Deep Blue Sea: Thoughts on 2022 Winter Classic

Photo by David Berding/Getty ImagesAfter the complicated 2020-2021 season that was filled with postponements of NHL activities, the 2022 Winter Classic was highly anticipated — a sign that slowly but surely, the NHL is returning to normal.

Sure, the outdoor event with over 38,000 fans might be a strange sight given the revolving door of COVID Protocol for NHL players every day, and with eight other NHL games scheduled to pull viewers from the Winter Classic, but who ever said that the NHL was good at marketing and planning hockey games?

Despite the bitterly cold temperature (down to -10 degrees Fahrenheit at one point), the St. Louis Blues and the Minnesota Wild (and the Wild’s funky khaki…