NHL COMMENTARY
By DANIEL DULLUM
Sports Radio Service
Sunday, February 21, 2016

AP photo: Fans at TCF Stadium at the University of Minnesota watch the Minnesota Wild and the Chicago Blackhawks in the NHL outdoor Stadium Series

GLENDALE, Arizona – Happy Hockey Day in America to one and all.

Some thoughts on this wonderful day …

Weather was exceptional and the attendance at TCF Stadium on the University of Minnesota campus in downtown Minneapolis reflected that as the Wild finally got to host one of the NHL’s outdoor games in the popular Stadium Series.

Call it a gimmick if you want, it’s one that works, and it’s become the game most players want to participate in. And hockey is the only sport that can pull this off.

Fortunately for NBC, the Wild have been on a hot streak since firing coach Mike Yeo last week. They scored early and often against Chicago in a 6-1 win before 50,426.

NBC did an excellent job of covering the outdoor game and will do the same this Saturday when Detroit visits Colorado in prime time. The Peacock Network had numerous features on why Minnesota is called “The State of Hockey,” showing the interest in the sport from squirt leagues on up.

While Minnesota is a natural for this sort of event, the same can’t be said for other franchises. I’ve been asked about an outdoor game in, say, the Bay Area, or here in the Valley of the Sun. The answer is a qualified yes.

In both markets, it would have to be in December or January, and it would have to be a night game. The Winter Classic worked at Dodger Stadium, so it should work elsewhere. It also matters who comes in as the visitors – that’s especially important in the Phoenix market. If the Coyotes host one of these games, the opponent better be one whose fans travel, like Chicago, Detroit, Boston, any of the Canadian teams, etc.

There’s no shortage of possible venues here, but the choice of opponent would be critical to the success of an outdoor game in the Valley.

In San Jose, their fan base is solid, but the Sharks would still need an opponent with a traveling fan base, much like the Arizona Coyotes do. The Los Angeles-area teams do well at the gate, but their fans are less likely to travel en masse. It would need to be an opponent that has regular home sellouts, thus a game like a Winter Classic would be an easier ticket to get for those folks.

Almost every NHL team has expressed a desire to host a Winter Classic game. There’s no reason another one wouldn’t work out west. But it must be done right.

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