Winter Classic

[LidsFan 68]

I enjoyed Boston's come from behind win, it made the game exciting at the end.

The one thing that I did not like were the uniforms. There was nothing exciting about them. The Flyers just looked like the Flyers and The Bruins were brown instead of black. I think that there should of been more effort in their design to make them more interesting. Last year both the Red Wings and Black Hawks looked cool and retro. I even liked Buffalo's old jerseys and I thought that the Pens looked pretty in their powdered blue. The Winter Classic is special and it would of been nice if the current teams uniforms reflected that.

[Guest Lidstromboli]

well boston's jersey was basically a dozen different retros in one

not the flyers fault that their jerseys have basically been the same..

interested to see what the ratings were for the game

[LidsFan 68]

Part of the fun of the Winter Classic is seeing the teams looked different than they normally do in their every day uniforms. Anything that they could of done to make the Flyers look different would of been great.

[jollymania 162]

I only caught the 1st 2 periods, it looked exactly liek it did last year, and that isnt a good thing, they needed to do it in a football stadium.

[Shady Ultima 40]

didn't NBC want Philly in the classic this year?

They did... thus the terrible matchup.

Simple fact is, I guarantee this years WC did not have the ratings that last years did. People were excited for the rivalry, the matchup between the classic teams.

[Tane 17]

Interesting Ideas on what to do with the classic from the Hockey News Newsletter. I was actually thinking yesterday that it might be a good idea to make the All star game outdoors.

Here are some others.....

1. Europe. The notion of bringing an outdoor game across the Atlantic Ocean was more popular among some Bruins (goalie Tuukka Rask said he already had discussed the pros and cons with his agent and friends) than others (defenseman Andrew Ference preferred to exhaust all North American outdoor destinations before taking the WC overseas).

But if the league truly wants to extend its reach to outposts beyond their home continent, one of the easiest ways to do so would be to stage an outdoor game in Stockholm, Berlin, Prague or Moscow. European players would be almost as stoked as they are for major international tournaments – and that heightened sense of excitement is precisely what NHL brass should be aiming to cultivate, in as many places as possible.

2. The All-Star Game. I alluded to this in a recent Proteau Type article in The Hockey News magazine, but it bears repeating: if the league’s mid-season All-Star Game has become stale, wouldn’t it become at least a bit fresher by shifting the festivities outside? That way, fans and corporate schmooze-ees might be too cold to focus on the contact-free game that usually passes for All-Star frivolity.

3. Alaska. Hollywood has made a movie about an NHL team playing a game in the 49th state, so why not turn it into a memorable real-life adventure? The backdrop of snowbound mountains would be as majestic as it gets – and the less-than-forgiving environment might scare away a portion of the massive media flock who’ve turned virtually every interview scrum in Boston into an elbows-and-icy-glares mosh pit.

4. A Fan-Free, Remote Location. Adopting this suggestion would take some real foresight on the league’s behalf – I’ll let you make your own joke here – but picture the made-for-TV moments that would ensue if you sent two teams of NHLers to a pond in Northern Minnesota or Ontario with nary a fan in sight.

That’s right, just the players, officials, two nets, a puck and the evening sky. The simplicity of the scene would be unlike anything any sport ever has produced.

Granted, the financial logistics of a gate-free outdoor game would need to be addressed, but that’s what title sponsors can help out with. And if the NHL can afford to prop up the Phoenix Coyotes franchise for the next few months with little-to-no payback in sight, surely the 29 other team owners can be persuaded to invest some of their own capital into a concept that already has delivered a wealth of positive exposure for the sport

[Shady Ultima 40]

I'm curious to see the numbers. Considering they expected to 'beat last year's game' in terms of ratings, I'd be surprised if they even get half of it.

Last year's game was the most watched hockey game in over thirty years. With about 4 million people watching the game.

If this game hit 2... I'd be shocked. Picking to use the hockey teams who are from the same cities as the last two World Series Winners (not including NYY) is just a dumb idea.