2014 NHL Winter Classic explained

Outdoor:	yes
Game Name:	2014 NHL Winter Classic
Visitor:	Toronto Maple Leafs
Home:	Detroit Red Wings
Visitor Total:	3
Home Total:	2
Visitor Per1:	0
Visitor Per2:	1
Visitor Per3:	1
Visitor Ot:	0
Visitor So:	1 (2/3)
Home Per1:	0
Home Per2:	1
Home Per3:	1
Home Ot:	0
Home So:	0 (1/3)
Date:	January 1, 2014
Arena:	Michigan Stadium
City:	Ann Arbor, Michigan
Attendance:	105,491
Previous:	2012
Next:	2015

The 2014 NHL Winter Classic was an outdoor ice hockey game played in the National Hockey League (NHL) on January 1, 2014, at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan.^[1] The sixth edition of the Winter Classic, it matched the Toronto Maple Leafs against the Detroit Red Wings; the Maple Leafs defeated the Red Wings, 3–2, in a shootout to move past the Red Wings in the Atlantic Division.^[2] ^[3] The game was televised nationally in Canada on CBC and nationally in the United States on NBC. The game set an NHL attendance record of 105,491, surpassing the previous record set during the 2008 NHL Winter Classic.^[4]

The game was originally planned to be played on January 1, 2013, as the 2013 NHL Winter Classic, but was postponed until the following year due to the 2012–13 NHL lockout. The 2014 Winter Classic was one of six outdoor games held during the 2013–14 NHL season, which included the new 2014 NHL Stadium Series of four games and the 2014 Heritage Classic. These six games served as the NHL's premiere showcase games for the season as there was no All Star Game due to the 2014 Winter Olympics.

The event was the first Winter Classic to be held at a stadium dedicated solely to college football. It was also the first whose festivities were split between two locations, as the NHL Alumni Showdown and other side events were held on a second rink constructed at Comerica Park in downtown Detroit.

Background

Initial announcement

After the success of "The Big Chill at the Big House" at Michigan Stadium on December 11, 2010, where Michigan's hockey team defeated Michigan State University, 5–0, outdoors in front of 104,173 spectators, interest began in also holding an NHL Winter Classic game there. On February 8, 2012, the University of Michigan Board of Regents authorized athletic director Dave Brandon to negotiate a contract with the NHL regarding the Winter Classic.^[5] On February 9, 2012, the NHL announced at Comerica Park that the 2013 Classic would take place at Michigan Stadium, while the Great Lakes Invitational would take place at Comerica Park. Some OHL and AHL games were also slated to be played at Comerica Park.

The NHL Alumni Showdown coaches were named on July 26, 2012. Former Red Wings coach Scotty Bowman along with assistant Barry Smith were to coach the Red Wings' alumni team. The pair of Bowman and Smith coached three Stanley Cup wins in Detroit. Former Maple Leaf coach Pat Quinn was to coach the Maple Leafs' alumni team, along with Red Kelly, Hall of Fame player and former Maple Leafs' coach.^[6]

The Red Wings-Maple Leafs matchup, an Original Six era rivalry, was the first time a United States city's team and a Canadian city's team faced each other in an outdoor NHL game. U.S. teams had not competed in the outdoor Heritage Classic games since their inception in 2003, and Canadian teams had not played in the Winter Classic, which the Heritage Classic spawned in 2009. The unexpectedly high television viewership from the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals (which featured the Vancouver Canucks against the Boston Bruins) prompted the league and NBC to reconsider the conventional wisdom that a contest featuring a Canadian team would not draw as well as two U.S. teams in the United States. (NBC ratings do not count the network's millions of Canadian viewers.) It was this reconsideration that prompted an Ontario-Michigan Winter Classic.^[7]

Cancellation and postponement

On November 2, 2012, the NHL cancelled the game due to the 2012–13 NHL lockout.^[8] The date for the cancellation came as a result of a deadline in the league's contract with Michigan Stadium, in which the league would have incurred additional expenses if they cancelled after November 2.^[9] ^[10] During the announcement, NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly stated that the 2014 Winter Classic and associated events would be awarded to Ann Arbor and Detroit and would also feature the Maple Leafs and Red Wings.^[8] The NHL then officially announced the game on April 7, 2013.^[1]

A divisional re-alignment that occurred the preceding offseason also made the Red Wings and Maple Leafs divisional rivals in the new Atlantic Division, which was renamed from the Northeast Division (the old Atlantic Division became the Metropolitan Division). Had the Winter Classic been played in 2013, it would have been the only meeting between the teams, as both were in separate conferences at the time (as division rivals, they can meet 4-5 times a year, ultimately playing 30 times over a seven-year period).

