The NHL Winter Classic is an annual event held by the National Hockey League (NHL) on or around New Year's Day in which a regular-season hockey game is played outdoors, in an area hosted by an NHL team. The first outdoor NHL regular season game was the 2003 Heritage Classic held in Edmonton between Edmonton and Montreal. The first Winter Classic was held in 2008. The event featured only American teams for its first five years. The 2014 game will feature its first Canadian team, as the Toronto Maple Leafs are scheduled to play against the Detroit Red Wings. The Canadian counterpart to the NHL's American Winter Classic series is the NHL's Canadian Heritage Classic series.
Read more about NHL Winter Classic: List of NHL Winter Classics, History, List of NHL Outdoor Games, Notes, Impact, Ratings, Future Sites, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words winter and/or classic:
“Whenas the Chill Sirocco blowes,
And Winter tells a heavy tale;
When Pyes and Dawes and Rookes and Crows,
Sit cursing of the frosts and snowes;
Then give me Ale.”
—Thomas Bonham (d. 1629?)
“On desperate seas long wont to roam,
The hyacinth hair, thy classic face,
Thy Naiad airs have brought me home
To the glory that was Greece,
And the grandeur that was Rome.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)