Turns out all the strangely high temperatures and rain in Pittsburgh may have been a good thing, at least for the National Hockey League. The fourth annual New Year’s Day Winter Classic posted record numbers, surpassing the three previous events, as well as all regular season hockey games played in the last thirty-five years. For those of you that haven’t watched, every January 1st, the National Hockey League selects two of its teams to play an outdoor game either in a historic baseball or football stadium. This year’s contest took play in Pittsburgh at Heinz field. The Washington Capitals bested the hometown Penguins 3 to 1 in front of almost seventy thousand in person and an average of 4.5 million viewers on television. That’s a hundred thousand more than watched the Red Wings defeat my beloved Blackhawks at Wrigley Field in 2009.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, it was a steady fall of rain the morning of that led officials to postpone the game some seven hours, but it’s hard to imagine anyone complaining at this point. Some are already even speculating if the NHL will move the game to primetime next year, but first the league needs to figure out where it’s going to be held.
Rumors have abounded about next year’s location for months with everywhere from Central Park to the Las Vegas Strip being pitched as possible locations. Personally, I’d like to see it held in Yankee Stadium, with the Rangers playing the Devils or Islanders, but with the latter two teams sucking something awful this year, it’s unlikely the league would go that route.
For full coverage of the Pens/ Capitals game, check out HBO’s brilliant 24/7 series currently featuring the two rivals.
