Winter Classic

This year's Winter Classic was a prime-time hit on New Year's day, but it wasn't planned that way.

What was supposed to be an afternoon meeting between two NHL powerhouses, the Washington Capitals and the Pittsburgh Penguins, had to be delayed because of harsh winter weather at Heinz Field in Pennsylvania.

The planned 1 p.m. game was moved to 8 p.m. EST, right into prime time.

I'm a huge Penguins fan, and my brother is a diehard Capitals fan. We've both been looking forward to the Winter Classic all season.

The NHL built up this game better than any other game in regular season history with heavy advertising surrounding the Crosby vs. Ovechkin battle and the debut of HBO's instant hit, "24/7 Penguins/Capitals: Road to the NHL Winter Classic."

The NHL's decision to move tonight's NHL Winter Classic to an 8:00 P.M. prime-time start will continue to add fuel to the growing popularity of the National Hockey League in the United States.

The NHL's idea to begin a yearly "Winter Classic" has come to be a great idea in which hockey can be showcased on a national level outdoors in venues that can hold more than five times the people than a NHL arena.

Lets first look back at the previous games over the last few years. The first Classic was in 2008 when the Pittsburgh Penguins faced the Buffalo Bills at Ralph Wilson Stadium where the Buffalo Bills played.

We’re now in December and the holiday season has just begun. For sports fans this spells a busy part of the year. We’ve got the NFL playoff races in full swing, the bowl games in college football and, on Christmas Day, the NBA’s biggest regular-season games.

To conclude this month of holidays, there will be the fourth-annual NHL Winter Classic on New Year’s Day, 2011, the biggest event on that day.

But wait a minute.

With the announcement that the Pittsburgh Penguins will host the Washington Capitals at Heinz Field for the 2011 Winter Classic, and that Washington will host its own in the next few years, it becomes painfully clear that Gary Bettmann only knows how to milk his two favorite publicity cows.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman announced, formally, the league's plans for the 2011 Winter Classic(s) during his state of the union address before the Stanley Cup Finals begin.

It will be between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals, and will be held at Heinz Field, home of the NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers.

The announcement, which even Bettman joked was one of the league's worst kept secrets, continued to raise eyebrows from the assembled media in Chicago.

And it should.

TSN.ca is reporting that the NHL will soon announce their plans to hold two outdoor games in 2011.

The first game will be the now-traditional Winter Classic on New Year's Day, and will feature the Pittsburgh Penguins taking on the Washington Capitals at Heinz Field.

The second, destined-to-be-referred-to-as-"The-Other-Outdoor-Game," will be a tilt between the Montreal Canadiens and Calgary Flames "sometime in February" at McMahon Stadium.

Sigh.

Really, Gary?

I'm still trying to stop my heart from beating out of my chest right now.

Yesterday, the Boston Bruins defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 2-1 in OT in the third annual Winter Classic.

The game, which has become an annual event since the first game was played between the Penguins and Sabres two years ago in Buffalo, has been the marquee event on the NHL Schedule.

The buzz that was surrounding the game was unbelievable. I live just outside of Boston and the game was pretty much the only thing anyone was talking about.

The following is a repost of a story I wrote in April of 2009. In honor of today's game from Fenway Park between the Boston Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers, I decided to brush it off and resurrect it from the portals. I hope you enjoy. Happy New Year and Go Bruins!