Minnesota Misses Out on NHL Outdoor Hockey in 2015

Twin media reports over the last few days have let the cat out of the bag where the location and teams involved in the two NHL outdoor games to be played in season 2014-15. 

In the now familiar Winter Classic on New Year’s Day, Alexander Ovechkin’s Washington Capitals will host the Chicago Blackhawks at the beautiful Nationals Park – as nice a Major League venue as there is in America – and, later in the year, an outdoor game will be staged at AT&T Park in San Francisco, the spectacular home of the San Francisco Giants – and the most beautiful ballpark in America, from a scenery standpoint – rumoured to be featuring that team from across the Bay, the San Jose Sharks and the defending Stanley Cup Champions, the Los Angeles Kings.

On the surface, those are good match-ups. The League will benefit from star power in both games, particularly with Ovechkin, Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane lining up on New Year’s Day and the likes of Jeff Carter, Patrick Marleau, Jonathan Quick and Joe Pavelski on show at AT&T Park, where seats high up in the bleachers behind home plate offer epic views of sunsets over the imposing Bay Bridge, but there’s one element that Commissioner Bettman and his planners have overlooked: the State of Hockey.

That’s right, Minnesota. Where Detroit is deservedly labelled Hockeytown, the Land of 10,000 Lakes is undoubtedly the state where hockey is most passionately followed. The place is a glacial hotbed of hockey, and the good folks way up north, rival Canada when it comes to obsession and passion for the great game. 

From great high school rivalries, like Warroad High vs. Roseau High, through to perennially contending NCAA programs like University of Minnesota-Duluth and the Golden Gophers of the University of Minnesota – or, as it’s known simply up there, The U. There’s also the Minnesota Wild of the NHL (and the famed Minnesota North Stars before them).

When you look at the great names of American hockey, so many of them come from Minnesota or have strong Minnesotan ties – and, interestingly, no US men’s hockey team as ever won Gold without at least one player from Warroad, Minnesota on the roster.

From coaches like 1980 Miracle on Ice hero Herb Brooks, long-serving administrators like the great Lou Nanne, NCAA record-holders like Tim Harrer, and so many of the core of that Miracle on Ice team – Neal Broten, Mike Ramsey and Dave Christian, amongst others – you’re looking at an all-star line-up of USA hockey talent stretching back decades.

That rich history makes the NHL’s decision to not hand the Wild an outdoor contest next season a joke. Moreover, it’s a slap in the face to so much tradition. Not that I am against growing the game into non-traditional markets, and not because I don’t think a game at AT&T Park won’t be great, but Bettman and co seem so obsessed with pushing the game forth into newer markets, at the expense of places where hockey has been giant for decades.

When the North Stars were sold and went to Dallas to become the Stars, the state of Minnesota could’ve turned its collective back on professional hockey. Instead, when the Wild, a start-up franchise that arrived in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St Paul in 1997, they were welcomed with open arms, the hockey-mad people up there forgetting the injustice that the NHL allowed, and the years they went – long, frustrating years, as every Minnesotan hockey fan will attest – without an NHL presence took that team into their hearts.

Nearly twenty years later, and the Wild are on the rise, thanks to the acquisition of prized free-agents Ryan Suter and Zach Parise a few seasons back. 2013-14 saw Mike Yeo’s squad reach the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, ousting the more favoured Colorado Avalanche in seven games prior to losing to Chicago. The atmosphere at Xcel Energy Arena is as good as it is anywhere in the League. Trust me: you haven’t seen hockey ‘til you’ve see it at The X.

Hockey fans in Minnesota haven’t had it easy. With the glut of outdoor games last year, and the announcement of multiple games going forward – two next year, and probably not much more than that in future seasons – I was certain that the Wild would get a look-in by now.

Apparently, I was mistaken. I wrote last year that a game at Target Field, where the Twins play Major League baseball, or TCF Stadium, home of the U’s football team , would be a rip-roaring success. I mean, there was a crowd of nearly 40,000 for a Gopher NCAA outdoor game, the Hockey City Classic, and that was on a bitterly cold night. Imagine what sort of buzz an NHL contest would generate?

I suggested that an NHL outdoor game in Minnesota would be a perfect way to honour and pay tribute to Minnesota hockey tradition and royalty. Bring in the former North Star greats, throw in the greatest names from the University of Minnesota’s incredible hockey program and you have a cavalcade of hockey legends who’d surely be chomping at the bit to be involved, many of whom have won NCAA Championships, Olympic gold medals or Stanley Cups. A few lucky ones have won all three.

Personally, I’d love to see the Wild against the Dallas Stars, just for some historic irony, but, hell, throw the Blackhawks in, and allow the star power of Toews and Kane to help generate a national audience. But, it really doesn’t matter who the Wild play, nor where in Minnesota they play, just that they do. Now that the great North Star Mike Modano has been announced as an inductee into the Pro Hockey Hall of Fame, there’s even more reason for the League to get this an outdoor spectacle happening.

Hockey relies on the passion of – compared to football, basketball and even baseball – a small and loyal fan base to keep the sport ticking over. Until the NHL schedules an outdoor game in Minnesota, they’re short-changing a large proportion of those fans who’ve endured so much already.

Come on, Commissioner: do the right thing here.