Keeping the Winter Classic... well, Classic

As the Bruins skated to a dramatic overtime win against the Flyers the suits from the NHL must still be beaming with the satisfaction of the Winter Classic. In a holiday tradition that is the best P.R. piece for the league, well, apart from the large silver chalice handed out in June, the league cannot go wrong. Or can it.

You can have too much of a good thing and believe Gary Bettman will find a way to ruin the feel and high magnitude of the Winter Classic. In fact he is already finding a way to dilute the event. He has mentioned that there should be a game in Canada and one in America. Let's take a moment to break that down.

First let's look at how many teams are in each country. Canada has a limited pool of teams that could compete. Canada has six teams, a number drastically dwarfed by the 24 teams that reside in the Union. This obviously brings up the discussion of how many times can we make a Senators-Leafs match up seem so special. The answer is it doesn't.

Having two Winter Classics will siphon the magic and excitement of a glorious event. Only one game needs to be played. Let's not see the game become college football. That's right, it would become the bowl season of hockey. With more bowl games being added to the NCAA postseason schedule the less the games feel special, important, exclusive.

The NHL needs to keep it to one game. But more importantly the league needs to make it a Winter Classic in the surest sense. Southern teams cannot be involved, they just cannot live up to the idea. When I think of Winter Classic, a melting rink in Phoenix or Anaheim is not how I envisioned it.

To go along with the teams being allowed to play, natural rivalry or historically based match ups must be taken into account. Having a Leafs-Canadiens match up is what the Winter Classic is all about. It's a showcase of the best franchises in the NHL's history. This is particularly true since the NHL has the weakest network deal where NBC barely shows game prior to the Stanley Cup Playoffs. You need the best historical franchises to build up viewership in main markets or use it to promote new young stars (like Crosby in the Buffalo Winter Classic).

If the NHL really wanted to use it as a showcase of the game and heritage of hockey they need to use history to their advantage. When they league had the Heritage Classic in Edmonton CBC broadcast the Mega-Stars game. You cannot miss the appeal of a game pitting The Great One, Guy LaFluer and Mark Messier.

I would have loved watching a matinee of a Bruins-Flyers alumni game. Hextall in net against Moog. John LeClair rushing inside on Ray Bourque. Maybe dust off a brawl between some Bullies and some lunch pail gang players. Now imagine if that happened every year, seeing players of yesteryear dust off the axe and blades to spend one more afternoon acting as a child.

The Winter Classic needs to feel like a classic. Let's keep it one game. Let's keep it in the ice and cold and let's keep it a showcase of the heritage and history of hockey. Most importantly let us tap into the feeling of child like wonder and an outdoor game.

ROC SPORTS NET 2009