Winter Classic - Must See Hockey TV

On January 1st, there is more to watch on the tube than parades and college football. One of the newest, and best, New Year's Day traditions is the NHL Winter Classic. Take a great outdoor setting, two of the best clubs in the league, and the possibility of watching the puck change direction in mid-air due to the Chicago wind, and you have all the makings of a fantastic sporting event.

There are not very many sports venues that are better that Wrigley Field. Whether you take the history of Yankee Stadium, the tradition of the Boston Gardens, or the importance of Madison Square Garden, the home of the Chicago Cubs ranks right up there. I would pay for bleacher seats and a beer in Wrigley before I took free tickets to sit in a luxury box almost anywhere else. Where else can you have this unique event surrounded by the famous ivy and being watched by people on the roof just as if it were baseball season? I would much rather be there, but on watching it on TV will still be fun.

This match-up is much better than recent history would lead you to believe. Let's start with the home team, the Chicago Blackhawks. This is a team that up until last year were just plain terrible. If it had not been for expansion teams, the 'Hawks would be almost the worst team in the last 7 years from the Western Conference. But now there is a great mix of players that make the present and future look really good. They have great young talent (Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews) that just keep getting better every time out, guys in the prime of their career (Martin Havlat and Brian Campbell) that give this team proven star power, and some veterans (Craig Adams and Nikolai Khabibulin) that give this team the experience and leadership needed to keep the ship sailing in the right directions. All of this has the former laughing stock only 4 points out of first place in the division (as of the time of this post) and gives this Original Six franchise some of its luster back. And speaking of Original Six teams with luster, no one currently shines as brightly as Chicago's opponent on Thursday, the Detroit Red Wings. This is a team whose list of what is wrong always seems to fit on a postage stamp. And when it comes to what is right, it is easy to talk about the number of Stanley Cups the Wings of won (that would be 11, including 4 in the last twelve years), the number of Hall of Fame inductees which is too numerous to count (59, by the way), and the fact that Detroit is called Hockeytown USA when trying to describe how good this team is. But if you just look at this year's team, it is very close to a work of art. There are, by my count, between 9-12 future HOF'ers, three of the best young scorers in the league (Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk, and Marian Hossa), solid goal tending, and just about the best blue liner to ever lace up a pair of skates in Nicklas Lidstrom. If it was not for the torrid start by the San Jose Sharks, the team from the Motor City would be odds on favorites to lift the Cup again this year. Add up all of this and you have the makings of a great game and the renewal of a great rivalry.

And if all that wasn't enough, let's throw in the unpredictable weather of the Windy City on January. The forecast for the game is a high of 21 with winds at 19 mph. Now imagine some untimely gusts blowing out to left field while the puck is 15 feet in the air on a clearance from the zone and watch the goalies and coach squirm with anticipation of what will happen next. And remember last year's game was played in a snow storm. If the weather conditions get bad enough, even the person that has never seen a game of hockey will have to watch this as if it was a train wreck waiting to happen.

So the final equation looks like this : One of the best stadiums in all of sports + two Original Six teams, one the defending champs and the other the up and coming home team + the chance of the Windy City living up to its name and wreaking havoc with the playing conditions = a new January 1st tradition that is not to be missed!