The NHL Winter Classic returns to Fenway Park in Boston after first hosting the 2010 event between the Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers.
Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports
You may feel like you’ve seen it all before. Just another outdoor game involving the Boston Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins. But the NHL Winter Classic remains a key date on the league’s annual calendar and checks several important boxes.
For starters, we’ll have a terrific matchup on Jan. 2, 2023. The Boston Bruins are the NHL’s top team, and the Pittsburgh Penguins are trying to position themselves for another meaningful playoff run. Future Hall of Famers Patrice Bergeron and Sidney Crosby are the headliners, with plenty of other big stars also in the mix on both sides.
Yes, we’ve seen the Bruins and Penguins in this setting often. This year, the Bruins will tie the Chicago Blackhawks with a fourth Winter Classic appearance. It will be their second from historic Fenway Park. On Jan. 1, 2010, Marco Sturm scored the game-winner at 1:57 of what was then 4-on-4 overtime as the Bruins knocked off the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Penguins previously played in two Winter Classics, which were memorable for very different reasons.
In the very first New Year’s Day affair in 2008, they skated against the Buffalo Sabers in the Snow Globe game that ended in glory with Sidney Crosby’s shootout-winner.
Then, in 2011, the Penguins didn’t just drop a 3-1 decision to the Washington Capitals in front of more than 68,000 fans at Heinz Field. They also lost Crosby for the better part of the next two seasons with headaches and post-concussion issues, which, at the time, looked like they could have been career-threatening.
Thankfully, Crosby is still playing 12 years later — now a 35-year-old with two more Stanley Cups on his resume, who’s neck and neck with Alex Ovechkin for most points among active players.
Crosby’s still one of the best players in the game. It’s a triumph for him to return to the Winter Classic setting and show his stuff in what’s traditionally one of the NHL’s biggest TV audiences of the year.
From Day 1, players have embraced the opportunity to soak up the outdoor game experience, which also traditionally includes an opportunity to skate with their families before game day. Over the years, we’ve seen them step up their game on the fashion front — especially when the St. Louis Blues went beach casual at frigid Target Field in Minnesota last year.
The Winter Classic is one of the jewels in TNT’s new broadcast package. And after weather and COVID-19 concerns forced the network to scale down plans for its inaugural run last year, it’s all systems go in Boston.
The popular NHL on TNT studio crew, including Wayne Gretzky, will be live at Fenway Park for pre and post-game shows on Jan. 2.
TNT will also present a new pre-game fan experience called Breakaway, including activities, sponsor activations and a live musical performance from popular country music star Sam Hunt.
Over the 82-game schedule, regular-season NHL games can blend from one into the next. Photos and videos from each uniquely staged Winter Classic are widely viewed and shared as they happen, and they’re often talked about long after the fact.
Who can forget the pig races at Dallas’s 85,000-seat Cotton Bowl in 2020?
The 2023 Winter Classic is also an Easter egg for the NHL’s newest owners. In November 2021, the Penguins announced Fenway Sports Group was adding the franchise to a portfolio that also includes the Boston Red Sox and their home, Fenway Park, as well as Liverpool FC of England’s Premier League.
The Winter Classic is a league-run event, but it will deliver tremendous visibility to both FSG’s hockey team, the Penguins, and its Boston baseball stadium. There should also be a tidy influx of revenue from the stadium operations and the sales of the always eye-catching Winter Classic throwback merchandise designs.
And who knows? Did FSG’s experience when working with the league to host the 2010 event help trigger the idea of pursuing a path into the hockey business? As we’re currently seeing with the sales process around the Ottawa Senators, the NHL benefits when it can attract deep-pocketed owners with an expertise in the global sports landscape. When that happens, the league’s clout level rises — and so do its franchise valuations.
Finally — whether it’s the Winter Classic, the All-Star Game or even the NHL draft, the NHL’s big tentpole events offer great opportunities for the who’s who of the business to gather in a fun, festive setting: think of it as a sort of hockey convention.
Sponsors are also provided with a larger-than-life platform to promote their brands and products. Also, VIP ticket-holders can be wined and dined as they rub shoulders with the luminaries of the game.
Coming out of the pandemic, those face-to-face interactions are valued now more than ever. What could be better than to have them in a nostalgia-drenched setting that evokes childhood pond hockey and, now, even memories of past NHL outdoor games?
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