A Future Winter Classic?

The NHL has pretty much milked the Winter Classic to death by featuring games that involve the Bruins, Penguins, and Blackhawks way too often. Having the 2023 Winter Classic played at Fenway Park between the Bruins and Penguins only furthers that sentiment, so it's time to start getting creative with some of the places that the game is played. It's never going to end due to the money-making event that it is, but let's start opening the game up to non-traditional markets with teams who still reside north of the Mason-Dixon line. Let's call this a dream for now, but today will feature two teams who should have already played in a Winter Classic due to their northern locales.

The stadium shown above is Ohio Stadium, so I think you know where I'd like to see a game played. Located on the campus of Ohio State University, Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio holds 102,780 fans at capacity. That's a lot of coin in ticket sales for the NHL, but Columbus has quietly become a great place to visit with their efforts to revitalize the downtown and attract new entertainment to the area.

Setting up the artificial rink here wouldn't be difficult, and I'm pretty sure the Blue Jackets wouldn't say no to hosting this event. There's a rich history surrounding the stadium, Ohio State has solid men's and women's hockey programs, the AHL's Cleveland Monsters play two hours north of Columbus, and the ECHL's Cincinnati Cyclones play just two hours to the southwest. In short, the Blue Jackets could host all sorts of games at the rink leading up to and after the Winter Classic, so this would work out nicely if the NHL was willing to stage a game in Columbus.

Options for their opponents in the game may include the Los Angeles Kings as they were the first team to play an NHL game in Cleveland as the Barons hosted the Kings on October 6, 1976 in their first NHL game. It could be the Minnesota Wild as the Barons and the Minnesota North Stars merged their struggling clubs on June 14, 1978 in what remains as professional sports' only merger between clubs. It could be the San Jose Sharks, the second club owned by George and Gordon Gund after the Cleveland Barons. My choice, though, would the New York Islanders as the Barons and Islanders battled to a 1-1-2 record in 1978 with each team scoring 14 goals against the other!

It's hard to imagine the lowly Barons battling the improving Islanders to a record where both teams finished the season against one another with four points and 14 goals, but they somehow did. We can use the Winter Classic to break that 1978 season-long tie that never had a chance to be resolved!

Columbus needs to wear the same style of jerseys as the Cleveland Barons, so let's make that happen right out of the gate. The one element that has to remain as part of this jersey, though, are the Ohio-outlined sleeve numbers. Those are still one of the best jersey features from the past, so we'll bring them forward for the Winter Classic jersey. The Blue Jackets will also use the cannon logo from their alternate jersey that spanned an era from 2010 to 2015. There's nothing revolutionary here - just a reach into the past.

The New York Islanders are going back to a time when they weren't the primary tenant in Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. When the WHA's New York Raiders were announced in 1972, they were to play in Nassau Coliseum to be a rival in New York City to the New York Rangers. Nassau County had different ideas, though, as they retained attorney William Shea in the hope of landing an NHL team for the arena, and the Raiders were forced to seek a different home. The Raiders were originally orange and blue, similar to the Islanders, but the design of those uniforms is quite generic. We need something better, but we'll stay in the same franchise history.

Instead, let's step forward one year to 1973 when the New York Golden Blades were the newly-named Raiders team, but were still struggling mightily at the box office. Twenty games into the 1973-74 season, New York real estate mogul and franchise owner Ralph Brent surrendered the team to the WHA who took over control on November 21, 1973 and moved it to Cherry Hill, New Jersey where the team was renamed as the Jersey Knights.

Despite the Golden Blades only lasting for a quarter of one season, the jerseys were fanatasic and they'd allow for some creativity for the Islanders. As seen above, the colours are swapped to the orange and blue of the Islanders, and the highly-underrated lighthouse logo will appear on the chest. Again, we're not doing anything dramatic other than reaching back into history.

In the end, this Winter Classic features the Columbus Blue Jackets and the New York Islanders with a nod to the past as Columbus wears a Cleveland Barons-style jersey while the Islanders will skate in a New York Golden Blades-inspired jersey thanks to the tie-in to the WHA franchise who wanted to play on Long Island.

Thoughts on these designs? Leave a comment and we can discuss, but I'd like to see some different teams playing in the Winter Classic at some point. I don't care if Boston or Pittsburgh or Chicago are "major markets" or whatever rationale the NHL wants to use. I personally think a game at Ohio Stadium featuring the Blue Jackets and Islanders could be fun and will be different. I'm open to suggestions, though, so jump into the comments and leave a thought!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!