How the 1st Winter Classic almost didn’t happen between the Penguins & Sabres 🏒 | NHL on ESPN

How the 1st Winter Classic almost didn’t happen between the Penguins & Sabres 🏒 | NHL on ESPN

The first Winter Classic was held on January 1st 2008 at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Buffalo that’s quite a long time ago as I regretfully had to inform Sydney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins I don’t want to make you feel old no oh I’ve had a lot of that today so I’m good

I saw you too late uh I don’t want to make you feel old but it’s been 15 years since the first Winter Classic I think the first Winter Classic is one of the more underrated signature moments in Sydney Crosby’s legendary career like it wasn’t the Golden Goal it wasn’t lifting

The Stanley Cup three times but what it was was that indelible memory we have from the first event of Sydney Crosby scoring that shootout goal winning the game for the Penguins against the sabes and looking like it was a scene captured inside of a snow globe just coming out

Of the tunnel and just uh you know you had no I like I’ve never come through a football tunnel and experienced what what those guys would see um on you know a weekly basis or whatever it is but you know I think that uh you know seeing a hockey rank in the middle

Of football stadium packed just loud snow coming down it’s like this perfect mix between like Hockey being pure outside combined with you know playing the NHL and your dream of playing the NHL so um yeah I was just so incredible and uh still I mean we’ve played other

Ones but nothing nothing matches that coming out of Buffalo hockey fans know that there’s only one Miracle on Ice but there were some miraculous things to the first Winter Classic becoming a reality and not just because the ice crew had to fix divots every 3 minutes of gameplay

Like it was some kind of polo match off the ice there were a lot of challenges to this thing becoming a reality now John Collins was the COO of the NHL at the time and I recently caught up with him at a press conference for the Stadium Series at metti to talk about

The humble beginnings of the Winter Classic I think from really the moment that Gary gave it a go-ahead there were hurdles all the way through this thing from could we get a sponsor could we sell 80,000 tickets and then there were hockey operational concerns like okay if the weather’s bad what’s an official

Game is it like baseball right like how many do we have to play two periods like we don’t have those rules um what if the wind is really bad should you know how do we adjust all right let me give you a little bit of an origin story about the

Winter Classic January 1st in the US is college football day except NBC didn’t really have a slate of games like its competitors did what NBC did have starting in 2005 was the NHL so president of programming John Miller saw an opportunity to program something other than figure skating and dog shows

On New Year’s Day Miller and Collins started to work together on the concept of an outdoor hockey game on January 1st as Collins recalled the initial concept was to piggyback off of one of sports greatest City rivalries the the original thought was do it at Yankee Stadium do do it at the

Old Yankee Stadium you know have it be the Rangers and the Bruins and you know now we’re talking about you know Buffalo it’s a little different after the Rangers and Bruins didn’t work Buffalo stepped up to be the host of The Winter Classic the problem was finding someone who

Wanted to play Buffalo they asked every division rival every Geographic rival they got no no no no no across the board until they came to the Pittsburgh Penguins as Collins recalls it David Morehouse had just become CEO of the team and he was quote a very forward-thinking guy so he offered up

The Penguins as the opponent of the Buffalo Sabers in the Winter Classic and as for Buffalo any concerns about them as a venue was blown away way like a snow drift after they got a look at the fans that New Year’s Eve that New Year’s day was unbelievable right and then you

Know then the game was incredible and that that fan base was you know they treated it like it was any other big event AFC Championship game right it was like the same crowd they were tailgating and had the shirts off and painted chests and it was amazing the Winter Classic

Had its challenges and it had its Skeptics but Collins said the opposition was never Fierce enough where he was concerned the game wouldn’t happen on the inside you were having to meet the challenge or you were holding your breath but I don’t think it was ever really a question that

It wouldn’t come off I mean I I give a lot of credit to to Gary for uh you know having the guts to to you know see the vision and uh and support the vision because there were a lot of moments where I’m sure there was was complaining from

Other parts of the organization you know the the NHL generally there probably were some doubts that this was you know ultimately uh something that would turn out to be 37 soldout games right not not not just a gimmick but what does Sydney Crosby think about the first Winter

Classic when he thinks back to that event yeah it’s awesome I mean I think we just didn’t I didn’t see it playing out that way I thought it might be just like a one time deal and then to see the way it the way it went and uh to see it

Continually get this you know the attention that it gets and have the impact that it has uh they’re fun I mean I don’t know what our record is I like it to be a little bit better in those but uh the first one was was incredible

How the 1st Winter Classic almost didn’t happen between the Penguins & Sabres 🏒 | NHL on ESPN
Greg Wyshynski looks back at some of the challenges that accompanied the 2008 Winter Classic in Buffalo.

✔️ Subscribe to ESPN+ https://plus.espn.com/
✔️ Get the ESPN App: http://www.espn.com/espn/apps/espn
✔️ Subscribe to ESPN on YouTube: http://es.pn/SUBSCRIBEtoYOUTUBE
✔️Subscribe to ESPN FC on YouTube: http://bit.ly/SUBSCRIBEtoESPNFC
✔️Subscribe to NBA on ESPN on YouTube: http://bit.ly/SUBSCRIBEtoNBAonESPN
✔️Watch ESPN on YouTube TV: http://es.pn/YouTubeTV

#nhl #espn