Top 5 outdoor moments in NHL history: Crosby, Big House and more

Though the NHL did not play a regular season game outdoors until the 2003 Heritage Classic between the Edmonton Oilers and Montreal Canadiens, stadium games have become a staple over the past 15 years.

The contests’ one-off jerseys and attendances that triple what a typical indoor arena can accommodate are good fun and better business for the league, which hosts the once-novel games three to six times a season.

When the Seattle Kraken and Vegas Golden Knights meet this afternoon in the 2024 Winter Classic from T-Mobile Park, they will write their chapter in a history of outdoor games that has come to include countless memorable moments.

From the inaugural Winter Classic in the Buffalo snow to the most-attended professional hockey game in world history, here are five of the greatest.

5. Claude Giroux and the Flyers finally get one over on Pittsburgh, 2019 Stadium Series

When Claude Giroux flattened Sidney Crosby and fired a laser past Marc-Andre Fleury in the first 32 seconds of Game 6 of the 2012 Eastern Conference Quarterfinal, he seemed destined to challenge Crosby as the league’s best player in countless divisional matchups between his Philadelphia Flyers and the interstate rival Pittsburgh Penguins.

History did not turn out that way, and while the Flyers descended into the murky middle despite their superstar captain’s brilliance, Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang were busy winning the second and third Stanley Cups on their Hall-of-Fame resumes. The gap between the franchises made it all the more meaningful when Giroux and the Flyers dramatically stole a victory at Lincoln Financial Field during the 2019 Stadium Series.

Trailing 3-1 with only three minutes left to play, the Orange and Black seemed doomed to fall to 0-4 in outdoor matchups before James van Riemsdyk swatted in a Jake Voracek rebound during six-on-four hockey to make things interesting. After a centering pass from Voracek slipped past Matt Murray with 20 seconds remaining to send the game into overtime, Giroux dangled past Justin Schultz and deposited a team-record 11th OT goal to send the crowd of 70,000 into hysterics. On that snowy night, at least, he had Pittsbirgh’s number, and capped off the unlikeliest of comebacks at an event where style and spectacle so often top the action on the ice.

4. Maple Leafs, Capitals stop play as the lights go out in Annapolis, 2018 Stadium Series

The Baltimore contingent of the Washington Capitals fanbase must have gotten flashbacks to Super Bowl XLVII’s 34-minute blackout when the Caps tangled with the Toronto Maple Leafs during the 2018 Stadium Series. Similar technical difficulties halted play from the U.S. Naval Academy in nearby Annapolis, Maryland, an unwelcome throwback to one of the most famous gaffes in modern sports history.

The drama of the Stadium Series blackout did not achieve the gut-wrenching proportions football fans endured in 2013 but was still a deflating embarrassment for one of only three outdoor games played during the 2017-18 season. With the Capitals leading the Maple Leafs 5-2 after quashing a second-period Toronto rally, the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium went dark as the game headed to commercial midway through the third frame. Fans waved their phone flashlights in jest during the 15-minute delay, which caused NBC to flex the broadcast to a sister network in time for Saturday Night Live. The intended showcase for stars Alex Ovechkin and John Tavares ended with the NHL feeling decidedly small-time.

3. Sidney Crosby Kicks off the Winter Classic in style, 2008 Winter Classic

The league sat on its hands for five years after the success of the inaugural Heritage Classic in 2003, and when regular-season outdoor hockey returned with the Winter Classic in 2008, bad weather at Buffalo’s Highmark (then Ralph Wilson) Stadium precipitated a sloppy contest between the hometown Sabres and visiting Pittsburgh Penguins. Pens goalie Ty Conklin repeatedly turned away a persistent but ineffectual Buffalo attack until a 1-1 deadlock stretched into overtime in the upstate New York snow.

Conklin and his Buffalo counterpart Ryan Miller remained sharp throughout the additional period, and, with the teams still locked together in the third round of the shootout, the game fell on the stick of Sidney Crosby. Who else? The best player in the world undoubtedly played into the league’s decision to include Pittsburgh in the outdoor showcase and would get the chance to create a signature moment to end a game in desperate need of a highlight. He did just that, slipping the puck through Miller’s five-hole after a dizzying deke. Crosby’s winning goal in Pittsburgh’s now-iconic faux vintage sweater put a bow on an ultimately successful evening for the NHL, who pulled the trigger on a 2009 edition in Chicago’s Wrigley Field that drew record ratings. The rest, as they say, is history.

2. Corey Perry’s 100-meter walk of shame, 2020 Winter Classic

Corey Perry has played nearly 1,300 NHL games for a reason; his scrappiness and ability to get under an opponent’s skin have made him a valuable commodity into his late 30s even as his once-dominant goalscoring instincts have dulled. It has landed him in hot water for crossing more than a few lines, but never so visibly as when he picked up a match penalty just 39 seconds into the 2020 Winter Classic.

As Nashville Predators defenseman Ryan Ellis followed through on a slap shot near the beginning of the first frame, Perry glided elbow-first into the shorter player’s face. Ellis slumped to the ice while officials summarily assessed Perry a major and match penalty. The logistical problems of the Winter Classic are usually related to ensuring that fans have a clear view of the ice and that goalies can keep their ears warm. By getting himself tossed in the first minute of the game, Perry invented an entirely new one: how to leave the ice in disgrace when the tunnel is 100 meters away.

He did just that, trudging in his skates over the Cotton Bowl field until mercifully disappearing down the tunnel after 30 seconds. Nashville cashed in twice on the resulting five-minute major before Dallas stormed back to win the game 4-2, but Perry’s dirty check and subsequent humiliation overshadowed an otherwise entertaining contest. The winger picked up a five-game suspension for his troubles, a minor punishment compared to his nationally televised walk to the principal’s office.

1. 105,000 fans pack the Big House for Red Wings-Maple Leafs, 2014 Winter Classic

If the NHL really took inspiration for its increasingly frequent stadium clashes from the 2001 Cold War between the University of Michigan Wolverines and Michigan State Spartans, it came full circle by having the former host the 2014 Winter Classic in an Original Six showdown between the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs. The crowd of 105,000 blew away the previous professional hockey attendance record, set at the inaugural Winter Classic, by 30,000 fans. Montreal’s Bell Centre has the highest capacity of any NHL arena at 21,000 seats.

The conditions for the game were a frigid reminder of why hockey is typically an indoor sport; the temperature in Ann Arbor plummeted to 13°F by the time the puck dropped, with enough whirling wind and heavy snowfall to discourage even the most avid pond hockey enthusiast. The Red Wings and Leafs soldiered on as the ice was shoveled during stoppages to achieve a playable surface, drawing level at 2-2 during regulation before the game went to a shootout. A Tyler Bozak effort past Jimmy Howard’s blocker won the day for the Maple Leafs, and the surreal conditions surrounding the game led the NHL to later name it the Moment of the Decade for the 2010s.