Game summary

The game remained scoreless until Daniel Alfredsson scored for the Red Wings at 13:14 of the second period. James van Riemsdyk tied the game for the Leafs with 37 seconds left in the second period. Early in the third, Tyler Bozak gave Toronto the lead. Justin Abdelkader then tied the game with 5:22 in regulation. The game eventually went into a shootout, where Bozak's goal proved to be the difference.^[11]

Scoring summary
Period	Team	Goal	Assist(s)	Time	Score
align=center	1st	No scoring
align=center rowspan="2"	2nd	align=center	DET	align=center	Daniel Alfredsson (11)	align=center	Henrik Zetterberg (22), Brendan Smith (7)	align=center	13:14	align=center	1–0 DET
align=center	TOR	align=center	James van Riemsdyk (15)	align=center	Phil Kessel (18), Dion Phaneuf (12)	align=center	19:23	align=center	1–1
align=center rowspan="2"	3rd	align=center	TOR	align=center	Tyler Bozak (5)	align=center	Dion Phaneuf (13)	align=center	4:41	align=center	2–1 TOR
align=center	DET	align=center	Justin Abdelkader (5)	align=center	Brendan Smith (8)	align=center	14:28	align=center	2–2
align=center	Overtime	No scoring
Shootout	Team	Shooter	Goaltender	Result	SO Score
	align=center	DET	align=center	Daniel Alfredsson	align=center	Jonathan Bernier	align=center	miss	align=center
	align=center	TOR	align=center	James van Riemsdyk	align=center	Jimmy Howard	align=center	save	align=center
	align=center	DET	align=center	Pavel Datsyuk	align=center	Jonathan Bernier	align=center	goal	align=center	1–0 DET
	align=center	TOR	align=center	Joffrey Lupul	align=center	Jimmy Howard	align=center	goal	align=center	1–1
	align=center	DET	align=center	Tomas Tatar	align=center	Jonathan Bernier	align=center	save	align=center	1–1
	align=center	TOR	align=center	Tyler Bozak	align=center	Jimmy Howard	align=center	goal	align=center	2–1 TOR

Number in parentheses represents the player's total in goals or assists to that point of the season

Penalty summary
Period	Team	Player	Penalty	Time	PIM
align=center rowspan="3"	1st	align=center	DET	align=center	Justin Abdelkader	align=center	Cross-checking	align=center	6:39	align=center	2:00
align=center	TOR	align=center	Joffrey Lupul	align=center	Cross-checking	align=center	11:04	align=center	2:00
align=center	TOR	align=center	Dion Phaneuf	align=center	Holding	align=center	16:21	align=center	2:00
align=center rowspan="2"	2nd	align=center	TOR	align=center	Jay McClement	align=center	High-sticking	align=center	11:04	align=center	2:00
align=center	DET	align=center	Jakub Kindl	align=center	Closing Hand on Puck	align=center	17:23	align=center	2:00
align=center rowspan="1"	3rd	align=center	TOR	align=center	James van Riemsdyk	align=center	Hooking	align=center	11:45	align=center	2:00
align=center	Overtime	align=center colspan="5"	No penalties

Shots by period
Team	1	2	3	OT	Total
Toronto	5	13	6	2	26
Detroit	13	14	14	2	43

Power play opportunities
Team	Goals/Opportunities
Toronto	0/2
Detroit	0/4

Three star selections
	Team	Player	Statistics
1st	TOR		41 Saves (.953)
2nd	DET		24 Saves (.923)
3rd	TOR		1 Goal

Team rosters

Toronto Maple Leafs
	Player	Position
45	align=left	Jonathan Bernier	G
42	align=left	Tyler Bozak	C
71	align=left	David Clarkson	RW
29	align=left	Jerry D'Amigo	LW
4	align=left	Cody Franson	D
51	align=left	Jake Gardiner	D
36	align=left	Carl Gunnarsson (A)	D
24	align=left		C
43	align=left	Nazem Kadri	C
81	align=left	Phil Kessel	RW
41	align=left		LW
19	align=left	Joffrey Lupul (A)	LW
11	align=left	Jay McClement (A)	C
28	align=left	Colton Orr	RW
3	align=left	Dion Phaneuf (C)	D
15	align=left	Paul Ranger	D
12	align=left	Mason Raymond	LW
34	align=left	James Reimer	G
44	align=left	Morgan Rielly	D
21	align=left	James van Riemsdyk	LW
Head coach: Randy Carlyle

Detroit Red Wings
	Player	Position
8	align=left	Justin Abdelkader	LW
11	align=left	Daniel Alfredsson	RW
18	align=left	Joakim Andersson	C
44	align=left	Todd Bertuzzi	RW
71	align=left	Danny Cleary	RW
13	align=left	Pavel Datsyuk (A)	C
65	align=left	Danny DeKeyser	D
17	align=left	Patrick Eaves	RW
41	align=left	Luke Glendening	RW
35	align=left	Jimmy Howard	G
4	align=left	Jakub Kindl	D
55	align=left	Niklas Kronwall (A)	D
23	align=left	Brian Lashoff	D
20	align=left	Drew Miller	LW
34	align=left	Petr Mrazek	G
14	align=left	Gustav Nyquist	LW
27	align=left	Kyle Quincey	D
2	align=left	Brendan Smith	D
21	align=left		LW
40	align=left	Henrik Zetterberg (C)	LW
Head coach: Mike Babcock

James Reimer and Petr Mrazek dressed as the back-up goaltenders. Neither entered the game.

