NHL team set to participate in seventh outdoor game while others continue to wait
We're less than a year away from the NHL's 2025 Winter Classic and by now, we usually have some sort of announcement from the league regarding who will be participating in the event.
While there hasn't been any official announcement, multiple sources are reporting that the Chicago Blackhawks will host the 2025 Winter Classic at Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs, where they'll face their Central Division rivals, the St. Louis Blues.
This will mark the seventh time in NHL history that the Chicago Blackhawks have played in an outdoor game and their fifth Winter Classic. It also marks the fourth time that they've hosted. Wrigley Field played host to the second-ever Winter Classic in 2009 when the Blackhawks faced the Detroit Red Wings.
While it's understandable that the National Hockey League wants the Blackhawks to play outdoors in 2025 for viewership and marketing reasons, with Connor Bedard, but it's a little frustrating to see that there are three other teams that have yet to play in an outdoor game. Hockey fans have been robbed of the opportunity to see historic rivalries such as Montreal/Toronto, Boston/Toronto and Boston/Rangers in an outdoor setting.
The Chicago Blackhawks have an 0-3 record in outdoor games that they've hosted with the venues being Wrigley Field (2009 Winter Classic), as mentioned, Solider Field (2014 Stadium Series), Notre Dame Stadium (2019 Winter Classic).
Which historic rivalry do you want to see in an outdoor game? Let us know in the poll below.
| POLL | ||
Which matchup would you like to see in an outdoor game? | ||
| Montreal vs Toronto | 424 | 54.2 % |
| Toronto vs Boston | 196 | 25.1 % |
| Boston vs New York Rangers | 162 | 20.7 % |
| List of polls | ||
