NHL Prepares for Another Outdoor Game. Does Anybody Care?

What’s Happening: The idea of playing ice hockey outside in below freezing temperatures like in the days of old when kids would play shinny on a frozen pond until Mom called them home for dinner is a very nostalgic way to think about hockey. The NHL captured this nostalgia very well by introducing the idea of the Winter Classic, a once-in-a-season game that pitted two lucky teams against each other in unfavorably cold conditions.

Fast forward to today, and the NHL has arguably gone too far with the amount of outdoor games they stage per season. This season alone there will be three outdoor games with the last set to take place on March 13 between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Buffalo Sabres. But, the bigger question is: Does anybody care? 

NHL Public Relations @PR_NHL

Staying in the moment. That's how @CraigAnderson41 has approached his 19th NHL season with his third outdoor game on the horizon. #HeritageClassic Read more from the @BuffaloSabres goaltender here: nhl.com/news/sabres-go…

March 7th 2022

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Recap of Games No. 1 and No. 2: Go ahead and see if you can name the last two outdoor games the NHL hosted this season. After all, these games only took place within the last two months. The first was on New Year’s Day between the St. Louis Blues and the Minnesota Wild. That game was quite the thriller as it produced a fairly high score in a 6-4 final and was played in suboptimal conditions (-6 degrees F)!

The other game took place two weeks ago and was probably one of the most un-advertised and un-marketed outdoor games in recent memory. The Lightning squared off against the Predators in Nashville in what was a really lackluster 3-2 game. It also didn’t help that on the same night, the Maple Leafs and the Red Wings put on one of the greatest offensive displays of the year when their game finished with a 10-7 final score. 

What to Expect in Game No. 3: Aside from completely negating the nostalgic factor, the NHL simply is putting on way too many outdoor games a season. It’s gotten to the point where fans outside of the teams competing don’t even look forward to them. A big part of why they may not look forward to them is simply because the NHL does a subpar job at both marketing the game and their superstars. The Lightning and Predators are two of the best teams in the league this season, but in the runup to their Stadium Series game, there was barely a whimper of any advertising for the game. In a game that featured two premier teams in a premier event, it’s safe to say that the NHL fell way short in promoting this game and the many stars that took place in it.

The upcoming Heritage Classic game between the Maple Leafs and the Sabres is another example of the NHL already failing this game by not jumping the gun to promote it. Yes, a team like the Maple Leafs, especially in Canada, should be more than enough to help promote the game, but that’s only in Canada. If the NHL intends to grow its audience and attract new fans to the game, they simply need to do a better job at promoting their premier events. One way they can do that is by having fewer outdoor games a year and make it something of a spectacle that fans can really look forward to. Truth be told, having three games in fairly rapid succession is doing a disservice to the game and the fans because hardcore fans can see these games for what they really are: A quick way to make a buck.

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