Scratches

Toronto Maple Leafs: Mark Fraser, John-Michael Liles, Frazer McLaren
Detroit Red Wings: Mikael Samuelsson, Jonas Gustavsson, Darren Helm

Officials

Referees — Dan O'Halloran, Brian Pochmara
Linesmen — Scott Driscoll, Mark Shewchyk

Liles trade

Despite taking the warmup and initially being pencilled in as a healthy scratch, John-Michael Liles found out early in the game that he had in fact been traded to the Carolina Hurricanes, alongside Dennis Robertson, for Tim Gleason. Gleason made his Leafs debut on January 7, 2014. Liles scored against his former team two days after Gleason's debut in a 6-1 Carolina win.

Television ratings

The combined average television viewership for the 2014 NHL Winter Classic on NBC in the U.S., and CBC and RDS in Canada was 8.234 million viewers in North America, becoming the most watched regular season game ever. The previous highest combined average television viewership was 6.6 million viewers for the 2011 NHL Winter Classic. The 4.404 million average viewers for NBC's broadcast in the U.S. was the second-largest audience for an NHL regular season game since 1975. The 3.57 million average viewers for CBC's broadcast in Canada was the largest audience ever for an NHL regular season game in Canadian broadcast history. The game garnered a 2.5 rating, tying the 2009 NHL Winter Classic as the highest-rated NHL regular season game since 1975. The rating and viewership for the game were up 19% and 18%, respectively, compared to the 2012 NHL Winter Classic.^[12]

Entertainment

Musical guests for the 2014 Winter Classic included The Zac Brown Band and Mayer Hawthorne.

Hockeytown Winter Festival

Comerica Park served as the venue for the 2013 Hockeytown Winter Festival, a two-week event that took place in Detroit leading up to the 2014 NHL Winter Classic.^[13] As part of this event, on December 27–28, the 2013 Great Lakes Invitational four-game tournament was held, with Western Michigan emerging as champion over in-state rival Michigan Tech.^[14] On December 29, two OHL games were played, the first between the Windsor Spitfires and the Saginaw Spirit, and the second between the London Knights and the Plymouth Whalers. These were the first outdoor regular season games for the OHL. The Spitfires won the first game 6–5, while a shootout was required for the second game, with the Whalers getting the 2–1 win.^[15] On December 30, in front of 20,337 fans, the AHL affiliates of the Detroit Red Wings and the Toronto Maples Leafs, the Grand Rapids Griffins and the Toronto Marlies played to a shootout, with the Marlies holding the 4–3 edge. This was the seventh outdoor AHL game.^[16]

Date	Away team	Score	Home team	Attendance
December 16, 2013	Western Mustangs	5–2		1,000
December 27, 2013		2–3 (SO)	Michigan Tech Huskies
December 27, 2013	Western Michigan Broncos	3–2 (OT)		25,449
December 28, 2013	Michigan State Spartans	3–0	Michigan Wolverines	26,052
December 28, 2013	Michigan Tech Huskies	0–1 (OT)	Western Michigan Broncos	26,052
December 29, 2013	Windsor Spitfires	6–5	Saginaw Spirit	25,749
December 29, 2013	London Knights	1–2 (SO)	Plymouth Whalers	26,384
December 30, 2013	Toronto Marlies	4–3 (SO)		20,337
December 31, 2013	Toronto Maple Leafs Alumni	4–5	Detroit Red Wings Alumni	33,425
December 31, 2013	Toronto Maple Leafs Alumni	5–6 (SO)	Detroit Red Wings Alumni	33,425

Alumni Showdown

As part of the Hockeytown Winter Festival, two consecutive alumni games were played between former players of the Red Wings and the Maple Leafs on December 31. The Detroit Red Wings swept the doubleheader, winning the first alumni game 5–4, and the second alumni game 6–5, following a shootout, in front of 33,425 in attendance at Comerica Park.^[17]

In the first alumni game of the doubleheader, Jiri Fischer scored the first goal of the game on a pass from Jason Woolley just 1 minute, 20 seconds into the game. Less than one minute later, Kevin Miller's goal gave the Red Wings a 2–0 lead. The Leafs then got goals from Stew Gavin and Todd Warriner, to tie the game at 2–2. Petr Klima then gave the Red Wings a one-goal lead when he scored on a pass from Martin Lapointe with 4:04 left in the first period.

