time around.
The Washington Capitals have already been picked to host the 2015 Winter Classic even though the details around the venue and opponent haven't quite been hashed out yet. It is fully expected that either the Boston Bruins (will be their second) or the Philadelphia Flyers (will be their third) are likely visitors. If this wasn't the marquee event of the year for the outdoor game, my vote would be for the Carolina Hurricanes because it would be nice to not rehash the same six or seven teams and Hartford Whalers throwbacks would be ohh so awesome. The Columbus Blue Jackets would also be an interesting consideration if they can power out a strong finish to this year. I'm full aware none of these scenarios will come to fruition, just placing some less-thought of options out into the muck of the interwebs.
As for the Stadium Series, spit into the air and it will land on a team vying for a bid. Judging by the success of this season, everyone wants one and now now now, it seems. The more that I think about it, the more I like the idea of popping two of these games in mid- to late-January every year. It's a great way for some of the growing franchises to showcase their teams and, most importantly, their fans to the rest of the country without the pressure of Winter Classic coverage. I'm sure if Florida or Dallas phoned the league demanding a WC, they would get laughed off the hook. The SS just provides another outlet for the team to get the national attention. Los Angeles worked out this year so, even though it was held in a large metropolitan centre the has won a recent Stanley Cup (I feel like this last factor is important), we know that the ice conditions hold up and the fans can create an excellent atmosphere.
All signs point west for the near future of the Stadium Series. Colorado, with their Coors money, seem to be pressing hard for a future outdoor game. Minnesota is another attractive choice but I think the self-proclaimed "State of Hockey" would be better suited to put their money where their mouths are on a Winter Classic and try to challenge the attendance of the Detroit-Toronto game at the Big House. San Jose and Phoenix are the likely next step to follow up on the momentum from LA. Phoenix is the probable front-runner between the two but the question is "who would they play?". The South California teams should be out of that conversation so that leaves either San Jose or Dallas, I would think, and these two teams want games of their own.
Juggling who gets these games will be interesting in the coming years. The Northeast USA teams have been done to death so that just creates more teams that want games elsewhere. The dynamic is an interesting one as I think even the jerseys used symbolise the outlook on these events: the Winter Classic is a great way to celebrate the history of the sport, the league, and the teams involved. The Stadium Series displays how far we have come and reminds us of what is possible for the future. You might hate the oversaturation of these games after the six we just had but, as is per usual in the NHL, as soon as something works once, it will get played out until we are all sick of it. The outdoor games are a home-run for the league, let's sit back and see what they do with it.
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