📅 Monday, January 1st
⏰ 12 pm
📍 T-Mobile Park: 1250 1st Ave S, Seattle
I grew up in a part of the United States where, if you ever saw snow, it likely meant the apocalypse was imminent, The Day After Tomorrow-style. Ergo, outdoor hockey is a mythical thing to me, something I only heard about through legend and Canadian television and animated holiday specials. But no, it’s apparently a real thing? Whodathunk?
And in the National Hockey League there is the annual Winter Classic, where two teams play outdoors to a crowd of thousands at a specially selected city on New Year’s Day. And guess who gets to be the specially selected city this season? (Hint: You’re reading on a Seattle Times site.) Yes, ’tis us! After showing the world how incredible T-Mobile Park is this past summer with the 2023 MLB All-Star Game, our gorgeous stadium is back in the news and on national TV as the Winter Classic location as the Seattle Kraken face off against…oh shoot, the Vegas Golden Knights.
The Knights, founded in 2017, have about as great of a first six seasons as an expansion team can have, going to the Stanley Cup finals in their debut season, winning the whole thing outright in 2023, and only missing the playoffs once. The good news is that the Winter Classic is an opportunity to catch some puck-slapping, glass-slamming goodness in the fresh air, reunite with the Mariners beer stand employees you haven’t seen since the summer, and sport the Kraken’s gorgeous new Winter Classic jerseys.
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