Tuesday’s NHL Winter Classic Returns To Wrigley Field After 16 Years

The 2024-25 NHL Winter Classic has a new date, but a familiar setting.

For the first time, the league’s tentpole outdoor game will be held on New Year’s Eve (5 p.m. ET, TNT, Max, Sportsnet). But the Chicago Blackhawks will be playing outdoors for a league-high seventh time, and for the second time at the home of the Chicago Cubs, Wrigley Field.

On Jan. 1, 2009, at just the second-ever Winter Classic, a young Blackhawks team fell 6-4 to the Detroit Red Wings. The visitors were the defending Stanley Cup champions, and were led by three-point games from Marian Hossa, Henrik Zetterberg and Jiri Hudler. Chicago got three points from veteran winger Martin Havlat, and two from rookie Kris Versteeg. Future stars Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook picked up one point each, and Patrick Kane was held off the scoresheet.

We know what happened from there, of course. That spring, the Blackhawks made the playoffs for the first time in six seasons, then reached the Western Conference Final before falling again to the Red Wings. But one year later, Kane’s overtime winner brought the Cup back to Chicago for the first time since 1961, and kicked off a run of three wins in six years.

This year, the Blackhawks must be hoping that a return to Wrigley can help trigger a similar improvement in the team’s fortunes. Though they’re rich with young talent including 2024 Calder Trophy winner Connor Bedard, their current playoff drought sits at four seasons. And with a league-worst record of 8-16-2 when they fired coach Luke Richardson on Dec. 5, Chicago has improved only slightly. Under new bench boss Anders Sorenson, the Blackhawks are 4-7-0. They’ll still be last in the league when the puck drops on Tuesday.

Their opponents this year, the St. Louis Blues, have gotten better results after an in-season coaching change of their own. The Blues were 9-12-1 and five points out of a Western Conference wild-card spot when they replaced Drew Bannister with Jim Montgomery on Nov. 24. And even though they’re a solid 8-5-3 since Montgomery took over, the Blues have made up just one point, and most of the teams they’re chasing have games in hand.

In a perfect world, marquee events like the Winter Classic put the spotlight on top teams playing important games. This year’s instalment won’t deliver that, but it will feature an outdoor rematch of a rich regional rivalry. In front of more than 46,000 fans at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on Jan. 2, 2017, the Blues earned a 4-1 win over the Blackhawks off a two-goal outing from Vladimir Tarasenko and a 22-save performance by goalie Jake Allen.

The 2017 Winter Classic was one of three earlier instalments that was bumped to Jan. 2 in order to avoid going up against crucial NFL Football games on Sundays.

This year’s move to New Year’s Eve does create a bit of a challenge in terms of branding — the 2024 Winter Classic already happened in Seattle on Jan. 1, with a 3-0 Kraken victory over the Vegas Golden Knights. But it makes sense to move away from a big college football bowl game slate on Jan. 1. And players, fans and team and league staffers will get to enjoy their own New Year’s festivities more fully after the final buzzer of the big game.

The NHL has just one game scheduled for Jan. 1, 2025, with the Los Angeles Kings hosting the New Jersey Devils (6 p.m. ET). Tuesday’s Winter Classic will be part of a full-day, 13-game slate of NHL action. Now with just 25 goals to go, Alex Ovechkin will kick things off as he continues his pursuit of Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goal-scoring record as the Washington Capitals host the Boston Bruins at 12:30 p.m. ET.

One more outdoor game is also set to roll out during the 2024-25 regular season. On Mar. 1, the Columbus Blue Jackets will host an outdoor game for the first time in their franchise’s history when they play the Detroit Red Wings at Ohio Stadium, on the campus of Ohio State University as part of the NHL Stadium Series.