How to Make the NHL's Winter Classic Relevant Again

It's a game that has become an NHL tradition. It's an event that all fans anticipate throughout the first half of the season. And now, this weekend, it will finally be here.

On January 1, the NHL's Winter Classic will take place between the …

… wait, my editor tells me the Winter Classic is not on New Year's Day. Instead something called the Centennial Classic between the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs will take place. Oh well. Different name, sure, but the tradition itself remains unchanged—it will be the first outdoor hockey game of the regular season, one that rewards our patience with a novel …

… wait, you're telling the NHL already has played an outdoor game this year? Between Edmonton and Winnipeg? They gave an outdoor game to Winnipeg before Dallas or Tampa Bay, huh? OK, fine. It's still a big deal to have an outdoor game on New Year's Day, I guess, even though it's sad that the NHL scuttled the Winter Classic in favor of the Centennial …

… wait, you're killing me. They're still holding the Winter Classic? When? The day after the Centennial Classic? Because of the NFL on Sunday? So the NHL's marquee event is no longer the first outdoor game of the season, and it's not on New Year's Day? Is there anything about this game that fans can continue to set their watch by?

Oh, right, it's an outdoor game in St. Louis involving the Chicago Blackhawks. That's comforting, at least.

Let me confess something—a few years ago, I wanted every team to get an outdoor game. Thirty teams, 15 outdoor games, one season. The NHL was trending toward multiple outdoor games (four this season!), so I figured that if they were going to water down the product, then might as well crank up the hose. Turn this six-pack of delicious independently brewed beer into a 30-pack of Bud Light. Let everyone get a taste.

The NHL has tried to split the difference, and now the Winter Classic is not only again shifting away from Jan. 1 to avoid a matchup with the NFL, but also now merely just the third of four outdoor games on the schedule—Pittsburgh and Philadelphia will play at Heinz Field (again) at the end of February. Is there any buzz for the Winter Classic? There's a 50-50 chance you've already forgotten who is playing in the game, even though I mentioned it two paragraphs ago.It's probably a big deal in St. Louis, as the Blues are finally getting their shot at the once-huge event that began in 2008.

What about national buzz? That's a nebulous thing to measure. But I live in a hockey bubble, and outside of a few tweets from Blackhawks beat writers, I haven't seen much. I also texted my sports-loving friends about it five minutes ago and they haven't responded, so take that for what you will.

Little buzz existed for the past two games, which were the the lowest-rated Winter Classics ever. Montreal-Boston (1.6) and Chicago-Washington (1.9) are evidence that people are tiring of the concept. The six events from 2008 to 2014 earned between a 2.1 and 2.5 rating. So what has changed?

In 2014, the NHL threw six outdoor games at fans as an apology for the 2013 lockout. There were six outdoor games total between 2008 and 2014. It was as if the league knew it screwed up, like some idiot boyfriend who forgot a birthday, and then sent so many roses that his girlfriend now hates flowers.

We had something special starting in 2008, something that had the potential to unite fans from all 30 teams one day a year. Eight years later, the Winter Classic is just another game.

So what's the solution?

The NHL needs to whittle it down to two games—one in Canada, because you know Canadians will complain forever if one of their franchises only appears in a Winter Classic twice every eight years, and the Winter Classic itself in the United States. Keep the Heritage Classic in Canada; keep the Winter Classic in America. Everyone's happy and each country gets a special game in the cold, open air.

Or …

… execute Operation Bud Light. Everyone gets a game! If the golden goose is dead and the game's national rating will continue to decline but there's still revenue to be extracted from fans at a local level, let's play 15 a year. Label one the Winter Classic. Label the other 14 after sponsors. The Bridgestone Classic. The SAP Classic. The Mom And Pop's Laundromat Classic Presented By Applebee's. The Romantic Depot Classic. Get some more ice trucks, wheel them out to NHL cities, and let's make some hockey-related revenue.

It might be too late for the first option, unless the NHL wants to put the Blackhawks in every game (and they probably do). It's a shame too, because John Collins created something special while he was with the NHL, and now it's just another outdoor game in a pile of outdoor games. If Blackhawks-Blues draws a 1.7 rating, the NHL should commit to one huge 15-game shakedown in 2017-18 before having an outdoor game sabbatical the following season.

Outdoor games will never disappear completely, as they are cash cows, but reaching a saturation point in 2014 has probably killed the potential of the Winter Classic ever becoming a needed yearly national draw for a league that can't break free from its niche roots.

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