Future Winter Classic Matchups

I was reading a discussion on the Winter Classic and saw someone mention, in my opinion, a very good idea. Instead of Bettman hand-picking his favorite teams for every Winter Classic, how about the Winter Classic becomes a rematch game for the past season's Stanley Cup Finals match-up? What's your guy's thoughts?

over 1 year ago CakeEater07 8 comments 0 recs |

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And hell,

let’s say the Stanley Cup defender, assuming there’s a big stadium in their region available for booking, get’s home advantage?

by CakeEater07 on Jan 4, 2011 6:51 AM CST reply actions

So ... when the Coyotes meet the Lightning in the finals ....

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by CrossCheckRaise on Jan 4, 2011 10:55 AM CST reply actions

The Kings and Rangers once played an outdoor preseason game in Las Vegas.

Temperatures in the desert are a lot warmer in September than they are on New Year’s Day; so if it was possible to pull off a legitimate game almost twenty years ago, it should absolutely be possible to do it in Phoenix or Tampa (especially Phoenix, where the baseball and football stadia both have retractable roofs and air conditioning).

I’m not sure the game should be a Cup rematch, though. One team will have significantly more motivation than the other. Maybe a matchup of the two teams that lost in the conference finals? On second thought, strike that too; spreading the love among the whole league should be more important than reheating last year’s playoffs.

by BleedBlue42 on Jan 4, 2011 11:26 AM CST up reply actions

:/

My top option would be to cycle through all teams also, but it just will never ever ever happen. The NHL is using the Winter Classic to get more people to watch hockey and of course to generate some fat cash. There’s no way they’re going to host a Panthers vs. Thrashers game just to be fair to everyone. They will always focus on a high profile match-up. Turning the Winter Classic into a Stanley Cup Final rematch not only introduces at least some level of fairness, it also prevents Buttman from shoving match-ups like Washington vs. Pittsburgh down our throats every single year.

by CakeEater07 on Jan 4, 2011 12:51 PM CST up reply actions

People always bring up the Las Vegas game

…. but i wonder about it happening ONCE…. if it was a smashing success, or if there were no difficulties, why didn’t they do it again?

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by CrossCheckRaise on Jan 4, 2011 3:52 PM CST up reply actions

i watched a replay of that a few years ago on nhl net

the ice looked a lot like the ice at heinz. it was very watery. howeva, with better tech it MAY work.

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by averagejoe on Jan 4, 2011 5:04 PM CST up reply actions

There were some difficulties...

… according to the article in my prior post, a patch of ice melted prior to the game when a tarp that had been used to shade the ice fell onto the surface. And apparently there are a lot of flying critters in the desert who ended up landing on the ice and freezing into it as they built it up.

But the main reason they won’t do it again is the NHL’s rule about only having outdoor games in near-freezing temperatures. There are parts of Nevada that get down into the 40s… after midnight, anyway…

by BleedBlue42 on Jan 7, 2011 2:14 AM CST up reply actions

It's a better idea than others I've heard.

But I still say that if you’re gonna do it, you need to do it in REALLY cold-weather cities like those in Central//West Central/Eastern Canada or in the Northern United States. Places where you can almost assuredly guarantee that it will NOT rain on New Year’s Day and . . . ahem . . . “rain on your parade”.

Just my opinion.

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by Donut King on Jan 4, 2011 11:11 PM CST reply actions