In the second period, Pat Verbeek's goal from Miller and Mathieu Schneider gave the Red Wings a 4–2 lead with 15:40 left in the second. Aaron Ward scored the eventual game-winner from Fischer and Jimmy Carson with 11:50 left before the Maple Leafs mounted a comeback on goals by Brad May, and Tom Fergus who made it a one-goal game with 2:31 remaining in the second period. The Leafs pulled their goalie for the extra attacker with a minute left. Then, Red Wings coach Scotty Bowman sent 74-year-old Red Berenson, Michigan's head coach, to take the face off with 14.3 seconds left. Berenson was one of two players who participated in the Alumni Showdown who actually started his NHL career in the Original Six era. The other was 68-year-old center Mike Walton, who began his career with the Leafs in 1965.^[18]

Prior to the second alumni game of the doubleheader, former linemates Gordie Howe and Ted Lindsay dropped the first puck in a ceremonial faceoff between former captains Steve Yzerman of the Red Wings and Darryl Sittler of the Maple Leafs. Vladimir Konstantinov was then helped onto the ice for a rare Russian Five reunion with his former teammates, Sergei Fedorov, Viacheslav Fetisov, Vyacheslav Kozlov and Igor Larionov. Joe Kocur honored his late Bruise Brother by wearing Bob Probert's number 24 in the second alumni game.

In the second alumni game, goals by Doug Brown, Chris Chelios, Sergei Fedorov, Nicklas Lidstrom and Brendan Shanahan gave the Red Wings a 5–1 lead early in the second period. Three straight unanswered goals from Shayne Corson, Tie Domi and Steve Thomas cut the Red Wings' lead to one goal. Bryan McCabe then scored with two seconds left in regulation, to send the game to a shootout. During the shootout, Tomas Holmstrom scored Detroit's lone goal, to give them the 6–5 victory.^[19]

Alumni showdown rosters

Game 1

Toronto Maple Leafs
Coaches: Red Kelly and Pat Quinn

	Player	Position
24	Dan Daoust	C
12	Mark Osborne	LW
19	Bill Derlago	C
9	Stewart Gavin	LW
15	Pat Boutette	C
12	Rob Pearson	RW
15	Claude Loiselle	C
10	Brad May	LW
27	Shayne Corson	C
19	Tom Fergus	C
29	Mike Krushelnyski	C
7	Dave McLlwain	C
20	Mike Johnson	RW
8	Todd Warriner	LW
14	Dave Reid	RW
16	Nikolai Borschevsky	RW
15	Lou Franceschetti	RW
28	Mike Pelyk	D
34	Jamie Macoun	D
28	Matt Martin	D
3	Brad Marsh	D
4	Greg Hotham	D
3	Cory Cross	D
1	Mark Laforest	G
1	Peter Ing	G

Detroit Red Wings
Coaches: Scotty Bowman and Barry Smith.
Ambassadors: Gordie Howe, Ted Lindsay and Vladimir Konstantinov.

	Player	Position
25	John Ogrodnick	LW
17	Dallas Drake	RW
10	Jimmy Carson	C
20	Martin Lapointe	RW
85	Petr Klima	RW
8	Dennis Polonich	C
7	Red Berenson	C
7	Garry Unger	C
23	Kevin Miller	RW
15	Pat Verbeek	RW
21	Paul Ysebaert	LW
14	Brent Fedyk	LW
22	Mike Knuble	RW
12	Mike Sillinger	C
15	Jason Woolley	D
27	Aaron Ward	D
11	Mathieu Dandenault	D
2	Jiri Fischer	D
23	Mathieu Schneider	D
31	Kevin Hodson	G
35	Ken Holland	G
41	Eddie Mio	G

Game 2

Toronto Maple Leafs
Coaches: Red Kelly, Johnny Bower and Pat Quinn

	Player	Position
27	Darryl Sittler	C
22	Rick Vaive	RW
17	Wendel Clark	LW
93	Doug Gilmour	C
14	Dave Andreychuk	LW
16	Darcy Tucker	RW
18	Kevin Maguire	RW
4	Gary Leeman	RW
9	Russ Courtnall	RW
7	Gary Roberts	LW
7	Lanny McDonald	RW
22	Tiger Williams	LW
16	Mike Walton	C
28	Tie Domi	RW
11	Mike Gartner	RW
25	Joe Nieuwendyk	C
32	Steve Thomas	RW
4	David Ellett	D
24	Bryan McCabe	D
4	Bob McGill	D
33	Al Iafrate	D
34	Bryan Berard	D
31	Curtis Joseph	G
29	Felix Potvin	G
29	Mike Palmateer	G