Stadium Series 2025: Day After Thoughts

Well, that happened.

It’s always hard to separate thoughts on the spectacle of the NHL’s event games from the outcome of the games themselves. I was mentally composing my thoughts on this game long before the final buzzer, though, so I’m going to try.

One of the things that I kept thinking is that I really wish the Red Wings could host an outdoor game that actually celebrates their team and their city.

The Winter Classic in 2014 was incredible and I’m pretty sure that experience will never be matched but my gripe then was that it felt like a neutral site game. Chicago in 2009 felt like a Blackhawks’ home game. Denver in 2016 and Toronto in 2017 felt like home games for the Avs and Leafs and this game felt like a home game for the Blue Jackets.

I want the Red Wings to get an outdoor home game. I want it at Comerica Park, which was a fantastic venue for the Hockeytown Winter Festival in the lead up to that Winter Classic at Michigan Stadium. The team’s 100th season would have been a great opportunity for that but the NHL is going to Florida instead. I’ll have to keep waiting.

I’ve never had much school spirit so the pageantry of college sports has never really landed for me. Which means that a lot of the build up around this matchup didn’t really work.

I’m a Red Wings fan. I don’t care about the Ohio State University. I don’t really care about the University of Michigan. So to have Red Wings vs. Blue Jackets reduced to a proxy for Wolverines vs. Buckeyes got tired really quickly.

That’s probably part of why I want a Detroit-centric outdoor game. I want the opportunity to reduce the visiting team to “just” fodder for our celebration.

I go to these things – I’ve been to all of Detroit’s outdoor games now – because I do appreciate the spectacle. But it’s always hard to reconcile my relative unhappiness with reports and social media posts gushing about the atmosphere from reporters and team personnel. And it probably is a hell of a lot more fun from ice-level or if you don’t have to wait in lines for food or restrooms or any of that. I keep going to these things and I don’t regret going to this one, I’d just like to see it acknowledged that it’s a very different experience when you’re crammed onto a frozen bleacher for five hours and then walk a mile back to your hotel.

But the ice at night under the lights, with those jerseys… I freaking love it, even when I don’t necessarily like it.

Back in 2017 I ranked the Red Wings’ outdoor games and this one slots in right at the bottom. There was nothing more special about this game than the Centennial Classic and at least BMO Field had actual seats.

And then there’s the game itself.

Just like the Centennial Classic, the Red Wings looked awful through much of the game, then managed to rally anyway and it looked like we were going to overtime.

Then high-sticking suddenly became legal and the game was over.

And it’s sickening to see the media call that a storybook ending.

There’s the thought that you should never be in a position that a blown call could cost you the game but, for that to be the case, you would always have to be winning. “It’s your own fault for not having an X-goal lead.” Garbage opinions.

On top of all of the “event”-related negatives…  What a stupid game.