re: Unofficial NHL Season-Long Thread: Puckheads Unite!

Puck Drunk Love has an article on whether the Winter Classic has lost its luster. (LINK ) I don't agree with all of it, but it's a good read.

However, I will agree THIS Winter Classic has lost its luster. It's been mismanaged from the beginning. This is in the article, but here are the major points I agree with on THIS WC being a problem:

1) The venue. DC partisans opposed a Camden Yards WC, but they look more and more like they were dead wrong. Fed Ex Field was a non-starter, as was Byrd (U of M), and the decrepid RFK, so they settled on the personality-free Nats Stadium. That's not a killer in and of itself, but the Lerners, who own the stadium, killed just about all of the ancillary events that go along with the WC, like the Alumni Game. Camden Yards should've been the venue.

2) The matchup. Caps and Hawks? There's simply no bad blood there. It needs to be a rivalry. Now, I would've preferred the Rangers or Flyers, but why not a southern team who likely will never host? The Bolts would've been a great choice, plus... Stamkos. If you have to keep it in the division, at least go with the Canes, who the Caps sort of hate.

3) EPIX. Moving from HBO to EPIX is a bad idea. The NHL needed the advertising. I don't know why the deal fell apart, but they need to get back on HBO for the Road to the WC series.

Anyway, I think the WC is a great game and I love it, but I'm a Caps fan and this WC falls flat. I can only imagine what it is like for neutrals.