The NHL's Job to Keep The Winter Classic, well...Classic

So, rain falls in Pittsburgh PA and hockey fans adjust their New Year's Day viewing plans to watch the face off tonight instead of this afternoon. How this revised start time impacts the channel choices of U.S. based viewers going up against some high powered college bowl games will be interesting to analyze. The NHL has, over the last 4 years, carved an interesting niche with the Outdoor Game or "Winter Classic", as its coined in NHL marketing parlance. The games, inspired originally at the pro level by the uber frigid Montreal/Edmonton match several years ago and before that the University of Michigan outdoor event has taken hockey, if ever so briefly, from the realm of second tier sport to the forefront of consciousness of many casual fans based in the U.S. I am not here to dump on the concept, love the attention, the playfulness and this year, the optics of the duel between the 2 best players in the game: The Capital's Alex Ovechkin and Pen's Sidney Crosby. The extra juice provided by the superb HBO hockey doc, "24/7 Road to the Winter Classic" has only added to the event. But where to from here? This year, Calgary is hosting a second outdoor game February 20th, and while it will no doubt capture big share in Canada, don't expect the same sizzle south of the 49th as the Flames tackle Montreal. I just see twice in one year as too difficult to sustain the momentum, besides there is something attractive about New Years Day, lots of eyeballs available and the 1 p.m. puck drop always dovetailed nicely between early College Bowl games and the Rose and Fiesta Bowls that kickoff later in the day. Would a league so U.S.-centric ever look at a Canadian site on January 1st? Doubt it- even though the winter elements make the most sense. Aside from New York, Philadelphia and maybe Minnesota, what American markets are even capable of hosting the game? It would also take a Herculean marketing effort to gin up any kind of excitement about a Wild/Blue Jackets tilt, even in the most rapid of U.S. hockey centres. So, as we approach installment 5 of the game, the league faces some interesting choices regarding sustainability and fan interest. Should Canadian markets receive the game as a thank-you for paying the freight and faithful support for generations? I mean, you cannot consider the idea done until Montreal and Toronto at least host a game, can you? Do you try and incorporate the failing All Star game into an outdoor venue? What about international events? Any value in getting behind outdoor events between national teams? It seems the NHL will need to continue to be innovative and imaginative to keep the cache of being outdoors strong among fans, particularly casual ones in the States that enjoy the "wrinkle" of playing outside as much as the game itself. Tough to market 5 years as a substantial league tradition and not a short-lived flash in the pan, and one hopes that the entire concept doesn't become watered down, bland and unappealing. The outdoor events are a novel part of the league's overall mandate to grow the game's audience and fan base overall and to that end the NHL should continue to explore ways to grow its appeal.